Some 500 jobless people, many of them laid-off temp workers, who spent the New Year's period encamped in Hibiya Park were relocated Jan. 5 to four other sites arranged by the welfare ministry after volunteers closed the temporary shelter in the heart of Tokyo.

"This is our first step to make society more secure for workers," said Makoto Abe, chairman of the Japan Community Union Federation and an organizer of the event who has been urging the ministry to support the jobless at the park.

Abe and other organizers led a march demanding stable employment, starting from the park, where more than 20 volunteer groups had set up a tent village offering idled temp workers free food, consultations and shelter since New Year's Eve.

The unemployed and homeless will move to four new shelters in Tokyo until Jan. 12, including unused school gymnasiums in Chuo Ward and Nerima Ward, and a winter dormitory for homeless people in Ota Ward.

By Jan. 2, the tent village's population had swollen to more than 300, prompting the ministry to open a hall for extra shelter space. The tent village and the hall were closed Jan. 5, however, uprooting the temporary dwellers.