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Japanese Say They Work Too Much

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Times Staff Writer

Japanese workers are beginning to agree with the rest of the world that they work too much.

Three out of four workers surveyed by the Economic Planning Agency said they would like to see their working hours reduced to the level prevailing in Western Europe and the United States.

Asked what they thought might be an appropriate level, 54% of them said no more than 1,800 hours a year, about 244 hours fewer than at present.

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The planning agency said that in 1982, the last year for which such statistics are available, Japanese employed in manufacturing worked 2,136 hours (the equivalent of 267 eight-hour days), or more than five working weeks a year more than Americans.

The survey did not mention it, but many of the longer hours that the Japanese put in are overtime. Generally the overtime rate is 1.25 times the usual rate, compared to 1.5 times for American workers.

Bureaucratic red tape is often cited as an impediment to doing business in Japan, not only by foreigners but by Japanese themselves. Japanese producers of “long-life milk,” which will not spoil at room temperature for up to months, provide an example.

Dairy farmers in the northern island of Hokkaido, far removed from major urban markets, won permission in 1977 to start producing long-life milk, which is pasteurized at higher temperatures and packaged in thicker containers than ordinary milk. They had hoped to distribute more milk to other sections of the country. But a government order has forced retailers to refrigerate long-life milk, driving up costs and frustrating the farmers’ hopes. Last year, long-life milk accounted for only 1.9% of consumption.

Now, two years after the Health and Welfare Ministry certified that refrigeration of long-life milk is not necessary, the Agricultural Ministry has decided to eliminate the requirement.

A breakthrough for the 12 Japanese companies that produce long-life milk? Not quite.

First, the Health and Welfare Ministry must rewrite its rules to remove the refrigeration requirement. Then it must draw up new rules.

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This will probably take another year or so, and even then other barriers will still be in place--a ban on imports and restrictions on increased production. Already, the Agricultural Ministry has cited what it called a need to avoid the chaos that might arise from free competition.

More than 850 companies package milk, and most of them are small family operations. They fear that larger competitors will start shipping long-life milk into their sales regions.

In addition, the Japan Consumers Federation, which argues that long-life milk is neither safe nor nutritious, and 57 other consumer groups have renewed their complaints against the product.

The federation insists that all food should be produced and sold as close as possible to its natural state. It opposes the move to lift the refrigeration requirement for fear that it will open the door to imports.

Katsumi Noda of the federation said imports might come from the United States, Canada, Australia or New Zealand, or from Shenzhen, China’s special economic zone near Hong Kong.

If Japanese consumers, who are accustomed to buying refrigerated milk, change their habits, the cost of long-life milk might come down, according to Toshio Tanaka of Snow Brand Dairy Products. At present the price is 91 cents a quart, or 4 cents more than ordinary milk.

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Five years from now, 95% of Japan’s top 1,623 corporations believe, their technology will be at least equal to American technology, according to a survey by the Economic Planning Agency.

Almost a third--32%--of the firms listed on the Tokyo, Osaka and Nagoya stock exchanges indicated that they believe that their technology will be superior to American technology, compared to 17% five years ago.

Among the industries in which more than 50% of the firms feel that they already are superior, or will be in five years, to American competitors are shipbuilding, rubber, ceramics, precision machinery and steel. But only 13% of the chemical companies expressed such confidence.

The survey also uncovered a feeling that the developing countries of Asia will gain on Japan in the next five years. Almost all the firms--98%--said their present technology is superior to that of their Asian competitors, but only 88% said they will still be superior five year from now.

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