Table Of ContentJapanese Workplaces in Transition
Also By Hendrik Meyer-Ohle
INNOVATION AND DYNAMICS IN JAPANESE RETAILING:
From Techniques to Formats to Systems
Japanese Workplaces in
Transition
Employee Perceptions
Hendrik Meyer-Ohle
© Hendrik Meyer-Ohle 2009
Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 2009 978-0-230-22938-9
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First published 2009 by
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Contents
List of Tables vii
List of Charts viii
Preface and Acknowledgements ix
1 Changing Workplaces – Blogging about Work 1
1.1 Capturing change in workplaces 1
1.2 Blog entries to learn about employee perceptions 8
2 Japanese Corporations under Pressure:
Changing Employment Practices in Three Industries 12
2.1 Electronics industries 12
2.2 Banking 17
2.3 Retailing 22
2.4 Putting developments into
perspective – raising questions 27
3 Experiencing Corporate Reorganization 39
3.1 Being transferred to another company:
chance or dead end street? 41
3.2 Retiring early, being retired, surviving 55
3.3 Downsizing and restructuring in context 67
4 Facing Changing Principles of Employment 75
4.1 Responding to change: generations apart? 76
4.2 From seniority to performance 81
4.3 Drawing consequences: new mindsets, skills and
changing jobs 98
5 Taking Up Non-Regular Employment 112
5.1 Types of non-regular employment 114
5.2 Voluntary or lack of alternatives? 120
5.3 Living with anxieties 133
v
vi Contents
6 Working as a Non-Regular Employee 141
6.1 Conflicting motivations and expectations 142
6.2 Developing a career? 158
6.3 Situating non-regular employment 166
7 Conclusions – Importance of Perceptions,
Employability and Directions of Change 173
Notes 186
References 190
Index 205
List of Tables
2.1 Japanese employees by type of employment
(million and %) 31
2.2 Examples of foreign ownership of Japanese companies 34
3.1 Number of receiving companies and number of
employees delegated by size of transferring company 50
3.2 Employees received by type and size of
receiving companies 51
3.3 Who initiates the transfer of employees? (answers in %) 51
3.4 E ffects of downsizing by method (multiple answers, in %) 65
3.5 Consequences of early retirement exercises as
perceived by companies (multiple answers, in %) 66
3.6 F actors leading to stress in the workplace
(multiple answers in %) 68
4.1 Effects of introduction of results-oriented principles in
workplaces in % 92
4.2 O verall evaluation of performance-oriented
systems (in %) 93
4.3 Problems concerning results-based systems
(multiple answers in %) 93
5.1 Composition of Japanese workforce by
employment type 2007 (employees in 1000) 119
5.2 R anking of reasons for working in current company (%) 126
5.3 Priorities of men and women in regard to
work and family/household (in %) 128
6.1 Problems with the employment of non-regular
employees by type of non-regular employment (in %) 151
6.2 Wishes of receiving companies concerning
dispatch work 154
6.3 Advanced tasks performed by non-regular employees
(multiple answers in %) 155
vii
List of Charts
2.1 Wage profiles in manufacturing by age, sex, and
occupation 2002 (monthly wage in 1000 yen) 29
2.2 S eniority wage curve of employees with
university degrees by year (monthly wage in 1000 yen) 30
4.1 Opinions about lifelong employment and seniority
(respondents with affirmative answers to the question:
Is lifelong employment/seniority good?) 81
4.2 E xperience of having changed workplaces by
educational qualification in % 101
4.3 Rates of people changing jobs and people wishing to
change jobs 102
4.4 Salary change after changing jobs 2004 104
5.1 Reasons why people took up dispatch work
(in %, up to three answers per employee) 130
5.2 Reasons for people in the freeter group to
take up work as arubaito (multiple answers in %) 133
5.3 Satisfaction with job security 137
5.4 Merits and demerits of arubaito work as seen by freeter
(multiple answers in %) 138
6.1 Reasons why companies take a negative view of
employing freeter as regular
employees (multiple answers in %) 162
6.2 Change in composition of freeter population by
age group (1989–2001) 163
6.3 Skill development by employment type (in %) 165
viii
Preface and Acknowledgements
This book deals with changes in Japanese companies and labor
markets during the prolonged aftermath of the bursting of Japan’s
bubble economy of the late 1980s and early 1990s. The following
period – termed by some as a lost decade for Japan’s economy – has led
to significant changes in the way that Japanese people are employed
and think about work. With the economy picking up somewhat
again from the year 2005 onwards many onlookers have reckoned
that the worst for Japan was over and it was time to consolidate, mak-
ing sure that some of the profits that companies were making again
found their way to employees or that working conditions and social
security of the large contingent workforce that had built up were
at least somewhat improved. Yet, at the time when the final steps
on this book were made, the world was in economic crisis again,
companies again talking about the need to reorganize and to reduce
workforces, and policy makers being preoccupied with other issues.
Already some onlookers are talking about the possible emergence of
a second lost generation, a term coined to describe the situation of
people who could only find work in the contingent workforce after
companies restricted or changed their hiring policies.
Many people and institutions have helped to make this book
possible and deserve credit. First of all, my colleagues and friends
in the Department of Japanese Studies and the Faculty of Arts and
Social Sciences at the National University of Singapore. The National
University of Singapore (NUS) has also supported this book through
its Academic Research Fund. A generous invitation to the Japanese
Institute for Labor Policy and Training has enabled me to col-
lect materials in Japan and discuss my ideas with colleagues at the
Institute. The Asia Research Institute of NUS has provided me with
a half year writing fellowship away from teaching and administra-
tive obligations. Final revisions to the manuscript were made during
a one year sabbatical at the College of Business Administration of
Ritsumeikan University.
I would also like to thank the Japanese Institute of Labor Policy
and Training, Recruit Corporation’s Works Institute and the Institute
ix
