No bright future ahead for public-sector workers in Japan〜 Press conference on the survey results on non-regular workers 〜
Around 80% of workers in public sector are living near the poverty line earning 2.5 million yen annuallyon average and almost 40% are in poor mental health, according to a survey conducted by The National
Women's Network on Non-regular Government Employees, or Hamu-Net, in June,2022.
The number of non-regular public employees continues to rise in Japan since around 2000. More than
1.2 million were non-regular employees working in the local governments, of whom nearly 80% are women.
According to statistics from the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications. And 80% of them areearning below 2.5 million yen a year.
Hamu-Net (http://nrwwu.com/) will be reporting on the results of our survey at the press conference
and our plan to file a report based on the survey with the Committee of Experts on the Application ofConvention 122 Employment Policy at the International Labor Organization (ILO) in September this year
in collaboration with other groups. Last year, we submitted the report on the serious labor issues
concerning non-regular civil servants.
●Dates:11－12 a.m., Aug.1st, 2022, at Foreign Correspondents’ Club of Japan●Speakers:
Yuriko Watanabe, Representative
Noriko Seyama, Deputy Representative●Contact for details:
hiseiki.koumu@gmail.com● How would you rate your mental healthduring the past one month?
Excellent
17%
Somewhat
good9%

Poor
9%

More than 3
million yen
8%

Others5%

2.5～
3million yen
8%Somewhat poor28%
Average37%●Workers’ Voices:- Non-regular contract is unstable but the workers

Less than
1.5 millionyen37%
2.0～2.5
million yen
26%
1.5～
2million yen
16%

are required to have higher skills and qualifications

than regular employees. And those unstableworkers like me are consulting with job seekers.
My heart is about to break. (Female, 50s, Kanto
region, Employment Security Office)against us! Please give us regular employment.
(Male, 40s, Kanto region, School Teacher)- Unstable employment, on a contract that must berenewed every year, cannot provide sustainablepublic services. (Female, 60s, Kanto region,Librarian)- My salary is too low. I will improve my skills andprovide good service. Please raise my salary. I
need a stable job. (Female, 40s, Chubu region,Curator)- I worked for 10 years but was fired. I was afraidof being fired and I couldn't feel safe expressing myopinion at work because I only have a year contract.
We are workers and humans. Stop discriminating- I was infected with Covid-19 last year andrealized the instability of working on an hourly
wage. On low wages and with no savings, I can't
feel at peace. It is difficult to continue to be a public
service worker. I AM suffering. (Female, 50s,
Kansai region, Counselor)● Respondent attributes

Others10%

Generalclericalworkers
37%

Gender Equalty
Center staff 4%

Social education…
Child Care-workers 4%

School Librarian 8%

36.9％

Librarian

7710.9％School Counselor

7310.4％

School Librarian

537.5％

After-school Child Care-

375.2％

Child Care-workers

314.4％

Socialeducation

29

4.1％

Gender Equality Center

24

3.4％

Skilled labor staff

243.4％

Women's

counselor/

142.0％

Security

111.6％

Other70

9.9％

NA20.3％

Total705workers

Skilled labor staff 3%

After-school Child Care-workers
5%260/School Social worker

Employment Security Office staff 2%

Women's counselor 2%

General clerical workers

SchoolCounselor

Librarian
11%

10%

instructorstaffconsultants※ Others ： School Teacher 、 Curator 、 Medical Staff 、 Counselor

Employment&etc.

Office staff●References:
Yoji Kanbayashi 2015 The Situation of Non-regular Public Employees in Local Government inJapan :focus on Gender : Working papers are preliminary documents circulated to stimulate discussion
and obtain comments: International Labour Office, Geneva 2015
https://www.ilo.org/wcmsp5/groups/public/---ed_dialogue/--sector/documents/publication/wcms_442070.pdf