TOYOTA - TEMPORARY workers like Ms Toshie Helena Oguihara were a driving force behind Japan's economic recovery in recent years, but when the recession returned, they found themselves first in the firing line.

Japanese companies have announced thousands of lay-offs among contract or temporary employees in recent weeks in response to the economic crisis.

'I've been working hard to become a permanent worker one day, but that dream has been crushed. They exploited us when they were busy, then shed us even though we worked as much as permanent employees did. It's so unfair.' Mr Hidetomo Kita, 37, a temporary worker who lost his job at truck maker Hino Motors last month

About 85,000 'non-regular' workers have lost or will lose their jobs through March, nearly tripling a previous estimate from less than a month ago, the Health, Labour and Welfare Ministry said on Friday.

In Singapore, the number of part-time and contract workers is expected to grow during the recession. This can become a problem, as these workers rarely receive social security benefits.

The wave of job cuts in Japan has shattered the myth that a job is for life in Asia's largest economy, which traditionally prided itself on a middle-class lifestyle.

When automobile plants slowed their assembly lines due to slumping demand, Ms Oguihara - a 50-year-old Japanese Brazilian - was among those out of a job.

The small subcontractor plant producing air-conditioning compressors for Japan's leading car maker, Toyota Motor, no longer needed her.

'I may have to return to Brazil if I can't find a new job,' she lamented.

But it is not just foreigners who are losing their jobs.

Japanese temporary workers - who make up an increasingly large share of the work force following the deregulation of the labour market in recent years - have also been affected.

Today, roughly one in three workers in Japan are 'non-regular' employees, including temporary workers who generally receive lower wages than permanent workers do - a group often described as 'the working poor'.

'I've been working hard to become a permanent worker one day, but that dream has been crushed,' said Mr Hidetomo Kita, 37, a temporary worker who lost his job at truck maker Hino Motors last month.

'They exploited us when they were busy, then shed us even though we worked as much as permanent employees did,' he said, adding that he was worried as his wife, a temporary worker for another manufacturer, was also on the verge of losing her job.

Toyota, which expects to post its first-ever operating loss this year, is cutting 3,000 temporary jobs at its domestic plants.

Honda Motor is eliminating 1,210 non-regular jobs, while Nissan Motor is axing all of its 1,000 temporary jobs in Japan. Mitsubishi Motors is cutting 1,100 posts.

The Japanese have traditionally seen themselves as an equitable, middle-class society, thanks to life-time employment and a narrow gap between the rich and the poor.

But critics say those days are gone, largely because of free-market reforms, including deregulation in 2004 that let the manufacturing industry use temporary staff in their plants.

Many of these workers find themselves with nowhere to live when they lose their jobs - and with it the cheap company dormitory they were living in, said Mr Yoshimitsu Wada, a trade union leader for temporary workers.

Some temporary workers began fighting against company managers with demonstrations and lawsuits, but legal battles are tough for workers to win, said Mr Wada. 'We eventually need to reform a labour law,' he said.

Last month, Prime Minister Taro Aso's government submitted a revision to the law on temporary workers to Parliament to tighten the rules.

Said Prof Tachibanaki: 'Now, the problem of a free-market model is under scrutiny even in the United States. It's time to review the policy in Japan, too.'

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE