Ruling, Opposition Parties Cross Swords over Work Style Reform Bills

February 25, 2018

Tokyo- Policy chiefs of Japanese ruling and opposition parties at a television debate on Sunday locked horns over the government's work style reform bills including a planned expansion of the so-called discretionary work system.

The ruling coalition of the Liberal Democratic Party and Komeito stressed an intention to have the bills enacted during the current ordinary session of the Diet, the country's parliament.

Meanwhile, the opposition side demanded that the ruling camp give up on submitting them to the Diet, criticizing the recent revelation that the labor ministry in a survey compared work hours between people under the discretionary system and other workers based on inappropriate data.

"By enacting the bills, we hope to help change Japanese people's ways of working, mindset and lifestyles," the LDP's Fumio Kishida said. "We must correct long work hours and the gaps in treatment resulting from different work styles."

But he also said, "We can't move forward with our discussions unless the labor ministry gives sufficient explanations on the work survey problem."

Komeito's Noritoshi Ishida called for the enactment of the bills, saying that they would lead to the creation of a variety of work style options, although he showed frustration over the labor ministry's work hour survey blunder and sought its explanations on the matter.

On the other hand, Akira Nagatsuma of the opposition Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan dismissed the view that the survey flaw stemmed from a simple mistake, rather citing possible fabrication.

"There could be an increase in overwork-related deaths if the government expands the discretionary work system to cover part of workers in marketing positions without looking at what is happening under the system," he said.

Akihisa Nagashima of the Party of Hope cited the lack of a legal framework for supporting freelancers and people with second jobs, hinting at the possibility of submitting a counterproposal to the Diet.

Shinya Adachi of the Democratic Party called on the government to review the work style reform bills.

Akira Kasai of the Japanese Communist Party urged the government to conduct a fresh work hour survey and give up on submitting the work style reform bills to the current Diet session. Jiji Press