Abe withdraws remark on discretionary work system

February 14, 2018

Tokyo- Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on Wednesday withdrew a recent remark on Japan's discretionary work system, which would be expanded if proposed work style reform legislation is enacted.

"I'd like to withdraw my remark and apologize," Abe told a House of Representatives Budget Committee meeting in reply to a question from Akinori Eto of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party.

On Jan. 29, Abe told the committee that some data indicate the average work hours of employees under the discretionary system are shorter than those of ordinary employees, citing a fiscal 2013 survey by the labor ministry.

At Wednesday's committee meeting, labor minister Katsunobu Kato apologized for the government's citation of the data during the Jan. 29 session.

But Kato did not say whether the data are accurate. "We need time, as we are examining more than 10,000 items of data as well as research methods," he said.

Yukio Edano, leader of the major opposition Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan, called for the government to submit the data that became the basis for the comment by Abe.

Kato said the government will consider its response, including the form of data it may disclose.

House of Councillors lawmaker Renho of the CDPJ told reporters that Abe's apology means that what he said was false, undermining the basis for the proposed legislation.

She urged the government to give up the idea of introducing the legislation.

On Tuesday, CDPJ acting leader Akira Nagatsuma told the same committee that there are problems with the labor ministry survey.

According to Nagatsuma, the survey showed that daily overtime work came to one hour and 37 minutes for an average ordinary employee, while saying that extra work hours per week totaled 2 hours and 47 minutes.

In addition, the survey included a section saying that an average employee's daily overtime work exceeded 15 hours, Nagatsuma said. Questioning the survey, Nagatsuma said Abe should withdraw the remark. Jiji Press