Table Of ContentLabour Market Deregulation in
Japan and Italy
Japan and Italy encountered severe economic problems in the early 1990s, and
the governments had to deal with those issues effectively under the increasing
neoliberal pressures of globalisation. In this context, labour market deregulation
was considered an effective tool to cope with those economic problems. However,
the forms and degrees of labour market deregulation in the two countries were
quite different.
This book seeks to explain the differences in labour market deregulation policies
between Japan and Italy, despite the fact that the two countries shared a num-
ber of similar political, social and labour market (if not cultural) characteristics.
Uniquely, it takes a political, rather than economic or sociological perspective
to provide a theoretical and empirical analysis of the processes of labour mar-
ket deregulation in the two countries. The precarious working conditions of an
increasing number of non-regular workers has become a prominent social issue in
many industrialised countries including Japan and Italy, but the level of the pro-
tection for these workers depends on a country’s labour market policies, which are
affected by the power resources of labour unions and labour policy-making struc-
tures. This book provides a useful perspective for understanding the root causes
of this phenomenon, such as the diffusion of ‘neoliberal’ ideas aimed at promoting
labour-market flexibility under globalisation, and demonstrates that there is still
room for politics to decide the extent of deregulation and maintain worker protec-
tion from management offensives even in an era of globalisation.
Labour Market Deregulation in Japan and Italy: Worker protection under neolib-
eral globalisation will appeal to students and scholars of Japanese politics, Italian
politics, political economy and comparative politics.
Hiroaki Richard Watanabe is Lecturer in the School of East Asian Studies at the
University of Sheffield, UK.
The Nissan Institute/Routledge Japanese Studies Series
Series Editors:
Roger Goodman, Nissan Professor of Modern Japanese Studies, University of
Oxford, Fellow, St Antony’s College
J.A.A. Stockwin, formerly Nissan Professor of Modern Japanese Studies and for-
mer Director of the Nissan Institute of Japanese Studies, University of Oxford,
Emeritus Fellow, St Antony’s College
Other titles in the series:
1. The Myth of Japanese 8. How the Japanese Learn to Work
Uniqueness Second edition
Peter Dale Ronald P. Dore and Mari Sako
2. The Emperor’s Adviser 9. Japanese Economic
Saionji Kinmochi and pre-war Development
Japanese politics Theory and practice
Lesley Connors Second edition
Penelope Francks
3. A History of Japanese Economic
Thought 10. Japan and Protection
Tessa Morris-Suzuki The growth of protectionist
sentiment and the Japanese
4. The Establishment of the response
Japanese Constitutional System Syed Javed Maswood
Junji Banno, translated by J.A.A.
Stockwin 11. The Soil, by Nagatsuka
Takashi
5. Industrial Relations in Japan A portrait of rural life in Meiji
The peripheral workforce Japan
Norma Chalmers Translated and with an
introduction by Ann Waswo
6. Banking Policy in Japan
American efforts at reform during 12. Biotechnology in Japan
the Occupation Malcolm Brock
William M. Tsutsui
13. Britain’s Educational Reform
7. Educational Reform in Japan A comparison with Japan
Leonard Schoppa Michael Howarth
14. Language and the Modern State 23. Japan: Beyond the End of
The reform of written Japanese History
Nanette Twine David Williams
15. Industrial Harmony in Modern 24. Ceremony and Ritual in Japan
Japan Religious practices in an
The intervention of a tradition industrialized society
W. Dean Kinzley Edited by Jan van Bremen and D.
P. Martinez
16. Japanese Science Fiction
A view of a changing society 25. The Fantastic in Modern
Robert Matthew Japanese Literature
The subversion of modernity
17. The Japanese Numbers Susan J. Napier
Game
The use and understanding of 26. Militarization and
numbers in modern Japan Demilitarization in
Thomas Crump Contemporary Japan
Glenn D. Hook
18. Ideology and Practice in Modern
Japan 27. Growing a Japanese Science
Edited by Roger Goodman and City
Kirsten Refsing Communication in scientific
research
19. Technology and Industrial James W. Dearing
Development in Pre-war Japan
Mitsubishi Nagasaki Shipyard, 28. Architecture and Authority in
1884–1934 Japan
Yukiko Fukasaku William H. Coaldrake
20. Japan’s Early Parliaments, 29. Women’s Gidayû and the
1890–1905 Japanese Theatre Tradition
Structure, issues and trends A. Kimi Coaldrake
Andrew Fraser, R.H.P. Mason and
Philip Mitchell 30. Democracy in Post-war Japan
Maruyama Masao and the search
21. Japan’s Foreign Aid Challenge for autonomy
Policy reform and aid leadership Rikki Kersten
Alan Rix
31. Treacherous Women of Imperial
22. Emperor Hirohito and Shôwa Japan
Japan Patriarchal fictions, patricidal
A political biography fantasies
Stephen S. Large Hélène Bowen Raddeker
32. Japanese–German Business 41. Japanese–Soviet/Russian
Relations Relations since 1945
Co-operation and rivalry in the A difficult peace
inter-war period Kimie Hara
Akira Kudô
42. Interpreting History in
33. Japan, Race and Equality Sino-Japanese Relations
The Racial Equality Proposal of A case study in political decision
1919 making
Naoko Shimazu Caroline Rose
34. Japan, Internationalism and 43. Endô Shûsaku
the UN A literature of reconciliation
Ronald Dore Mark B. Williams
35. Life in a Japanese Women’s 44. Green Politics in Japan
College Lam Peng-Er
Learning to be ladylike
Brian J. McVeigh 45. The Japanese High School
Silence and resistance
36. On The Margins of Japanese Shoko Yoneyama
Society
Volunteers and the welfare 46. Engineers in Japan and Britain
of the urban underclass Education, training and
Carolyn S. Stevens employment
Kevin McCormick
37. The Dynamics of Japan’s
Relations with Africa 47. The Politics of Agriculture in
South Africa, Tanzania and Japan
Nigeria Aurelia George Mulgan
Kweku Ampiah
48. Opposition Politics in Japan
38. The Right to Life in Japan Strategies under a one-party
Noel Williams dominant regime
Stephen Johnson
39. The Nature of the Japanese
State 49. The Changing Face of Japanese
Rationality and rituality Retail
Brian J. McVeigh Working in a chain store
Louella Matsunaga
40. Society and the State in
Inter-war Japan 50. Japan and East Asian
Edited by Elise K. Tipton Regionalism
Edited by S Javed Maswood
51. Globalizing Japan 59. Japanese Electoral Politics
Ethnography of the Japanese Creating a new party system
presence in America, Asia and Edited by Steven R. Reed
Europe
Edited by Harumi Befu and Sylvie 60. The Japanese–Soviet Neutrality
Guichard-Anguis Pact
A diplomatic history, 1941–1945
52. Japan at Play Boris Slavinsky translated by
The ludic and logic of power Geoffrey Jukes
Edited by Joy Hendry and
Massimo Raveri 61. Academic Nationalism in China
and Japan
53. The Making of Urban Japan Framed by concepts of nature,
Cities and planning from Edo to culture and the universal
the twenty-first century Margaret Sleeboom
André Sorensen
62. The Race to Commercialize
54. Public Policy and Economic Biotechnology
Competition in Japan Molecules, markets and the state
Change and continuity in antimo- in the United States and Japan
nopoly policy, 1973–1995 Steve W. Collins
Michael L. Beeman
63. Institutions, Incentives and
55. Men and Masculinities in Con- Electoral Participation in Japan
temporary Japan Cross-level and cross-national
Dislocating the Salaryman Doxa perspectives
Edited by James E. Roberson and Yusaku Horiuchi
Nobue Suzuki
64. Japan’s Interventionist State
56. TheVoluntaryandNon-Profit The role of the MAFF
Sector in Japan Aurelia George Mulgan
The challenge of change
Edited by Stephen P. Osborne 65. Japan’s Sea Lane Security,
1940–2004
57. Japan’s Security Relations with ‘A matter of life and death’?
China Euan Graham
From balancing to bandwagoning
Reinhard Drifte 66. The Changing Japanese Political
System
58. Understanding Japanese Society The Liberal Democratic Party and
Third edition the Ministry of Finance
Joy Hendry Harumi Hori
67. Japan’s Agricultural Policy 75. Party Politics and
Regime Decentralization in Japan and
Aurelia George Mulgan France
When the opposition governs
68. Cold War Frontiers in the Asia- Koichi Nakano
Pacific
Divided territories in the San Fran- 76. The Buraku Issue and Modern
cisco System Japan
Kimie Hara The career of Matsumoto Jiichiro
Ian Neary
69. Living Cities in Japan
Citizens’ movements, 77. Labor Migration from China to
Machizukuri and local Japan
environments International students,
Andre Sorensen and Carolin transnational migrants
Funck Gracia Liu-Farrer
70. Resolving the Russo-Japanese 78. Policy Entrepreneurship and
Territorial Dispute Elections in Japan
Hokkaido–Sakhalin A political biography of Ozawa
relations Ichirō
Brad Williams Takashi Oka
71. Modern Japan 79. Japan’s Postwar
A social and political history, Edited by Michael Lucken, Anne
second edition Bayard-Sakai and Emmanuel
Elise K. Tipton Lozerand
Translated by J. A. A. Stockwin
72. The Transformation of the
Japanese Left 80. An Emerging Non-Regular
From old socialists to new Labour Force in Japan
democrats The dignity of dispatched workers
Sarah Hyde Huiyan Fu
73. Social Class in Contemporary 81. A Sociology of Japanese Youth
Japan From returnees to NEETs
Edited by Hiroshi Ishida and Edited by Roger Goodman, Yuki
David H. Slater Imoto and Tuukka Toivonen
74. The US–Japan Alliance 82. Natural Disaster and Nuclear
Balancing soft and hard power in Crisis in Japan
East Asia Response and recovery after
Edited by David Arase and Japan’s 3/11
Tsuneo Akaha Edited by Jeff Kingston
83. Urban Spaces in Japan 91. Japan’s International Fisheries
Edited by Christoph Brumann and Policy
Evelyn Schulz Law, diplomacy and policy gov-
erning resource security
84. Understanding Japanese Society Roger Smith
Fourth edition
Joy Hendry 92. Japan’s Modern History
A new political narrative
85. Japan’s Emerging Youth Policy Junji Banno, translated by J. A. A.
Getting young adults back to work Stockwin
Tuukka Toivonen
93. ConfigurationsofFamilyin
86. The Organisational Dynamics of
Contemporary Japan
University Reform in Japan
Edited by Tomoko Aoyama, Laura
International inside out
Dales and Romit Dasgupta
Jeremy Breaden
94. OzawaIchirōandJapanese
87. Schoolgirls, Money and Rebel-
Politics
lion in Japan
Old versus new
Sharon Kinsella
Aurelia George Mulgan
88. Social Inequality in Japan
95. Labour Market Deregulation in
Sawako Shirahase
Japan and Italy
89. The Great Transformation of Worker protection under neolib-
Japanese Capitalism eral globalisation
Edited by Sébastien Lechevalier Hiroaki Richard Watanabe
Translated by J. A. A. Stockwin
90. Neighborhood Associations and
Local Governance in Japan
Robert Pekkanen, Yutaka Tsuji-
naka and Hidehiro Yamamoto
Translated by Leslie Tkach-
Kawasaki
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Labour Market Deregulation
in Japan and Italy
Worker protection under neoliberal
globalisation
Hiroaki Richard Watanabe
