There is a different protection called “general lien” or “ippan no sakidoritokken” which depends on the capitalization. Unpaid wages up to 6 months are secured by “general assets” of the failed company, so reorganization administrator cannot pay unsecured creditors from the proceeds of the liquidation of “general assets” unless such unpaid wages are paid in full, though there are several exceptions.
“General assets” are all assets of the company except those assets specifically pledged or mortgaged to some creditors. There are several claims that are senior to unpaid wages, such as, unpaid tax, social security dues, and set-offs by banks if creditor banks happen to have deposits.

They’re probably right that the only way to guarantee safety from a nuclear attack is to abolish nuclear weapons, but considering that Japan has operated under the Three Non-nuclear principles since 1967 and that the Hiroshima civilian protection council does not exactly have the ears of the world, it is hard to see the point beyond this just being one of those things that is done in Hiroshima to keep the issue alive, which is a laudable enough goal in and of itself.

And I know we’ve been through this a bit on JEN, but I see a brilliant comedy career in the making: “If the prospect of paying less for your rice has you worried. . .”

. . . you might be a terrorist! (Of course, you may also be a Communist.)

Man, the rice surplus is one of those issues that makes me love the GOJ. Farming not a profitable enterprise in Japan? Dump public money into it. Not price competitive? Slap a 1,000% tariff on rice. Too much rice production because it occurs entirely outside of most normal market forces? Buy the excess and bury it (in what Ken coined as the “Strategic Rice Reserves,” which led to the above terrorist/Communist joke), thus ensuring the continued life of an uncompetitive sector.

I’m waiting to hear the actually valid reason for the extreme artificial inflation of the price of a staple food, but there is really only one reason: the LDP wants the countryside’s votes.

It’s just bizarre - the LDP’s patronage of rural areas has helped keep some places backwards and behind their urban counterparts while making sure the one thing that makes living in the country nice, viz. the scenery, is largely obliterated. Sometimes, when looking at the LDP’s record, the glaring question is: What do they have against Japan?