On the 11th, RENGO presented the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare an employment measure demand in the government's "Emergency Economic Measures." RENGO is pressing for implementation of emergency employment measures by the immediate formation of a supplementary budget. This demand was hurriedly conducted due to fears over a possible increase in business bankruptcies and personnel cutbacks, the effect of which would extend to workers if banks dispose of bad loans too hastily. Also on the 9th, RENGO released its Secretary General's statement that criticized the government's emergency economic measures as "greatly encouraging unemployment and increase bankruptcies."

Photo: RENGO VP Tsuda (right) hands Health/Labor/Welfare Vice Minister Masuda (left) demand.

In the demand, RENGO Vice President Tsuda and Secretary General Sasamori met with Health, Labor and Welfare Vice Minister Masuda and Director-General of Policy Planning and Evaluation Sakamoto.
From the outset, VP Tsuda emphasized, "the government decided on "Emergency Economic Measures" including special measures on bank's disposal of their bad debt. However, if the government does not properly undertake economic measures we will find ourselves in a terrible situation. The government's safety net measures are insufficient and we want them studied immediately."
Continuing, RENGO Executive Director of Department of Working Conditions Matsuura explained the contents of the demands and asked for implementation of the following:
1) Protection measures for workers such as the securing of labor credit when handling bad debts.
2) Job creation through the "Special Subsidy for Emergency Local Job Creation" (¥200 billion yen)
3) Establish an "Emergency Job Skills Development Fund" (¥2 trillion), and the "Employment Insurance Financial Stability Fund" (¥2 trillion) for relaxing application standards for the nationwide extension of the employment insurance benefits.
Vice Minister Masuda responded, "this is an extremely serious topic and the Ministry realizes that there are several points here we must consider." He also said, "as we want to see minimal influence on jobs, we will react flexibly and with maneuverability to changes in employment conditions and do our utmost to see that employment is stabilized.