Japan's Auto Parts Industry May See Large Job Cuts.(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)

A worsening global auto market, tougher international competition and the growing number of Japanese manufacturers moving production overseas could lead to massive job cuts in the Japanese auto industry. Japan's auto industry could lose 143,000 jobs over the next four years, according to a recent labor union report that indicates the country's unemployment woes could worsen. The bulk of the losses would come in the auto-parts industry, which could see 119,900 positions eliminated by 2005 under a worst-case scenario, according to the study by the Confederation of Japan Automobile Workers' Unions.

The report also cited foreign ownership of Japanese auto firms as a reason for job cuts. France-based Renault, which has a 37 percent stake in Nissan, has said it will slash 21,000 jobs at its Japanese subsidiary. Mitsubishi Motors, which is 37 percent owned by Germany's DaimlerChrysler AG, is also planning to shed 9,500 jobs, or 14 percent of its global work force. But confederation spokesman Keiya Tanaka said the union's simulation did not take such cuts into consideration.

The confederation hired Japan's Mitsubishi Research Institute to conduct the study as a basis for managing labor relations with employers. The figures come a week after Japan announced its jobless rate had risen to 5 percent, its highest level since the government began taking such statistics in 1953.

The government said the rate would be double that if figures included people who have given up looking for work. A further slump in the auto industry would mirror the hardships faced in the country's other manufacturing sectors and extend the country's economic woes.

Electronics maker Hitachi, for example, recently said it was slashing 14,700 jobs, or 4.3 percent of its work force. That move followed similar announcements by rivals Toshiba Corp., NEC Corp. and Fujitsu Ltd.

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