“Special yearend services kicked off Tuesday at 136 municipalities and 78 Hello Work job-placement centers in 23 prefectures to offer counseling for unemployed people.”
This quotation is taken from an anteresting article in the Japan TImes: Special job services open.
It goes on to say, “”
Most of the emergency counseling services were to end Wednesday, but the cities of Morioka, in Iwate Prefecture,
Miyazaki and Tokyo will offer services through Jan. 3.
At the National Olympics Memorial Youth Center in Shibuya Ward, which the Tokyo Metropolitan Government
began using Monday as a temporary shelter for a maximum 500 unemployed people, 469, including seven women, had checked in as of 8 p.m. Tuesday.
Since the center has almost reached its capacity, the metropolitan government was to start using a separate lodging facility inside the center that can accommodate up to 300 people from Wednesday, officials said.
Physicians, lawyers and other professionals are providing advisory services on health, employment and debts at the center.
A 63-year-old man, who had been working at a book-binding factory until he lost his job last week, is among the people staying at the center. He had been sleeping in saunas after he could no longer afford to pay rent and had to leave his apartment in May 2007.
“I cannot rent a new apartment because I have no one who will become a guarantor for me. I hope I can get a room by obtaining public assistance,” he said.
In a counseling service center in Nagoya a 49-year-old man said he has been sleeping in internet cafes or in his car for the past four months.
He is unable to obtain welfare benefits because he owns a car, but he cannot abandon it because he needs it for his day-labor job. “It’s so cold (sleeping) in the car and I could no longer stand it,” he said.
Meanwhile, some of the antipoverty campaigners who built a tent village in Tokyo’s Hibiya Park last year have set up tents in a park near Hello Work Shinjuku for laid off workers.
The tent village last year drew media attention to the problem of temporary workers who live in company dormitories and then lose their accommodation when their employers terminate their contracts.”
This seems to mark a change in policy from the previous administration’s attitude towards the unemployed in Japan and the need for all year around attention to the stress and depression that unemployed people experience here. Much more proactive solutions need to be into place in the coming new year to address more effectively the problems of unemployment, fear of losing work, depression and the tragic loss of life through suicide in Japan. But at least it is one good step in the right direction. Much more needs to be done to say these sons and daughters of Japan.
On this topic The Mainichi also published an article focusing on hope that the local government shelters and counseling are providing at this cold time of year:
A man seeks advice from members of a group set up by citizens groups and labor unions to help people who have lost their jobs at a park in Shinjuku Ward, Tokyo. (Mainichi)
Those who are staying at New Year’s shelters for laid-off workers in Tokyo have expressed hope and anxiety about their livelihood and job-hunting.
“Last year, I saw a temporary shelter for laid-off workers (in the news) while sitting under the kotatsu (a small table with an electric heater underneath) at home. I never imagined I would stay at a similar facility,” said a 31-year-old man who was laid off by a mobile phone factory in the northern Kanto area in February. “I want to secure a home by all means and hunt for jobs.”