20-05-2025
VOX POPULI: Let no worker be treated like a 'replaceable component'
From the autumn of 1972, freelance journalist Satoshi Kamata worked undercover for six months as a seasonal laborer at a Toyota Motor Corp. plant to write a report.
The factory's conveyor belt system started operating at 6 a.m. and parts came down the assembly line every 80 seconds—too fast for Kamata to keep up with, no matter how frantically he wielded his hammer.
Kamata recorded the brutal working conditions in 'Jidosha Zetsubo Kojo' (literally, 'auto plant of despair'), a tour de force with powerful language and vivid descriptions that still grab the reader more than half a century after its publication.
For example, there is a scene where an exhausted Kamata returns from work to his shared dorm room and mulls over what it means to be a worker: 'A worker is not even a machine ... He is just a component that's cheaper than a machine and easily replaceable.'
How about present-day workers?
As a matter of fact, the criteria by which a person is legally recognized as a worker has remained unchanged since 1985.
When I heard that the labor ministry established a panel of experts this month to review the criteria, I was surprised to realize that the matter had not even been addressed at all for 40 years.
The review has to do with so-called 'platform workers'—defined as those who earn a living by performing work through online platforms.
Under the current criteria, an individual will be recognized as a worker only if they are under the direct supervision of their employer.
But it is unclear whether this applies to platform workers, such as Uber Eats and Amazon delivery personnel, who are 'formally' self-employed but also use platform apps to follow AI-generated or algorithm-generated instructions regarding their delivery routes.
What matters in this era of diverse working styles is that every worker be allowed to speak out and receive protection when necessary.
If not, workers of the digital era will become 'replaceable components' in the 'plants of despair.'
—The Asahi Shimbun, May 20
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Vox Populi, Vox Dei is a popular daily column that takes up a wide range of topics, including culture, arts and social trends and developments. Written by veteran Asahi Shimbun writers, the column provides useful perspectives on and insights into contemporary Japan and its culture.
