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Drivers’ testimonies

Hiroaki Shibano

I am 49 years old. I have been a taxi driver for about nine years. Before that I used to work for a trading company, but it went bankrupt. I had no other choice but to become a taxi driver.

When I joined this industry, I could earn a little over 5 million yen (around US$47,000) per year. Since then, due to deregulation, the number of taxis has increased while the number of customers has not. It is very difficult to find passengers to ride my cab. My annual income is now around 3 million yen (around US$ 28,200).

I am diabetic and I can only work 11 shifts per month (each consisting of 16 agreed working hours and two to three hours’ break time, plus overtime). My colleagues work 13 shifts per month, which is more than the legal limit. They sacrifice their holidays and good health to earn money to survive…

Taxi drivers’ lives are on the edge. If quantity discounts become the norm, we will be doomed. At the moment I earn 200,000 yen (US$1,900) per month after tax. With quantity discounts in effect, I will lose fare revenue. Then my monthly earnings will reduce by around half. How can anyone make a living like that? Do the officials of the ministry realise this? I cannot believe these officials are the same human beings with red blood.

Racing to  pick up passengers

Setsuo Shirai

I am 56 years old. I have been a taxi driver for 20 years. Before that, I was a cook at my parents’ noodle shop. After marriage and the birth of my second child, I decided to become a taxi driver. I wanted to send my children to university, but my earnings as a noodle cook did not allow that. My wife was worried because the job was dangerous and physically demanding. But the salary was much better, and my wife and I were delighted that we could give our children higher education.

Now, my monthly income is 100,000 yen after tax. Technology has progressed, but my job has not changed. I still work in an environment where 20 people die in traffic accidents everyday. I go on duty without sleep for 24 hours, come home and sleep like a log, and then go out to work the next day. The psychological pressure of being inside a car with a complete stranger is tougher than it seems. Twenty years I have been doing this, but my earnings are now lower than the starting salary of a college graduate.

It is impossible to send my children to college. My family has not gone on holiday for years. I can only earn enough to somehow survive.

The recession, but especially also deregulation and the increasing number of taxicabs, is a major reason for the fall in my income. Downtown streets are filled with empty taxis. I frequently see two taxis racing to pick up the same passenger. Everybody is toiling desperately over a smaller group of customers.

Today, I see more people quitting just after joining the industry, saying “I didn’t know the work was so hard and the pay so little.” Younger people can find another job, but that is difficult for unskilled middle-aged drivers. I know drivers who could not escape from taxi driving, suddenly realising that their household budget had gone into the red.

These testimonies were made by Hiroaki Shibano and Setsuo Shirai at a court hearing over the lawsuit in March 2005.