TOKYO - HUNDREDS of laid-off temporary workers rallied Monday in Japan, urging companies to give them social protection as the government said the economy faced its worst crisis since World War II.

About 300 workers demonstrated outside the Tokyo headquarters of major companies including truckmaker Isuzu Motors, telecommunications firm NTT and Mizuho Bank, as well as Japan's main business lobbyist group, the Keidanren.

The government estimates at least 125,000 temporary contract workers have been laid off or will be fired by March when the fiscal year ends, as the global economic downturn has impacted Japan's export-dependant economy.

'We have the right to work, the right to live, and our rights are being stepped on,' he shouted in front of the Keidanren office, whose chairman also heads Canon Inc, which has dismissed more than 1,000 temporary workers.

Several foreign nationals joined the rally. Many Peruvians and Brazilians of Japanese descent working in the country's major industrial areas have been among the first to be fired in the current downturn.

Japan's economy suffered its worst contraction in almost 35 years in the fourth quarter of 2008 as the global economic slump hit demand for Japanese cars, electronics and other goods, forcing companies to slash jobs.

The economy shrank at an annualised pace of 12.7 per cent in the three months to December, new data showed on Monday, and Economic and Fiscal Policy Minister Kaoru Yosano said Japan faced its 'worst ever crisis in the post-war era.'

Temporary worker Hideo Yamamoto, 34, who said he was suddenly dismissed in December from Isuzu, said his meagre savings were now stretched thin.

'I don't know if I can continue to survive in the coming months,' he told AFP. 'It's unfair that companies treat regular and non-regular workers separately. I have lost trust in companies.'