Faces of the Crisis Revisited

• Position: By , a freelance journalt working in Tokyo.

LAST year, F&D profiled six people from different countries, hit by the global economic crisis in different ways. As the recession recedes, we returned to find out how they have coped with the turmoil of the past year.

Changes wrought by the crisis have turned some lives upside down. In Japan, former auto worker Yoshinori Sato survives on welfare, while in Spain, where real estate agent Santiago Baena had once been doing so well, the housing sector is now saddled with billions of euros worth of foreclosed property. But even a financial crisis is of little concern if your country is slammed by the more immediate problems of natural disaster and epidemic, as in Haiti.

For others, adversity presented an opportunity for a fresh start. In Argentina, where the economy has since picked up, dockworker Gustavo RamÃrez has become a trade union official. In Côte d’Ivoire, cocoa farmer Ignace Koffi Kassi was campaigning before the national election and was too busy to speak with us. And in New York, Shital Patel has found a job—studying the job market.

We share some of their stories with you.

Japan

From Bad to Worse

JUST over a year ago, Yoshinori Sato did not believe his life could get worse. It did. When F&D profiled 51-year-old Sato in September 2009, he had recently lost his job as a temporary worker at Isuzu Motors Co. in Yokohama, Japan. The factory worker had been forced to vacate his company-owned apartment and was subsisting on welfare payments living apart from his family, who remain in his native Hokkaido.

Since then, Sato’s situation has deteriorated. “It has been hard,” Sato admits. He has faced health problems and has not seen his family since December—and his lawyers are pessimistic about the outcome of his suit against his former employer to regain his job. After rent, utilities, and transportation, Sato says he is left with about Â¥30,000 ($367) a month for food and other expenses. He divorced his wife so that she too could claim state benefits, and the prospects for reuniting with his family look bleak. Sato is calm as he speaks, but it is clear that he is angry about his situation.

“We want to be together, but this legal battle is going to take a long time—probably more than a decade,” he says.

Temporary workers have long been critical to the vehicle manufacturing industry. At the peak, an estimated 3.8 million workers fell into this category, with the government claiming the use of temporary staffers benefited both employers and workers, who gained greater job mobility. It quickly became clear that the greater advantage lay with companies, which were able to lay off employees more easily.

The economic crisis triggered by the collapse of investment banking firm Lehman Brothers in September 2008 has compounded the plight of temporary workers in the Japanese auto industry, which has suffered a sharp drop in demand. Sato says it is the workers who have borne the brunt of the downturn.

“Large corporations here had large savings and resources, so they were able to survive quite comfortably, but smaller enterprises and subcontractors were in a much more difficult situation,” he points out, adding that even regular employees are now struggling.

“Some have been forced to retire early, others have had their wages cut, and some have even been laid off,” he said. “Large corporations are still earning a profit, but workers’...