FEATURE

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Voices from Japan No.35, March 2021

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Fragile structure of women’s labor hit hardby Coronavirus: The high price of “diverse
working styles” in the absence of a safety net
Mieko Takenobu

In the midst of the novel coronavirus
spread, the media reports every day how
men are suffering from their lost
employment. Facing this disaster,
however, we should not overlook thesituation that women are in. In the
Toshikoshi Haken Mura (new year
emergency relief village for temp
workers) which emerged at the end of
2008, male temp workers in the
manufacturing industry were spotlighted
as they encountered mass layoffs in theaftermath of Lehman shock. In contrast,
the novel coronavirus disaster, thatspreads through interpersonal exchanges,
has hit female workers who are the major
employees in the face-to-face services
workforce. And “diverse working styles
without
employment
security”
characteristic to Japanese society further
exacerbates such impact on women.

Women are placed in a severe
situation by the double punch ofnationwide school closure andnon-regular worker neglect

In March 2020, when the novel
coronavirus pandemic started to become
more acute, the number of female nonregular workers dropped rapidly by
290,000 in comparison with the same
term from the previous year according toa labor force survey conducted by the
Ministry of Internal Affairs andCommunications. They were the solelosers, while the number of male regular
workers, female regular workers, andmale non-regular workers increased by
80,000, 580,000, and 20,000 respectively.
The employment drop subsequently
spread to male regular and non-regular
workers, however the decline of nonregular female workers became far more
severe, with a decrease of about 800,000
by August 2020.1
According to the 2016 economic
census by the government, the medical,
health care and welfare sector came out
top as a workplace with a high proportionof women. Women account for more than
70% in this sector. The accommodations,eating and drinking services sector ranks
second; followed by the living-related and19

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personal services and amusement
services sector; women account for nearly
60% in each sector (See the graph). The
workforce has increased in the top
ranking; medical, health care and welfare
sector; in which newly employed workers
are largely non-regular female workers.
This increase is probably caused in partby the increased demand for humanresources due to the spreading infection.
In the second and third sectors on theother hand, business conditions havebeen worsening as these businesses
comply with closure requests. Thisbrought massive unemployment among
non-regular female workers as the main
actors in those sectors because their
fixed-term labor contracts have not beenrenewed. Those women outnumbered theincreased labor demand in the top sector,
thus non-regular female workers ended
up as sole losers.
An abrupt announcement of
nationwide school closure request by
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on February
27 made the damage much worse. Many
cries were raised from working mothers
that they were unable to go to work
leaving their children alone at home andthus unable to make a living. Two days
later on February 29, the prime ministerhurriedly announced compensation forloss of wages for families who had to taketime off from work. Then a subsidy
system was established to compensate
workers for losses due to elementary
school closures and so forth. It provided
up to 8,330 yen per day and the recipientsqualified to receive it were extended tocover non-regular workers.
Cries for help were from female
freelancers as well who couldn’t receive
either compensation for loss of wages or
unemployment allowance because they
were regarded as self-employed. On
March 10, as the second emergency
response measures came into force, thegovernment made a decision to provide
4,100 yen per day to freelancers,
approximately half the amount received
by employed workers.
Despite these measures, womenaccounted for 60 to 70% of all laborconsultations which were implemented anumber of times by labor unions in thecontext of the novel coronavirus in
March, 2 and a labor consultation
conducted by the labor counseling centerof Kanagawa-Roren (federation of labor
unions in Kanagawa prefecture) in
February through April the results ofwhich were released on April 21. Voicesfrom critics were growing, claiming that it
was unfair that regular employees receive
100% of the compensation for loss ofwages within the coverage limit, but nonregular workers such as temporary, nonfulltime or part-time workers, receive
only 60% or in some cases, nothing at all.
Temp workers were also critical of thesituation where the companies they aredespatched to guarantee to pay leaveallowance to their own employees but
temp staff agencies don't.
Thus, working women havefound themselves in a double attack by
the nationwide school closure, requestedby the government which assumes

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workers do not take care of children, andthe mind-set of employers who cannot
imagine the need for a safety net for nonregular workers.

Serious effects on single mothers
Single parents have been affected themost seriously by this structural outline,
particularly single mothers.
Non-regular workers accountfor 56% of working women (the averagein 2019 labor force survey). Female
workers aged 55 or older have aparticularly high ratio of non-regular
status however, also single mothersaccount for as high as 48.8% (2016

Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry
survey) despite being in their mostproductive years. Non-regular workers
are usually paid on an hourly or daily
basis, therefore, absence from work
automatically means no income. Withschool closure, they are forced to chooseabsence from work and having no income
or going to work leaving their children
alone at home.
A
surveytitled“Novelcoronavirus: worsening hardships in thelife of single mother households—
prompt report of fact-finding survey of
1,800 mothers” revealed the difficulties
faced by single mothers. It was jointly
conducted by Chisa Fujiwara, professor

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of Hosei University and otherresearchers; and Single Mothers Forum,
an NPO which is a self-help group of
single parents.
In this survey, 70.8% answeredthat they were affected by coronavirus interms of their employment and income.
However, only 52.5% of regular workers
responded that they were affected but
this increased to 75.2% of non-regular
workers and 95.5% of self-employedpeople, freelancers and so on; it isapparent that the damage becomes more
serious when the form of employment
becomes more unstable. The survey
showed, from February to July 2020,
respondents’ average savings declined byabout 40,000 yen and the number ofhouseholds in debt increased. Moreover,
10% fell behind in their rent and/or
utility bills. Under such circumstances, asmuch as 60% of mothers reported having
psychological stress.
The NPO received heartfelt
comments about their Emergency Rice
Aid Project intended for single mothers
who suffered from increased foodexpenditure for daily lunch for theirchildren because of no school lunch due tothe closure, “The money that I wasplanning to buy rice with can be used forother food,” or “I can restart 3 meals a day,instead of 2 in the previous months,” or“now I can cook rice as usual, no need tocook rice porridge (to increase thequantity simply by adding water).”“Husbands” are the safety net

Behind this situation, there is amechanism characteristic to Japan thatgovernment assistance tends to bedelivered to families through companies
from which the family member receives
pay, or husbands. One clear example is the
Employment Adjustment Subsidy.
Using
the
fund
of
unemployment insurance, this system
subsidizes a part of the expenses for theleave allowance for employers whosebusiness conditions deteriorate but
maintain employment of workers insteadof laying them off. This is to prevent
abusive layoffs so that social unrest or
economic downturn would not happen.
The problem is the mechanism of thissystem means that the subsidies arenever paid unless the employers apply forit.
This is fatal, particularly for
women. In Japanese society, theperception that it's fine for women to
depend on their fathers or husbands as
their safety net is entrenched, not all
employers are willing to take the troubleof completing the complicated procedure
to apply for the subsidy for non-regularfemale workers.
There is a support systemthough, that workers can apply fordirectly by themselves—unemployment
benefits. This, however, poses a
significant hurdle for female non-regular
workers to overcome. To be eligible for
unemployment benefits, workers should
be enrolled in the unemployment
insurance scheme in the first place. The
requirement of eligibility is working 20

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hours a week and a prospect of over 31days of employment. But recently,
employers are noticeably reluctant tobear the expenses for social insurance for
employees and they have been increasing
part-time employment of less than 20hours a week.
Under these circumstances,
single mothers, among others, are forced
to accept part-time jobs because of
inability to work overtime due tochildcare. It is not rare that single
mothers have 3 to 4 different part-timejobs with less than 20 hours a week
working time each, so they can feed theirfamilies. This means that even if actual
working hours are over 40 hours a week,
they are not covered by insurance.
To make things worse, while
unemployment benefits are provided
immediately for applicants who havebeen fired by their employers, a 3-month
waiting period is necessary for those whohave quit their jobs for their own reasons.
Many non-regular workers are facing thesituation of not having their fixed-termlabor contracts renewed and it issomehow easy to be categorized as“retirement for personal reasons.”
Although there have recently been somecases considered as real layoffs when thecontract is not renewed after long-termworking with repeated renewals, still
today many non-regular workers have to
wait before they start receiving thebenefits.
“Such unfavorable treatment
toward non-regular workers has not beenaddressed. Underlying this is theunconsciously institutionalized gender
mindset that men, not the government orcompanies, provide a safety net for
women. In other words, husbands (men)are guaranteed to work as regular
employees with unemployment benefits
and leave allowance, and through them,money is diverted to wives (women).
However, as companies began tonotice the “low cost” merits of nonregular employment and men became
affected by this as well, the fragility ofsuch a safety net has caused
impoverishment and instability of theentire society at the exact period, theCovid-19 disaster struck.
A special relief fund called“fixed-sum stipend” which supplied
100,000 yen equally to every individual
was introduced. It specified that theauthorized recipients were heads ofhouseholds. This makes obvious thenotion that support ought to be via
husbands. The notification issued by the
Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare
regarding the national health insurance
program states that heads of households
shall be the major breadwinner. As aresult, heads of households are
predominantly male, reflecting the wage
gap between men and women. It is amechanism in which the economic gap ofmen and women is further amplified by
the manner in which relief funds areprovided. Support groups for survivors ofdomestic violence demanded that thismechanism be changed and a way toreceive the money privately has beenbarely secured for fleeing survivors.
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Nonetheless, government mishandlingwas blamed for the failure to supply
assistance to individuals in need. With thehashtag #世帯主ではなく個人に給付して (Relief fund to individuals, not tohousehold heads), many comments wereposted on the Internet like “Do theprocedure for household separation ofresident registration if you are at risk ofbeing robbed of your money.”

Impermissible
discrimination

government-led

The government temporarily excluded
bars and restaurants that provide
companions and businesses providing
sexual services from work leavecompensation when the nationwide
school closure was enforced. Thesebusinesses have been perceived as thefunding source for antisocial forces andhave conventionally been excluded fromlabor-related assistance such as the
Employment Adjustment Subsidy. As an
extension of this, the government
excluded them this time too.
When it comes to the preventionof infection, however, protection of
women workers who are prone toinfection through their services shouldhave been the priority rather than thesource of businesses funds.
Increasingly
criticizedasoccupational
discrimination,theexclusion was retracted on April 7, 2020.
These businesses were rendered eligible
for the cash benefit of 100,000 yen, called“fixed-sum stipend” that the government

subsequently introduced.
However, these government
responses had a lasting effect. Hitoshi
Matsumoto, a popular TV personality
appeared on a tabloid show on Fuji TV
and made this comment "Using our tax
money to pay for bar hostesses’ vacation?
Compensating their whole income?
Excuse me, no way!” on March 5. The
number of postings on Twitter or othersocial media, saying things like “What’s
wrong with the exclusion?” has increased
and that is still continuing today.
Eriko Fuse, the chair of Cabaret
Club Union states “The exclusion policy
was retracted but the issue remains
unsolved.” Among those women workers,a fear of being exposed to severe bashingif they receive leave allowance has been
growing due to the impact of thediscriminatory remarks on social media.
As a result, Fuse relates, many women
don’t receive the allowance and instead
are forced to work discreetly in anothercabaret club which doesn’t obey closure
requests or move to the sex industry; orare compelled to return to their parents’home in a remote area as a jobless person.
It can be concluded that theinitial response of the government that
led to discrimination by treating these
women as a funding source for ganggroups instead of protecting them asworkers, has actually resulted in the
spread of infection.

Non-regularization of essential
workers

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Amidst the spreading infection, essential
workers have been spotlighted. Examples
are workers in health care, childcare,nursing, or consultation for domestic
violence or child abuse who cannot close
their services to support the community.
These face-to-face public services require
skills of care in which women are themajor pillars. Because of working face-toface, these working places have been
exposed to risk of infection regardless ofwhether workers are regular or nonregular. Concerns have been raised by
pregnant female workers in the healthfields, such as “I’m so afraid of being
infected but it’s almost impossible to takeleave.” The Ministry of Health, Labour andWelfare requested employers to makeconsideration for workplace environment
and employees, however this request
failed to reach a number of workplaces
which were facing a labor shortage in the
midst of spreading infection. Labour
Lawyers Association of Japan issued an
emergency statement on May 15, callingfor improvement of the leave system for
pregnant female workers.
These public service workers
have been a main target of nonregularization which is intended for labor
cost reduction since the Koizumi
Cabinet's structural economic reforms inthe 2000s. They are sometimes called“government-madeworkingpoor”
subjected to lower wages and precarious
employment. Women account for threefourths of such workers. Furthermore, a
new system, fiscal year appointment
personnel was introduced in April 2020,

under which public service employees areto be hired on a one-year contract. Thisvirtuallylegalized
discriminatory
treatment for non-regular public service
employees. And it perpetuated their low
wages and precarious employment,
although they are the workers in charge ofproviding assistance for local residents.
And then, the expanding novel
coronavirus infection amplified theirworkload.
Particularly distressing is thediscriminatory treatment against nonregular public service employees withrespect to safety and hygiene. More than
180 people responded in approximately
two weeks to the “Survey on the impactsof Covid-19 on public service workers”
that an NPO named “Study Group ofGovernment-made Working Poor” started
on May 2020. More than 70% of the
respondents were female non-regularpublic service employees who work in arange of fields from childcare, nursing,after-school childcare, to office work at
schools. They reported many cases ofrisks such as working in a closed space
and/or a crowded place and/or a close
contact situation; face-to-face work withno facemasks; and no access to staggered
working hours.
Public service is a sector that
often involves community care forresidents and can be described as “thefront line” in this coronavirus disaster.
However, the sector has been subjected tolower working conditions because of the
prejudice against the menial work carriedout by women. And now it becomes clear
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that women working there are being left
with insufficient protection against
infection and scarce benefits tocompensate the increased burdens
imposed on them.

“Diverse Working Styles” policy
and deterioration of employment
The root cause of the distressing state of
women working under the spreading ofnovel coronavirus is the “Diverse Work
Styles” policy that the government has
been promoting.
Contrary to its name, this policy
is based on fixed gender roles where
women shoulder all deeds supporting
human lives such as childcare, nursing,and community activities. In addition tothis, women workers may also experience
pregnancy and giving birth. Therefore, forworking women, flexibility that allows
them to adjust working hours or style tofit their life is crucial.
Dutch labor law, known even in
Japan, teaches us the merits of suchdiverse working style. In 1996, theNetherlands prohibited “working-hourbased discrimination” such as cutting
hourly pay or irrationally different
treatment with respect to social insurance
or pension because of workers’ fewer
working hours. It can protect workers
with shorter working hours due to family
responsibilities including childcare, fromdisadvantageous treatment. Further, lest
employers should cut working hours attheir own convenience, the Working
Hours Adjustment Act was established in2000 to provide for workers’ right todecide their own working hours.
The misfortune of Japanesewomen is the incoherent structure of the“diverse working styles” policy whichmeans almost the direct opposite“deterioration of working style.” This has
been established in the midst of
successive relaxation of employment
regulations since the 1980s.
Specifically, there are several
steps as follows. First, a mechanism has
been created that when women deviate
from the position of ‘regular employee,’
where male workers are standard andsubject to long-hours of work andrelocation, they should be dropped fromthe safety net for workers too. Second, thegovernment has touted diversified
employment as a benefit to women andsteered them to non-regular employment.
Third, the fragility of the social security
system has been covered up with a senseof discrimination deriving from thepatriarchal “Ie (household)” system
which once existed in this country, withmindsets such as “women have noproblem living because they have theirhusbands as their safety net.” Fourth,diversity has been positioned as part ofcorporate human resource management
and workers’ demands to ensure theirrights to choose their work styles has
been left behind.
The Freelance Association, asectoral group of freelancers, made astatement regarding the amount of leavecompensation for the school closure that“For
freelancers,
receivingleave

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compensation equivalent to the level offull-time employees would be too much”
because “The majority of those who areon leave are women and not thebreadwinner of the household.” Thisshows the reality that freelancers
themselves are preoccupied by the third
notion mentioned above.
Working women have beensteadily weakened and on top of that
Covid-19 broke out. Its severe impact isurging us to go beyond mere manuals on
the prevention of the infection and into a

structuraltransformation,
namely,diversity accompanied by a safety net.

Mieko

Takenobu,

Journalist,

Professor

emeritus of Wako University
Translated by Akiko Kuroe

The number of regular female workers in wholesale and retail had increased by 580,000, however, it isthought that this occurred due to corporate efforts to keep them from leaving during a time of personnel
shortage, which happened right before the pandemic, not a reflection of the impact of coronavirus.
2 Compiled the results of equal pay for equal work hotline (opened from March 7-8, 2020) by Japan
Community Union Federation (JCUF)
1

References
Unite for the Right to Life against Covid-19. “For survival, compensation must be ensured: what we must
do in crisis.” Sekai magazine, June 2020, Iwanami Shoten. 生存のためのコロナ対策ネットワーク「生存補償を徹底せよ～危機に際して何が求められているか』
Mieko Takenobu. Harassment toward persons who do housework: something underlying the difficulty ofliving. Iwanami Shoten 2013. 竹信三恵子『家事労働ハラスメント～生きづらさの根にあるもの』
Mieko Takenobu. Japan's “putting enterprises first” policy. Iwanami Shoten 2019. 竹信三恵子『企業ファースト化する日本』

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