Frustrated Japanese fear for their jobs, for a firmer grip on purse strings

‘‘They’ve done nothing till now, why should anything be different tomorrow?’’ she asked. It was a sentiment echoed by others interviewed on the streets of Tokyo after the government said the nation’s unemployment rate in October had returned to 5.5 per cent, the highest level of the post-war era.

‘‘I don’t think much of this government — there are no real reformers in it and we need a thorough change,’’ said 55-year-old Katsuhara Kawasaki, a self-described ‘salaryman’, or white collar worker, at electronics giant Fujitsu.

Fujitsu was one of the latest blue-chip giants to announce heavy job cuts, saying in late October it would shed 7,100 jobs in the business year to next March to cope with a business slump.

‘‘It’s not going to get better,’’ Kawasaki lamented while taking a drag on a cigarette outside a central Tokyo building. ‘‘I’m worried that with the economy this bad, I’ll eventually get laid off.’’ Other data released here provided further evidence that a nine-month economic recovery is running out of steam, with industrial output falling in October and deflation remaining a nasty thorn in the economy’s side.

And as the economy struggles, consumers are set to keep an even firmer grip on their purse strings — not surprising considering that wages are falling and this year’s average winter bonus is expected to plunge by a record five per cent or more.

For the average Japanese, the labour market appears to have fallen into a familiar trend of bad news followed by worse, a perception the government disputes. ‘‘It is difficult to forecast employment trends, but it is not necessarily the case that things will not get better,’’ said an official at a briefing by the Ministry of Public Management, Home Affairs, Posts and Telecommunications.

While acknowledging that one-third of Japan’s jobless are now long-term unemployed, or without work for over a year, he noted that there had been an increase last month in overtime worked and in the number of enterprises seeking new workers.

But he also acknowledged that these positive factors could be offset by the impact of plans to solve Japan’s bad loan problem at banks, which could lead to more bankruptcies and job losses. With private sector firms taking an increasingly hard-nosed approach to job cuts, a 60-year-old man said he was relieved to be working in a relatively safe field—government construction projects. ‘‘I’m employed by the government so I won’t get sacked,’’ he laughed. ‘‘But if I were in the private sector, I’d be worried.’’