Publicly traded companies battered by the spread of the novel coronavirus are asking a growing number of employees to take early retirement or job buyouts.
The number of jobs affected is expected to reach a level second only to that seen after the collapse of Lehman Brothers, or following the Great East Japan Earthquake. Similar moves may also be spreading below the surface among midranking and small and medium-sized firms, prompting calls for employees to be given assistance in finding new jobs.
-- Top travel agency
"Human resources are an asset, and it's heartrending to cut jobs," Eijiro Yamakita, president of JTB Corp., Japan's largest travel agency, said with a strained expression during a press conference on Nov. 20.
Yamakita announced that JTB would reduce its employees by 6,500 people, or more than 20 percent of its total workforce of about 29,000, through such means as promoting early retirement, forgoing the recruitment of new graduates, and the natural attrition resulting from mandatory retirement.
JTB will also reduce the number of its offices by 115, out of about 480 nationwide as of fiscal 2019, while moving forward with its shift from conventional sales at brick-and-mortar offices to online operations.
Its office in Chiyoda Ward, Tokyo, is slated to close in late December, and a notice to that effect has been put up outside. Nov. 30 was to be the last day the office would accept new applications for travel.
A 50-year-old man who works at a midranking travel agency said with a gloomy expression: "I was surprised by the news that JTB, the largest travel agency, would cut jobs. Within my company, too, there are always rumors that our company will offer early retirement."
According to Tokyo Shoko Research, Ltd., 88 publicly traded companies had offered early retirement or job buyouts as of Nov. 27. These offers encompassed 16,957 jobs, far surpassing last year's figures -- when 35 firms offered such plans for 11,351 jobs.
The scale is likely to be second to that of the offers made in the wake of the collapse of Lehman Brothers and the Great East Japan Earthquake.
More than 70 percent of the 88 firms have posted a net loss either in their full-year financial results, or their latest quarterly settlements. Most offers of early retirement or job buyouts have traditionally been made to middle-aged or older workers, but this year companies are offering such plans to a broad range of employees. Some have lowered the age of eligible staff to people in their 30s or even 20s.
In addition to their deteriorating business performances, companies have been prompted by the increasingly uncertain business outlook.
-- Growing alarm
The government's sense of crisis has grown, prompting it to extend a special measure -- a government subsidy to companies to help defray costs relating to layoffs -- through the end of February next year. It was originally set to end at the end of December.
Both labor and management have expressed concern over the employment situation. The Japan Chamber of Commerce and Industry, composed of small and medium-sized companies, called on the government this month to continue to expand its support to help companies preserve jobs.
JCCI Chairman Akio Mimura said, "Companies are doing everything possible to maintain jobs, but there are quite a few [that are about to offer early retirement]." Rikio Kozu, president of the Japanese Trade Union Confederation (Rengo), also emphasized: "Protecting jobs is fundamental. The safety net must be expanded."
Read more from The Japan News at https://japannews.yomiuri.co.jp/
