The economic circumstances of the working-class of Japan

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Mazda Workers In Japan Describe Job Conditions
By Robert Miller, The Militant, 27 November 1995. Report on working conditions by part of a team of socialist workers who traveled to Japan to attend meetings and conferences organized around the commemoration of the 50th anniversary of Washington's atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
Lifetime Employment Is No Longer a Given at Japanese Companies
By Sheryl WuDunn, New York Times, 12 June 1996. Numerous signs that after five years of economic troubles, the tight link between Japan's companies and its workers—symbolized by the concept of lifetime employment—is starting to come undone.
Death-by-overwork suits on the rise in Japan
By Gwen Robinson, Karoshi, 27 November 1996. Latest in a trickle of death-by-overwork (karoshi) cases to have come before the courts.
2-year delay in 40-hour work week
Asahi Shimbun, 8 December 1996. Small businesses allowed two years to adapt to the new work week law.
Report aims to end sex harassment
Asahi Shimbun, 3 September 1998. Two articles, the first perhaps an introduction to the second. The National Personnel Authority published a report defining inappropriate behavior and highlighting practices that should be stopped.
Temporary Worker Law
Mainichi Shimbun, 20 May 1999. On March 19, the Lower House Labor Affairs Committee approved a bill to amend the temporary worker law, which could have a major impact on the labor market and on improving the lives of working people. But it could also turn out to be a double-edged sword.