Japan

 

 According to Jiji News, on 22 August the International Investigation Department of the Osaka prefectural police arrested the president (aged 49) of Gunma Support, a manpower supply agency in Takasaki city, Gunma prefecture, his brother (53) who acted as the virtual proprietor of the company, and two other persons on suspicion of Violating Immigration Control and Refugee Recognition Law (promotion of illegal employment). They allegedly recruited foreign workers who had exceeded their legal stay in Japan and dispatched them to factories and other workplaces, registering approximately 150 foreign workers, chiefly from Indonesia and Brazil. The suspects admitted to the charges, saying that they wanted to secure personnel who were willing to take on hard work at low wages.

 

 

 On 9 August, the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry published ‘The Preliminary Results of 2006 Survey on Status of Specific Service Industries’. Regarding the proportion of regular employees to workers as a whole in various industries, the figure for ‘computer programming and other software services’ was more than 90 percent, while the figure for ‘data processing and information services’ was about 70 percent; both industries are classified as ‘information services’. On the other hand, non-regular employees accounted for more than 40 percent of workers in ‘miscellaneous advertising services.’