Temps in Prime Time

Haruko Ohmae has the sort of job skills that should get her hired immediately. She can program a computer, chop sushi, speak Russian, operate heavy equipment and (most important) pour tea. But Haruko doesn't have a full-time job. She's a part-timer—and the main character in the new hit Japanese TV show Haken no Hinkaku , which roughly translates as "the dignity of temp workers." Japan may once have enshrined lifetime corporate employment, but today nearly a third of its workforce is made up of part-timers like Haruko, as companies that cut payrolls during the recession years have been slow to add full-time...