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• MEXT proposes allowing certifications from private examinations to be permissible for university entrance admissions.
• The Bank of Tokyo Mitsubishi UFJ moves to give the same meal subsidy to both regular and contract employees.
• Panasonic aims to hire 600 “area-limited employees” at 12 of its factories, with a goal of providing a path to full “regular” employment.
• The Supreme Court discovers that one out of every three lay-judge candidates are absent.
• An internet survey finds that over 80% of “irregular” workers are unaware of the law that will allow them to switch to an unlimited contract after five years of continuous “irregular” employment.
• MEXT announced that 3rd and 4th grade elementary students will have their hours of English education increased as of 2018 in order to transition into even greater hours in 2020 (the General Union has a full article about it here: MEXT’s 2018 “New Course Of Study In Foreign Language Education”)
• Multiple junior high schools in Fukuoka Prefecture have no teachers for Art or Technology.
• The MHWL will submit an overtime-limit bill in the autumn.
(Translated from Japanese)