A tent village set up in a Tokyo park for the country’s growing number of jobless filled up so fast that it was moved yesterday to a government building to accommodate the overflow.
The government offered a ministry hall late on Friday, responding to a request from volunteers, to house more than 250 unemployed and homeless people after the first comers quickly filled the tents, according to the shelter’s Japanese-language Web site.
The homeless can stay in the building through tomorrow and job counseling and other efforts are under way to place the people in other locations, it said.
PHOTO: AP
The tent village that volunteers and unions opened on New Year’s Eve highlights the serious social costs of the global recession for the world’s second largest economy.
The government estimates 85,000 part-time workers will lose their jobs between October and March. Another 3,300 permanent employees are expected to become jobless over the same period.
Temporary workers have been the first to be fired in the latest wave of cutbacks as Japan’s exports and company investments crashed after the US financial crisis.
Temporary jobs at manufacturing were illegal before 2004, but today top companies, including Toyota Motor Corp and Canon Inc, routinely rely on temporary staffing to adjust production to gyrating overseas demand.
Japanese Communist Party executive committee chair Kazuo Shii, who visited the village, said the government needs to do more to help the unemployed.
“It is unforgivable that Japan’s major companies have thrown so many workers out on the streets at the end of the year,” he said.
For decades Japan promised lifetime jobs at major companies and government welfare programs for the jobless are still limited.
The village has also drawn some who have been needy for years.
Shigeru Kobayashi, 65, who has been unemployed four years, lives in the park.
“People talked about a recovery, but it never got good anyway,” he said with a grin. “I’m unemployed. All I have is heart.”
Tamotsu Chiba, 55, a theater producer and volunteer at the tent village, said he found the energy of the volunteers encouraging.
“There are so many kinds of people here. This has given me a feeling of hope about Japan,” he said.
VALUABLE STOCK: The company closed at NT$1,005 a share, on demand for AI and HPC chips, and is expected to issue a positive report during its earnings conference Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) shares rose 2.66 percent to close at a record high of NT$1,005 yesterday. as investors expect the company to continue benefiting from strong demand for artificial intelligence (AI) and high-performance computing (HPC) chips. TSMC is the 19th member of the local bourse’s NT$1,000 stock club, which includes smartphone chip designer MediaTek Inc (聯發科) and electric transformer manufacturer Fortune Electric Co (華城電機). Yesterday’s rally swelled TSMC’s market capitalization to NT$26.06 trillion (US$802.3 billion) and contributed about 211 points to the TAIEX, which closed up 350.1 points, or 1.51 percent, to 23,522.53, another record high, Taiwan Stock
The waves of the Aegean Sea lap gently at the tables and chairs of two beach restaurants on Greece’s Halkidiki peninsula. It is an idyllic scene, but one that is totally illegal. Like many others in Greece, the two establishments on Pefkochori Beach do not have a license to set up shop so close to the water. After a wave of protests last summer by locals about bars and restaurants illegally covering beaches with sunbeds and tables, the Greek state is taking action. It is cracking down on rogue tourist practices with surveillance drones, satellite imagery and a special app
South Korea’s SK Hynix Inc, the world’s No. 2 memorychip maker, is to invest 103 trillion won (US$74.6 billion) through 2028 to strengthen its chips business, focusing on artificial intelligence (AI), its parent SK Group said yesterday. SK Group also said it plans to secure 80 trillion won by 2026 to invest in AI and semiconductors as well as fund shareholder returns, while streamlining its more than 175 subsidiaries. The sprawling conglomerate outlined the plans following a two-day strategy meeting, aiming to revive the group after SK Hynix, its main money maker, and the group’s electric vehicle battery arm suffered heavy losses. SK
Luxgen Motor Co (納智捷汽車), a subsidiary of Yulon Motor Co (裕隆汽車), yesterday said it is again offering a NT$100,000 discount for its entry-level n7 electric vehicle models. The n7’s price has gone down from NT$1.099 million to NT$999,000, Luxgen said, adding that there are 25,000 preorders for the model. MG Motor’s electric hatchback, the MG4, entered the market in the middle of last month, with a starting price of NT$990,000. China Motor Corp (中華汽車), which distributes MG vehicles in Taiwan, said it aims to sell 1,600 MG4s this year. MG, originally a British brand, was acquired by China’s SAIC Motor