Japan's government needs to employ more people in the public sector to cushion the impact of major economic reforms promised by Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi, an economics minister said yesterday.
"I think drastic employment measures need to be included" in a three-step program for implementing Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's structural reforms, said Heizo Takenaka, state minister for economic and fiscal policy. Koizumi's program is due to be presented later this month.
"As the employment situation is to get severer, I think we would need a new-type of public employment, in which the government would hire people directly" rather than relying on private firms to employ more staff, Takenaka said.
"The prime minister said of a plan to hire 50,000 assistant school teachers ... and this is an example of the new direct public employment," Takenaka told a discussion broadcast by the Japan Broadcasting Corp.
His remarks come a day after the Asahi Shimbun reported that support for Koizumi's cabinet had fallen amid growing fears of job losses that could accompany the structural reforms.
A poll of 2,183 adults conducted by the daily found that the approval rating for the cabinet had fallen to 69 percent from 77 percent in a survey carried out before last weekend's upper-house elections.
Koizumi's ruling coalition scored a solid victory in the July 29 polls but people are becoming more wary of the reforms, the Asahi said.
The number of people saying they do not support Koizumi rose from nine percent to 17 percent, of whom more than 40 percent cited economic and employment policies as reasons for their disapproval.
ROLLER-COASTER RIDE: More than five earthquakes ranging from magnitude 4.4 to 5.5 on the Richter scale shook eastern Taiwan in rapid succession yesterday afternoon Back-to-back weather fronts are forecast to hit Taiwan this week, resulting in rain across the nation in the coming days, the Central Weather Administration said yesterday, as it also warned residents in mountainous regions to be wary of landslides and rockfalls. As the first front approached, sporadic rainfall began in central and northern parts of Taiwan yesterday, the agency said, adding that rain is forecast to intensify in those regions today, while brief showers would also affect other parts of the nation. A second weather system is forecast to arrive on Thursday, bringing additional rain to the whole nation until Sunday, it
LANDSLIDES POSSIBLE: The agency advised the public to avoid visiting mountainous regions due to more expected aftershocks and rainfall from a series of weather fronts A series of earthquakes over the past few days were likely aftershocks of the April 3 earthquake in Hualien County, with further aftershocks to be expected for up to a year, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Based on the nation’s experience after the quake on Sept. 21, 1999, more aftershocks are possible over the next six months to a year, the agency said. A total of 103 earthquakes of magnitude 4 on the local magnitude scale or higher hit Hualien County from 5:08pm on Monday to 10:27am yesterday, with 27 of them exceeding magnitude 5. They included two, of magnitude
CONDITIONAL: The PRC imposes secret requirements that the funding it provides cannot be spent in states with diplomatic relations with Taiwan, Emma Reilly said China has been bribing UN officials to obtain “special benefits” and to block funding from countries that have diplomatic ties with Taiwan, a former UN employee told the British House of Commons on Tuesday. At a House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee hearing into “international relations within the multilateral system,” former Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) employee Emma Reilly said in a written statement that “Beijing paid bribes to the two successive Presidents of the [UN] General Assembly” during the two-year negotiation of the Sustainable Development Goals. Another way China exercises influence within the UN Secretariat is
Taiwan’s first drag queen to compete on the internationally acclaimed RuPaul’s Drag Race, Nymphia Wind (妮妃雅), was on Friday crowned the “Next Drag Superstar.” Dressed in a sparkling banana dress, Nymphia Wind swept onto the stage for the final, and stole the show. “Taiwan this is for you,” she said right after show host RuPaul announced her as the winner. “To those who feel like they don’t belong, just remember to live fearlessly and to live their truth,” she said on stage. One of the frontrunners for the past 15 episodes, the 28-year-old breezed through to the final after weeks of showcasing her unique