Deregulation and limited unemployment benefits have put Japan’s

[2Design]

laid-off workers in particularly dire situations. Above, a protest in Tokyo last month.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/08/world/asia/08japan.html?_r=1&hp

Mr. Hirano and the others laid off by Canon are part of a new subclass of Japanese workers created during a decade of American-style deregulation. As short-term employees they have none of the rights of so-called salarymen or even the factory workers for Japan’s legions of small manufacturers.

To make matters worse, they can expect little in the way of unemployment or welfare benefits. In Japan, a country with little experience of widespread unemployment until recently, there is an inadequate safety net for laid-off workers.