Also “[b]y law, workers have the right to request their employers to insure them” (NIC, 2009). Although firms must insure workers when their contracts specify 20 or more basic working hours per week, workers with lower basic working hours may have higher actual working hours. Higuchi (2001) reported that the “percentage of workers contributing to employment insurance” was 62.6% (67.4% for men, 55.3% for women), which suggests low coverage of non-regular employment. If the numbers enrolled in the El system (40.4 million in 1995 and 38.7 million in 2005) are compared with total number of employees aged 15-64, the implied El coverage was 80% in 1995 and fell to 75% in 2005 (Japan Statistical Yearbook, Tables 16-3, and 20-8).