Abe adamant on submitting work style reform legislation

February 22, 2018

Tokyo- Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe indicated Thursday that the government will stick to its plans to submit legislation for so-called work style reform during the ongoing session of parliament, despite a controversy over related labor data.

"I want the health, labor and welfare minister to fully prepare the legislation," Abe said at a meeting of the House of Representatives Budget Committee.

Following the discovery of at least 117 data flaws in a government labor survey report, the prime minister said the government is hurrying to scrutinize the survey data.

The discovery came on top of the ministry's wrong data comparison using the survey results, which was used by the prime minister at a parliamentary meeting last month to support the work style reform legislation.

During the Lower House committee meeting on Thursday, Shigeki Sato of Komeito, the junior coalition partner of Abe's Liberal Democratic Party, condemned the labor ministry for its wrong data comparison.

"It was extremely inappropriate to compare different data items," Sato said. "I want to urge the ministry to reflect seriously on the matter."

In response to concerns about an expanded discretionary work system that the government plans to include in the legislation, Abe said the envisioned system will "strictly limit" the range of jobs fixed overtime terms are applicable to.

"I believe there is no longer any need to worry that the discretionary work system could be expanded to cover all sales jobs," the prime minister said. Jiji Press