Q&A  - Labor -
		Q1. Please tell me about unemployment insurance.
		A1. Unemployment insurance covers the living expenses of workers during the period that they are unemployed. Your company will carry out the necessary procedures. The company and the individual each bear a proportion of the insurance premiums. Many companies do not participate in the system, please confirm that they have unemployment insurance. Even in the case that your company was not participating in the unemployment system, you can enter up to two years retroactively. Specifically, you can receive unemployment benefits for the period you are unemployed in proportion to your wages when you were employed. To receive the allowance you must have been contributing to the scheme for more than six months during the year before you became unemployed. I will now explain the process to apply for unemployment benefits. First, get a "letter of separation" (rishokuhyo) from your company. This will include the period for which you have participated in unemployment insurance, your wages, and the reason for leaving your job. You take the letter of separation to your local public employment security office and once you have applied to search for work, you may receive acknowledgment of your unemployed status. You should keep in mind that if you choose to quit your company you might have to wait between one and three months before receiving any allowance. How long you can receive the allowance for depends on your age and how long you have participated in the system, but it varies between 90 and 300 days.
		Q2. I am a Taiwanese woman married to a Japanese. I work in the accounting section of a foreign owned company. Our boss is an Indian man. He doesn't just ask me about my body measurements, and the colour of my underwear, he also talks about sex and continually makes me feel bad. He hasn't touched me or pressured me to go out with him, but mentally I feel worn down, and I have been hospitalised and taken long breaks from work. I want the company to transfer him, but is this possible?
		A2. Sexual harassment in the workplace doesn't just impair the dignity of female workers, it also creates a bad workplace atmosphere and prevents woman from performing at their best at work. Because of this employers are required to prevent workplace sexual harassment (according to Article 21 of the Laws Governing the Way Laws are Administrated, which says that men and women must be given equal treatment and opportunity in the workplace. If you have a recording of memo of what he said, or a doctor's certificate stating your health situation, take them and complain to the company about the situation. If sexual harassment has occurred, the company has an obligation to verify as quickly as possible the truth of the claim in an appropriate manner then deal with the problem, by either transferring him or carrying out other measures based on company rules. You may also want to consider claiming damages from him. So please consider consulting with the Labour Administration Office (Rouseijimusho) or a women's centre.
		Q3. I am an English woman. I was dispatched to a Japanese advertising company by an employment agency on a one-year contract. The contract has been renewed a number of times. This time I will not renew, but is it possible to claim a retirement allowance. There is nothing written in the contract about a retirement allowance.
		A3. In Japan there are few companies that pay a retirement allowance to employees who are not full time, that is contract and part time workers. Moreover, labour law does not oblige companies to pay a retirement allowance. Therefore, it might be extremely difficult to ask the company for a retirement allowance, unless it has had the practice in the past of giving retirement allowance to contract workers, or there is some rule about such an allowance in the company rules. However, it is possible that, taking into consideration your performance and results at work, the company may pay you service pay or a bonus, so why don't you ask your boss directly about it?

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