Rethinking Employment and Welfare Protection in Japan 派遣・追放—日本の雇用と生活保護を再考する

Dispatched and Displaced: Rethinking Employment and Welfare Protection in Japan 派遣・追放—日本の雇用と生活保護を再考する

Stephanie Assmann, Sebastian Maslow

is gradually moving towards implementing a more balanced welfare system which seeks to stabilize employment conditions and enable greater numbers of temporary workers to Dispatched and Displaced:access welfare protection. Rethinking Employment and Welfare The Hibiya Tent Village and the Unfolding Protection in Japan of Japan’s Employment Crisis Stephanie Assmann and Sebastian Maslow When Hatoyama Yukio was inaugurated as Japan’s Prime Minister in September 2009, his Abstract success was fueled by a growing public concern The Hibiya Tent Village set up during New Year regarding the Liberal Democratic Party’s (LDP) 2008/09 where 500 temporary workersfailure to grasp the implications of the global economic crisis of September 2008 and to gathered to seek food and shelter after their reform Japan’s socio-economic institutions. Lost sudden job losses revealed the gradual process pension records, growing involuntary of deregulation of Japan’s labor market that has unemployment, a perceived increase in poverty taken place since the Koizumi administration and social disparity, political scandals and an and culminated in the revision of the Labor ailing economy gave rise to public uncertainty Dispatch Law in 2004. The work of the political about the ability of Japan’s institutions to scientist Margarita Estévez-Abe which provide social protection to those at the describes the evolution of an employment- margins of Japan’s labor force. A survey based welfare arrangement favoring particular conducted in June 2009 by the Cabinet Office corporate interest groups of the former ruling prior to the elections revealed that more than party LDP while excluding growing numbers of 78 percent of respondents wished that the temporary workers from efficient welfare government should implement structural protection serves as an initial theoretical reforms of the medical and pension systems framework of our analysis. We augment our while 51.1 percent of respondents expressed a analysis with recent data on the re-regulation hope that the government would address of the Japanese labor market such as the employment-related problems, which is an introduction of emergency employmentincrease of approximately 6 percent compared measures after the outbreak of the economic with the results of the same survey conducted crisis in 2008, a re-regulation of the Labor in June 2008.1 Dispatch Law, an improved integration of particular employment groups and reforms of With a highly deregulated labor market the employment insurance and the part-time unfolding since the 1990s and further law in order to show that Japan under the DPJ acceleration of the process of deregulation

1 8 | 15 | 3 APJ | JF under the Koizumi administration’sat the New Years Break 2008/2009 in the “year (2001-2006) structural reform agenda, the crossing temp worker village”toshikoshi ( scope of non-regular employment has increased hakenmura) in Hibiya Park in central Tokyo dramatically in Japan. There were 3.2 million (Yuasa 2009). dispatch workers in 20062 and this increased to a total of 3.99 million dispatch workers according to data compiled by the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare (henceforth: MHLW) in December 2009.3 Approximately one third of all employees find themselves in non-regular employment settings whereas the number of regular employees has decreased from 84.7 percent in 1984 to 66.6 percent as of 2008/09.4 Dependent on low incomes,5 many temporary workers proved unable to afford employment insurance while the global economic meltdown of 2008 triggered a massive cut of non-regular employees in Japan’s manufacturing and service industries due to a downsizing or collapse of companies. Homeless workers in Hibiya Park line up With non-regular employment affecting even for a meal the traditional male breadwinners of Japan’s economy as well as an increased number of It is against this background of increasing female workers, the current job crisis has poverty and insecure employment conditions revealed the malfunctions of the country’s that Hatoyama urged in his election campaign livelihood security system which has been in 2009 to “put people’s lives first” – a promise unable to prevent the erosion of minimum which has only recently started to materialize living standards based on stable employment with new legislation passed in March 2010 and social security. The erosion of legal and attempting to re-regulate Japan’s labor market social standards in Japan as a consequence of through abolishing non-regular employment falling incomes and unstable employment and improving labor protection across the became yet more evident in December 2008, manufacturing industry. The following example when a wave of lay-offs of dispatched workers underscores the necessity of reconsidering the (haken-giri) brought this increasinglyderegulation of the labor market and the marginalized yet growing group of working strengthening of public welfare mechanisms in people unable to make ends meet to the center support of the growing number of jobless of public attention. Thus, when a network of through providing social security and new civil society actors consisting of NPO and trade employment opportunities. union activists set up consultation hotlines for temp workers they received more than twenty One year ago a report in the Asahi Shimbun thousand phone calls from across Japan on a (Asahi Shimbun, 13 February 2009: 27), one of single day in December 2008; however, they Japan’s most widely read newspapers, featured were only able to deal with 1700 cases three jobless men who had formed an alliance individually. Worse was expected for the weeks for sharing meals and supporting each other in ahead. Indeed, the scale of Japan’s job malaise their search for a new job in an apartment became visible when more than five hundred complex in Tokyo. Dai, the youngest of the laid-off workers and homeless people gathered three men at 32 years of age, had been

2 8 | 15 | 3 APJ | JF employed at a frozen foods processing company organizations, were dispatch workers whose until he was discharged in December 2008. contracts had been terminated prior to the After three years of living in Internet cafes, Dai expiry dates of their work contracts chūto( had been working in temporary and unstable kaiko). After the Ministry of Labor offered to work situations and was notified by hisrelocate the 500 job seekers to four alternative employer on a daily basis as to whether work sites in Tokyo, the tent village was finally was going to be available the following day. His closed down on 5 January 2009.6 income before his most recent job loss in December 2008 had amounted to 10,000 Yen These events at the hakenmura acutely point to (120 Dollars) per day, provided work was the division of employees into two strata, available for the following day. Hiro (35), the namely ’regular employees’ (seishain) who are second member of the group, had been employed on a full-time and long-term basis employed as a painter and received a monthly and ’non-regular employees’ (hi-seishain) who salary of 200,000 Yen before being laid off in find themselves in unstable and fluctuating September 2008. The oldest member of the work situations and receive little or no welfare group, Nishimura (41), had worked at a car protection. This distinction between ‘regular’ factory based in Shizuoka Prefecture for a and ‘non-regular’ workers in Japan is well salary of 150,000 Yen per month before he lost known. However, the importance of events his job in December 2008. Nishimura had been such as the hakenmura lies in the fact that employed as a construction worker for ten neoliberal policies that were implemented in years before he started working at the car the 1990s and further advocated under the factory. Frequently assured that he would Koizumi administration, such as the “eventually be hired as a regular employee”, deregulation of the Labor Dispatch Law, have this never happened. After three years of significantly contributed to the diversification temporary work at the car factory, Nishimura and fragmentation of ‘non-regular’ employment was notified on 15 December 2008 that that patterns in Japan. Part-time employment is one day would be his last work day. All three men of these patterns as opposed to temporary are currently living on public assistance employment that can either take the form of (seikatsu hogo) and receive a monthly “contract employment”, seasonal labor, or supplementary benefit of 130,000 yen, which is “dispatch employment”. The major difference sufficient to pay rent for a one-room apartment between contract workers (keiyaku shain) and and daily expenses, but leaves little financial dispatch workers haken( shain or haken flexibility to pay for transport to attend job rōdōsha) is that contract workers are hired interviews. The three men met at thedirectly by a company in order to work on “toshikoshi hakenmura” (henceforth certain projects and/or for a limited amount of hakenmura) in Hibiya Park, The current time. Dispatch workers, however, are hired by economic crisis turned Hibiya Park into a hot an agency before being dispatched to spot for activism, after approximately 500 companies on fixed contracts. displaced workers had gathered in the ‘workers’ village’ (hakenmura). Tents and free The ‘workers’ village’ was a watershed event meals were provided by volunteerwith respect to public interest in the issue of organizations. Finally, the MHLW agreed to ‘haken-giri’ (dispatch cuts) and the associated open its auditorium in the vicinity to job issue of poverty hinkon( ) which currently seekers in need of food and accommodation. receives growing attention from scholars, Many of the 500 people, who received shelter, volunteers and journalists and is also being food, and consultation on finding newdebated by people who are actively involved in employment provided by volunteersupporting low income groups and displaced

3 8 | 15 | 3 APJ | JF workers. The sociologist Shinoda Toru has labor market that have generated a growing argued in his recent article on ‘Hakenmura and number of individuals who are unable to access the Working Poor as a Tipping Point in welfare networks due to low income, point to Japanese Labor Politics’ that public discourse the need to reform the public welfare system in Japan is currently shifting from a debate on enabling more workers who are not integrated social disparities in form of a “gap society” or in corporate welfare policies to receive welfare 7 “divided society” kakusa( shakai) to a benefits. We follow the work of the political discourse about the working poor (wākingu economist Margarita Estévez-Abe who has pua) which is a term imported from the United shown in her recent book “Welfare and States that describes a category of people who Capitalism in Postwar Japan” (2008) that often come from “immigrant, single-parent and Japan’s welfare policy has gradually shifted minority families” (Shinoda 2009) and remain from a system of universal social welfare poor despite holding one or often several jobs policies introduced by the Allied Forces at the same time. We believe that while it may towards a work-based social protection system be difficult to speak of a shift in discourse from and occupationally based social insurance the phenomenon of kakusa shakai toward the schemes that heavily concentrate on old-age increase of the working poor, we view the pension and health care payments. Thus, in debate over the emergence of the working poor reviewing government responses to the as a phenomenon that concretely focuses on employment crisis such as emergency re- one particular group within the kakusa shakai. employment measures under the former LDP Other examples taken from recent journalistic government, we argue that Japan is currently publications point to a growing use of the term in the process of moving from a ‘dual structure’ “working poor” and a debate about the of corporate-based welfare policies for a emergence and increasing visibility of poverty privileged core group of 'regular' employees (hinkon). One example is the weekly magazine (including social benefits such as seniority- Diamondo, which published a special feature based wages, health-care payments and entitled ‘Unknown Poverty’ (Anata no shiranai pension schemes) on the one hand and hinkon) (Shūkan Diamondo, 31 March 2009: government social welfare schemes for 'non- 30-69). Furthermore, the incremental process of creating this particular group of workers regular' workers in unstable work situations through the reduction of personnel costs and with insufficient welfare protection on the its social implications has been discussed by other to re-instate a more balanced social the Asahi Shimbun economy and laborwelfare policy provided by the government that journalist Takenobu Mieko in her recent book benefits ‘non-regular’ workers more strongly. “Report: Employment Deterioration Crisis” Based on analysis of political developments (Repo: Koyō rekka fukyō). Moreover, the between the occurrence of the hakenmura and organizer of the Hibiya tent village, Yuasa the first half year of the Hatoyama Makoto, has published a book entitled ‘Against administration, we conclude that the Poverty—The Escape from the ‘Sliding Society’ employment crisis not only highlighted the (Han-hinkon. ‘Suberidai shakai’ kara nomalfunctions of Japan’s livelihood security dasshutsu) in 2008. system but also provided an opportunity to establish a more balanced social security Neoliberal reforms8 of the employment system system in response to the polarized labor and the subsequent increase in job loss and market. insecure employment have clearly revealed the weaknesses of Japan’s livelihood security Securing the Corporate Sector at the system. These alarming developments on the Expense of a Deregulated Labor Market

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Social security in Japan essentially consisted of scheme to a merit-based social welfare scheme benefits delivered through the corporate sector tied to service to a company. and thus depends on employment status. This particular welfare arrangement is the result of Company-based welfare schemes constituted an evolutionary process that was determined by one crucial aspect of Japan’s corporate-labor the dominance of particular interest groups relationship, after the country entered a period with respect to their electoral significance to of high economic growth in the mid-1950s and the ruling post-war government. Thisproved stable even after two major economic constellation led to the connection between crises in the 1970s. As a result Japan has been employment and welfare benefits and resulted able to hold its safety-net spending fairly low in “[t]argeted protection for the few at the (even today social spending occupies only 17.7 expense of the many” (Estévez-Abe 2008: 272). percent of Japan’s GDP) with a bureaucracy keen to guarantee the special interests of In order to make sense of the structural factors industry which in turn provided safe that underpin the current job crisis, weemployment for the nation’s male breadwinners consider it indispensable to provide ansupporting their families. Consequently, overview of the development of the welfare unemployment in Japan remained steadily low system with regard to employment security in at around 2 percent throughout the 1980s, Japan, which has evolved into an exclusive which is considerably lower than arrangement alienating an increasingly large unemployment rates in other industrialized part of the labor force. Here, we draw on the countries. Even after the collapse of the bubble work of Estévez-Abe, who argues that the economy in 1990, the unemployment rate was development of the welfare policy system in 3.4 percent in 1995 and climbed over 4 percent Japan after World War II can be described in only in 1997.10 Given this stability of the several stages. The initial phase was the corporate-labor relationship until the collapse enactment of universalistic social welfare of the economy in 1991 and the early years of policies during the Occupation Periodeconomic stagnation, the institutional (1945-1952). The occupation introduced two arrangement of welfare provision is only now universalistic welfare provisions: the Public witnessing some fundamental changes along Assistance Law (seikatsu hogo), which was the deeper shifts in Japan’s political economy enacted in 1946 and replaced the pre-war Poor (Pempel 1998). Accompanied by the first Relief Law, and Unemployment Insurance collapse of the LDP government in 1993, this which was introduced in 1947 as a contributory economic crisis together with an accelerated program with a short benefit period of six globalization undermined the bureaucracy’s months. To this day, Employmentability to maintain this corporate-orientated 9 Insurance (koyō hoken) and Public Assistance welfare arrangement (Miyamoto, 2010: 35) (seikatsu hogo) provide the two mostwhile at the same time the reform of Japan’s comprehensive welfare programs as a safety election system in the 1990s has reduced the net for unexpected job loss (Estévez-Abe 2008: meaning of organized interest group votes with 104). Unemployment Insurance was reformed regard to the allocation of welfare benefits in in 1955 and augmented by a merit-based the light of an increased competition over a component that benefited male core workers growing unorganized urban electorate who held one job over a long period of time (Estévez-Abe, 2008, here esp. Chp.9). with better unemployment benefits (Estévez- Abe 2008: 127). The reform of Unemployment With an ailing economy in the 1990s, the need Insurance signified a shift from an initially to raise the competetiveness of Japan’s industry universalistic and untargeted social welfare and to attract new investments has resulted in

5 8 | 15 | 3 APJ | JF mounting pressures to promote deregulation labor market, the number of non-regular leading to polarization of the labor market and employed workers has increased since the first subsequently a fragmentation of employment deregulation in 1999. Between 1990 and 1999 structures accompanied by an unequalthe percentage of male non-regular employed distribution of social welfare. Suchworkers increased from 8.7 percent to 11 deregulation policies have enabled companies percent. A more dramatic increase was to freely hire workers as part-time employees, observed in the aftermath of the first temporary workers and contract workers in deregulation wave in 1999, reaching its peak in order to create a more flexible work market 2008 with 18.6 percent of male workers in non- that responds promptly to employers’regular employment patterns. In 2009, the temporary demands. numbers decreased to 17.7 percent due to the impact of lay-offs of non-regular workers after As an example of a neoliberal reform, we will the onset of the economic crisis. A closer look discuss the Labor Dispatch Lawrōdōsha ( at the statistics of female non-regular workers haken-hō), which was enacted in 1986 and reveals substantial gender discrepancies as went through a gradual ‘deregulation of well as sharp increases in the number of female temporary labor’ haken( no jiyūka).11 In non-regular workers. Numbers of female non- response to corporate demands, the Labor regular workers rose from 37.9 percent in 1999 Dispatch Law has undergone a number of to 51 percent in 2003 and currently remains at reforms with regard to the expansion of 53.6 percent as of 2009.14 These numbers applicable occupations and the duration of demonstrate that half of all female workers find temporary employment (Yuasa 2008: 108). At themselves in non-regular employment the time of enactment, the law was limited to conditions, which is due to the fact that a large thirteen professions and expanded to 26 number of women re-enter the labor market applicable professions in 1996. In 1999, the law mostly as part-time workers in their late 30s applied to all occupations except theand early 40s after a period of focusing on manufacturing industry seizōgyō( ), the family responsibilities. However, a look at construction industry (kensetsugyō), lawyers statistics also reveals that non-regular 12 and doctors. In 2004, the Koizumi government employment patterns have become a problem moved one step further in lifting the last for younger workers of both genders between remaining ban on temporary work inthe ages of 15 and 24 years of age.15 An manufacturing.13 The incremental deregulation examination of the numbers of non-regular of the Labor Dispatch Law that removed most workers according to industry between 2002 of the former restraints for dispatching workers and 2007 shows that the number of dispatched has - as Steven Vogel pointed out withworkers has increased to 40 percent in reference to an OECD survey - reduced Japan’s manufacturing industry, which is likely to be employment protection for temporary workers related to the deregulation of the Labor to a substantial extent while employment Dispatch Law in 2004. In addition, the medical protection for regular workers remained intact. and welfare sector shows an increase of As a result, Japan has become one of the most dispatched workers in the same time period of “dualistic labor systems” among the OECD approximately 40 percent.16 countries, which has in turn created “an unusually large gap in protection between As a result of such deregulation policies and regular and temporary workers” (Vogel 2006: through the promotion of non-regular 81; The Economist, 14 March 2009: 11). employment, the number of times Japanese companies have had to downsize by laying off As a consequence of the deregulation of the excess personnel over the last three decades

6 8 | 15 | 3 APJ | JF from 3.3 years during 1974-84, to 2.9 years employees, contract workers, temporary during 1980-87, and further to 2.2 years since workers, day laborers, and NEETs17 are rising 1998 (Higuchi 2009, 40-41). Moreover, while at significantly. One of the crucial factors behind first temporary work as a flexible employment the shift in employment patterns can be sought scheme was considered not only positive by in a fundamental change in corporate companies as a means to reduce costs but also governance in the mid-1990s. As the economist by some employees as a way to increase Higuchi Yoshio has pointed out, before 1997-8 diversity and choice (Satō 2001), it was only Japanese companies considered employees as with the incremental change of labor contents their main stakeholders, granting them and a polarization of the labor market with an generous welfare benefits as part of their increasing number of regular workersemployment package. However, with an performing longer working hours against a increased focus on the interests of rising number of non-regular employeesshareholders based on the enhanced performing the same work while being paid significance of the global market as a main less has raised public concerns. With non- source for financial resources for Japanese regular work having dropped significantly companies, restructuring was rewarded to a below previous levels at the end of 2008 while previously unseen extent with growing share at the same time having incorporated a prices (Higuchi 2009: 39). The arrival of stock- growing number of young workers and male market capitalism with its undermining effects breadwinners, the deregulation of the labor on Japan’s corporate-labor relationship has market has evolved into a considerable social found expression in the rise in ‘non-regular crisis accentuated by the ‘post-Lehman shock’ employees’ described above. global economic malaise. Weak legal constraints not only enabled employers to lay Moreover, according to statistics on the off temp workers but also to terminate large distribution of income according to class numbers of ‘non-regular’ contract workers in (shotoku kingaku kaikyū-betsu setai-sū no the aftermath of the economic crisis ofsōtai-dosū bunpu) released by the Ministry of September 2008. While corporate-basedLabor for the year 2007, 12.2 percent of all welfare schemes as an essential element of the households in Japan earned between 3 and 4 overall livelihood security arrangement remain million yen per year in 2007, 12.1 percent of all in place in Japan, the rise of non-regular households earned between 1 and 2 million yen employment illustrates that more and more per year in 2007, while 6.6 percent of all Japanese are excluded from welfare schemes households in Japan earned an income of less highlighting the need to establish sufficient than 1 million yen (roughly 10,000 US Dollars) public social security mechanisms to support per year in 2007. 60.5 percent earned less than those without employment insurance and who 5.80 million yen, which has been defined as the have low incomes and to create new jobs. The average income (heikin-gaku) by the Ministry 18 following section illustrates severalof Labor (MHLW 2007). According to data implications of the deregulation of the labor compiled in the Annual Economic and Financial market promoted since the 1990s with regard Report released by the Cabinet Office, wages of to unemployment and unstable employment, non-regular employees are in many cases below incomes and the rise of poverty. three million yen per year while the number of hours worked is as high as 40 to 48 hours per Unemployment, Low Incomes and the Rise week. Wages for part-time workers and casual of Poverty laborers are even lower between 500,000 yen and one million yen per year whereas wages of As recent data shows, numbers of part-time dispatched workers reach a maximum of 2

7 8 | 15 | 3 APJ | JF million yen per year. Between 2002 and 2008 health insurance (kenkō hoken) and national the percentage of dispatch workers andand employed pension schemes kokumin( contract workers whose wages were between 2 nenkin and kōsei nenkin) as well as public million yen and below three million yen rose to assistance (seikatsu hogo). More precisely, with approximately 90 percent.19 short term employment expiring within less than six months, non-regular employees were The examples of three displaced workers unable to access employment insurance while featured in the introduction of this essay low incomes made the purchase of additional illustrate the fact that occupational groups insurance coverage increasingly difficult. Thus, have emerged in Japan that find themselves in while approximately 70 percent of workers are fluctuating and unstable work situations with covered by employment insurance, 30 percent little or no welfare protection. Consequently, are not covered, which is likely to correlate rising unemployment has become a matter of with the fact that one third of all workers are grave concern in Japan. While low byemployed in non-regular employment settings. comparison to the unemployment figures of However, a recent reform of the Employment Western industrial nations, unemployment in Insurance by the Cabinet Office in 2009 lowers Japan stood at 5 percent as of April 2009, an the period of time over which it is necessary to increase from the 4.2 percent of January 2009. have paid premiums to employment insurance As of February 2010, unemployment was 4.9 from twelve months to six months.21 Low percent.20 According to the Ministry of Labor, incomes, unstable social security conditions 65 percent of all discharged workers are and insufficient coverage by social security temporary workers while seasonal workers schemes, a condition termed by NPO activist account for approximately 20 percent of all Yuasa Makoto as the “sliding society” laid-off workers. A smaller share of roughly (suberidai shakai), have contributed to the rise eight percent consists of contract workers and of poverty. Poverty statistics published by the part-time employees amount to only one MHLW in October 2009 for the first time percent (Fukue 2009). According to information document a poverty rate of 15.7 percent in provided by the Ministry of Labor, 77,861 Japan.22 workers were discharged before their contracts expired (chūto kaiko) while the contracts of Therefore, scholars and activists call for policy 102,365 workers were not extended (Fukue measures that acknowledge the causal 2009). In Aichi prefecture, the base of Japanese relationships between Japan’s employment car manufacturers such as Toyota, the number crisis and the nation’s dwindling social of discharged workers who had been employed stability. “Employment”, argues Miyamoto, “is in the car manufacturing industry amounts to where individual economic security intersects 32,014 workers (Fukue 2009), which shows a with the nation’s economic vitality” (Miyamoto connection between the economic slow-down of 2010: 36). Yet, recent gender shifts with regard export-oriented car manufacturers and the to non-regular employment patterns and the discharge of greater numbers of workers spread of poverty has shown that Japan’s old employed in that industry. male breadwinner-centered employment security appears outdated, thus according to Accompanied by the spread of non-regular Miyamoto “[e]mployment has become an employment and deteriorating income levels, unstable, piecemeal affair” providing ground many non-regular employees found themselves for the claim that “[n]ow more than ever, unable to access Japan’s social securityemployment and social welfare should be of a network, consisting of social security schemes single piece” (Miyamoto 2010: 36). The such as employment insurance (koyō hoken), following sections illustrate that indeed

8 8 | 15 | 3 APJ | JF attempts were made to design a social security (one million yen to small and medium sized system that seeks to establish a balance enterprises per hired person and 500,000 yen between an employment-based welfare system to big corporations per hired person). These with reliable unemployment security schemes. emergency measures demonstrate high government awareness of recent developments. Bringing the State Back In: Towards Balanced Welfare Protection Measures The Japanese government is addressing these needs and—in addition to the emergency The events in Hibiya Park over the New Year measures discussed above—is working together 2008/2009 show that lay-offs of temporary with the opposition parties towards a reform of workers are especially problematic since unemployment insurance in order to provide a employment is often tied to company housing more effective safety net for workers. Prior to which means that a sudden termination of a the change of government, the opposition contract not only leads to job loss but also to parties, i.e. Democratic Party, the Socialist the loss of housing access. The Japanese Party, and The People’s New Party (Kokumin government has recognized the need to provide Shintō), presented a reform bill on Employment a more effective safety net to workers in need Insurance to the ruling party on 6 March 2009. of re-employment and housing and hasOne of the objectives was to change the announced a package of emergencyduration of membership prior to being able to employment measures (kinkyū koyō taisaku) receive employment benefits in the that took effect in December 2008. “Hello employment insurance from one year to six Work”, the employment agency of the Ministry months. The bill passed in January 2009. of Labor, is represented in 190 locations throughout the country and aims to provide Continuing the efforts of the LDP government, consultation to temporary workers who have in December 2009 the Hatoyama suffered from sudden termination of their work administration released in accordance with its contracts. The Ministry of Labor has further election pledges concrete measures to stabilize announced a “job cancellation measures” employment, environment, economic climate, (naitei torikeshi taisaku) in order to motivate supporting measures for rural areas chihō( companies not to terminate existing contracts shien), and measures to improve pensions and of temporary workers and hire workers whose the medical system.23 In the section on contracts have been terminated. Another way measures concerning employment, supporting to reinforce job cancellation measures is the measures against poverty and toward the poor decision of the Ministry of Labor to publicize are specifically mentioned (hinkon, konkyūsha the names of companies (kigyōmei kōhyō) that shien no kyōka) which relates to the fact that have terminated contracts. Moreover, the the Japanese government released official Ministry of Labor plans to hand out incentive poverty statistics for the first time in October payments (shōreikin) (500,000 yen per person 2009 which indicates that poverty has been for small and medium sized enterprises and one recognized as a serious problem in accordance million yen per person for big corporations) to with the inclusion of the working poor in the companies that employ workers whosedebate on kakusa shakai mentioned earlier in contracts have been terminated and hire these this essay. One of the main objectives stated in workers on a full-time basis as “regular” the report is the establishment of a “second employees (seishain). Similarly, the Ministry of safety net” (dai 2 no seefuti netto) in support of Labor has announced incentive payments to the poor and for the prevention of poverty companies that agree to hire older freeters who which includes the set-up of a “one stop service are between the ages of 25 and 39 years old day” and “one stop counseling” through “Hello

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Work”, the work agency of the Japanese number of unemployed persons in the region government. Further measures include support amounted to 4.7 million people and rose by in finding temporary accommodation and 120,000 people from January to March additional qualification training shokugyō( 2007.26 In the second quarter of 2009 kunren). Supportive measures also target unemployment has reached 6.4 per cent, the young job seekers such as school leavers and third highest in Japan after Okinawa (7.9 per university graduates by promoting thecent) and Aomori (6.8 per cent).27 Therefore, appointment of supporters to school and while initiatives to attract qualified workers to university graduates. Further target groups return to their home regions can be considered include older freeters between the ages of 25 as a crisis-born opportunity for Japan’s regions and 39. Further goals are the improved and as a chance to decentralize talent, another integration of women into the workforce, main consideration behind such moves should especially women between the ages of 25 and also be seen in the attempt to reduce the 44, older workers, in particular the members of pressure from central urban labor markets.28 the baby-boom generation born between 1947 and 1949 who are approaching retirement as The Part-Time Law well as workers with disabilities. In addition, the Japanese government set up a support In addition to emergency measures to counter program for regional development andthe immediate effects of the job crisis spurred employment in rural areas through aby the economic crisis and reform initiatives “Hometown Employment Revitalization Special started under the former LDP government to Grant” which promotes the job search for reform employment insurance, there are other workers in regional areas or the return of signs of a move toward the reform of laws that workers to their hometown to seekstrengthen the interests of various employment employment.24 For example in the Tōhoku status groups. Recent worker-friendly reforms region of Northern Japan, the Prefectures of of laws include the reform of the part-time law Miyagi and Yamagata have introduced(pāto taimu rōdō-hō), which was enacted in measures to attract qualified workers who have 1993 and reformed in June 2006. There are left the area for employment in industrial and different definitions of part-time. The Japan economic centers, especially Kantō, to return to specialist Kaye Broadbent refers to a definition their home region using the slogan“Umi ga of part-time work that according to the part- aru, yama ga aru, yutori ga aru Miyagi-ken de time law defines part-time work as 35 working hatarakimasen ka” (Ocean, mountains, leisure – hours per week (Broadbent 2005: 6). However, why not work in Miyagi Prefecture?) toaccording to the report about the reformed revitalize the local labor market and industry in part-time law released by the Ministry of Labor sectors such as tourism or agriculture.in 2008, the definition of part-time workers However, considering that regions such as remains less precise. Part-time workers are Miyagi, an economic and industrial hub in defined as “workers whose set working hours Northern Japan, possess only a weak regional per week are short compared to the set economy mainly constituted by parts-makers working hours per week of regular workers for the automobile industry, the regional labor (tsūjō no rōdōsha) in the same company market’s capacity to integrate new workers (Ministry of Labor 2008). remains limited. For example, 66.4 percent of all employees in Miyagi work in permanent The reforms of part-time law can be divided employment situations, whereas 33.6 percent into four areas. First, the reform specifies that of all employees work part-time.25 Moreover, the employer has the duty gimu-zukerarete( data for April to June 2007 document that the iru) to explain speedily and in written form the

10 8 | 15 | 3 APJ | JF working conditions to part-timers with regard This necessity is especially clear if we consider, to the possibility of advancement, the payment as Higuchi reports, that 77 percent of those of bonuses, and the conditions of leaving unemployed were not receiving any employment (bunsho no kōfu nado ni) upon the unemployment benefits as of December 2008 beginning of employment. Violation of this law (Higuchi 2009: p.42). Therefore it becomes is subject to a fine of up to 100,000 yen for the obvious, as we have tried to show throughout employer. The same applies to the time after this paper, that the fragmentation of the part-time worker has actually taken up employment structures highlights crucial employment. The employment terms taigū( ) structural deficiencies in Japan’s social welfare with regard to position and salary, have to be system. Employment Insurance in laid out clearly. Second, the employer is contemporary Japan is a work-based scheme required to provide training (kyōiku kunren) to contingent on the number of years of service part-time employees if the work content is (hi-hokensha de atta kikan) and the age of the identical with that of full-time employees who beneficiary (nenrei). Unlike the duration of receive training. Third, the reformed part-time benefits as stipulated in the terms of postwar law prohibits discriminatory treatment of part- Unemployment Insurance which amounted to time employees (sabetsuteki taigū no kinshi). six months of benefits, the duration of Differences with regard to work content, unemployment benefits (koyō hoken no kihon salaries, and benefits between full-time and teate no shotei kyūfu nissū) differs according to part-time employees must be adequate and the age of the beneficiary and years of balanced. The terms of part-time employment contribution, and it ranges from 90 days to a with regard to work content, use of human maximum of 330 days for beneficiaries between resources, and duration of contracts with the ages of 45 and 60 who have been members special consideration of the differencesof the Employment Insurance system for more between ‘regular workers’ and part-time than 20 years.29 Likewise, daily rates of workers have to be stated clearly. Theunemployment benefit correspond with the age reformed part-time law further stipulates that of the beneficiary. Currently, beneficiaries wage differences of full-time employees and under the age of 30 receive the lowest daily part-time workers, who do the same work as rate of 6,330 yen whereas the age group full-time employees, must be within acceptable between 45 and 60 years of age receive the limits. The reformed law also anticipates the highest rates of 7,730 yen.30 Workers between promotion of temporary employees to regular 45 and 60 years of age receive the highest employees (seishain-ka no sokushin) by unemployment benefits, which might be stipulating that it is an obligation (gimu) of an interpreted as a sign that this age group is seen employer to take steps to enable part-time as the core group of employees in employees to advance to the status of a contemporary Japan. ‘regular worker’ (tsūjō no rōdōsha). The reform of Employment Insurance and of Employment Insurance in Japan: A System the part-time law point to a process of Calls for Reform establishing more worker-friendly laws and making social welfare programs more However, whatever initiative is considered, a accessible to occupational groups in fluctuating crucial step toward addressing the current work situations. We distinguish between social social malaise emphasized by the rise of welfare measures such as unemployment unemployment among the ranks of non-regular insurance and laws that provide comprehensive employees must be to assure access to state guidelines that are not social welfare policies support for those affected by sudden job loss. as such but provide a framework that aims to

11 8 | 15 | 3 APJ | JF integrate occupational groups such asmillion yen per person for big corporations) to temporary workers, part-time workers and companies that agree to employ workers whose women more effectively into the labor market. contracts have been terminated and hire these We argue that Japan is currently in the process workers on a full-time basis as “regular” of moving from the third phase of a ‘dual employees (sei-shain). Similarly, there are structure’ of social welfare policies – corporate- incentive payments to companies that agree to based welfare policies for a core group of hire older freeters between the ages of 25 and ‘regular’ employees that receive social benefits 40. Besides these measures, MHLW has such as seniority-based wages, health-care introduced a program to provide low-interest payments and pension schemes andloans to workers affected by unemployment government social welfare schemes for an and homelessness and set up a scheme to increasing group of ‘non-regular’ workers in provide those unemployed workers who are not unstable and fluctuation work situations with covered by unemployment security with insufficient welfare protection – to a fourth financial support during a period of additional phase of (re)establishing more balancedjob training. welfare policies provided by the government that provide better government-provided One Year after Hakenmura: Japan’s Social benefits for ‘non-regular’ workers. Security System Quo vadis?

A closer look at the nature of theThe events ofhakenmura have pointed unemployment insurance and the changes forcefully to the shortcomings of Japan’s related to the current economic crisis suggests current livelihood security system. Increased that the Japanese government is working non-regular employment has resulted in towards a reform of employment insurance in declining income levels and contributed to the order to provide a more effective safety net for rise of insecure employment situations and workers. In direct reaction to the economic poverty in contemporary Japan. In this paper crisis since 2008, a package of emergency we have attempted to illuminate the structural employment measures under the name of factors by which this employment crisis has “Comprehensive Immediate Policy Package – gradually evolved into a severe social concern Easing Public Anxiety”31 which stipulated through connecting the developments behind emergency measures (kinkyū koyō taisaku) was the transformation of Japan’s welfare regime discussed by the former LDP government and with the process of deregulating the labor ruling coalition and took effect in December market in the 1990s and early 2000s. 2008.32 These measures resulted in a swift Motivated by the question of how non-regular establishment of a broad network of bureaus employment has evolved into a social crisis as that dealt with these emergency measures at illustrated by the events of the Hibiya tent the prefectural level. Moreover, the Ministry of village, we have sought to illuminate the Labor in cooperation with “Hello Work”, the structural factors behind this phenomenon. ministry’s job agency, initiated a number of Employing the argument of Margarita Estévez- measures termed “job cancellation measures” Abe who has stated that the development of (naitei torikeshi taisaku) to motivate companies welfare protection in post-war Japan until today not to terminate existing contracts ofoccurred in several phases from universalistic temporary workers and hire workers whose untargeted welfare protection to an contracts have been terminated. Moreover, the employment-based fragmented welfare system Ministry of Labor plans to hand out incentive tied to the former governing party LDP while payments (shōreikin) (500,000 Yen per person protecting politically relevant corporate for small and medium sized enterprises and one interest groups we have shown the extent to

12 8 | 15 | 3 APJ | JF which this process has resulted in a dual hope for a more sustainable welfare structure of welfare protection characterized arrangement responding to the challenges of by a growing group of marginalized temporary globalization and a declining and ageing workers excluded from stable employment and population. welfare protection.

Indeed, we argue that recent reforms of the employment insurance and the part-time law Stephanie Assmann obtained a PhD in point to increased efforts of re-regulating the Contemporary Japanese Studies from the labor market, protecting workers’ interests and University of Hamburg, Germany in 2003 and is stabilizing employment conditions. Recent a lecturer at the Center for the Advancement of political decisions support this trend through Higher Education at Tohoku University, Sendai, continued protection of worker interests. On 19 Japan. Her research interests include consumer March 2010, the Hatoyama administration behavior, in particular food consumption, and passed a revision of the Labor Dispatch Law gender issues in Japan with an emphasis on providing for the banning by 2013 of short-term gender equality in the workplace. dispatches of less than two months, the dispatch of day laborers and the dispatch of Sebastian Maslow obtained an MA in workers in manufacturing industry which has Information Studies (Political Science) from been the industry most affected byTohoku University, Sendai, Japan in 2009 and deregulation reforms. In manufacturing, the is currently a MEXT scholarship recipient dispatch of workers is only permitted after studying as a PhD candidate at the Graduate workers have signed a contract with dispatch School of Law at Tohoku University, Sendai. labor agencies tōroku-gata( haken) (Nihon His research interests include foreign policy Keizai Shimbun, 18 March 2010: 5). Reactions making in Japan and international relations in from employers followed instantly, arguing that East Asia. a shift from temporary employment to long- term employment would involve time and They wrote this article for The Asia-Pacific money. In particular car makers claim that the Journal. hiring of permanent employees by small and Recommended citation: Stephanie Assmann medium-sized enterprises involved in spare and Sebastian Maslow, "Dispatched and parts production would lead to increasing Displaced: Rethinking Employment and Welfare inflexibility of production systems and Protection in Japan," The Asia-Pacific Journal, personnel demands (Nihon Keizai Shimbun, 20 15-3-10, April 12, 2010. March 2010: 3). This reaction to the decision of the Hatoyama administration to revise the See also on related themes: labor market indicates that a gradual re- regulation of the labor market, albeitDavid H. Slater, The Making of Japan’s New necessary, will not take place withoutWorking Class: “Freeters” and the Progression resistance from corporate sector interest From Middle School to the Labor Market. groups. Yet, it remains to be seen whether these moves mark the beginning of theNeal S. Parikh, Migrant Health in Japan: establishment of a balanced social security Safety-Net Policies and Advocates' Policy system with Japan’s state seeking a larger role Solutions. in the delivery of welfare services. Recent steps such as the introduction of child allowances or Yong Soo Park, Comparative Perspectives on the re-regulation of the labor market provide the South Korean Welfare System.

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Fujiwara Chisa, Single Mothers and Welfare here, accessed on 5 April 2010. A similar Restructuring in Japan: Gender and Class accommodation for temporary workers who Dimensions of Income and Employment. either have already lost their jobs or are close to losing their jobs was set up in Osaka termed Notes “Counseling Village Kansai” sōdan( mura kansai). This event was organized by five labor 1 Cabinet Office, Government of Japan (ed.), unions in the Kansai area in order to provide Public Life Survey (Kokumin seikatsu ni taisuru free meals and advice to temporary workers yoron chōsa), available here, accessed on 2 seeking new employment. See “Volunteers Set April 2010. up Job Center for Temps in Osaka,” Japan Times Online, 1 March 2009, availablehere , 2 MHLW (ed.), “Dispatch workers rise by 26 accessed on 5 April 2010. percent compared to previous year to 3.21 million workers. Accumulated Results of the 7 Since the end of the 1990s, sociological 2006 Report on the Matter of Dispatching discourse has focused on the so-called “gap Workers” [Haken rōdōsha ga tai zennen 26 % society” or “divided society” (kakusa shakai). In no zōka. 321 man nin ni. Rōdōsha haken jigyō particular, two Japanese sociologists have no heisei 18 nendo jigyō hōkoku no shūkei discussed status discrepancies from the kekka ni tsuite], Available here, accessed on 4 perspectives of income and intergenerational April 2010. mobility. In his book Nihon no keizai kakusa –

3 Shotoku to shisan kara kangaeru, (1998) MHLW (ed.), “Dispatch workers rise to 3.99 [Economic Discrepancies in Japan from the million – Accumulated Results of the 2008 Perspective of Income and Property] the Report on the Matter of Dispatching Workers” sociologist Tachibanaki Toshiaki has argued [Haken rōdōsha ga 399 man nin ni zōka – that based on analysis of the Gini-coefficient, rōdōsha haken jigyō no heisei 20 nendo jigyō which measures the degree of income hōkoku no shūkei kekka ni tsuite], available inequality, income discrepancies are increasing here, accessed on 2 April 2010. in Japan. The sociologist Satô Toshiki has 4 Most recent Annual Economic and Fiscal described the “pedigree society” gakureki( Report issued by the Cabinet Office,shakai) in his bookFubyōdō shakai Nihon: Government of Japan, link. Accessed on 4 April Sayōnara sō-chūryū (2000) [Unequal Society 2010. Japan: Good-bye Middle Class] and discovered a strong correlation between the professional 5 According to data compiled by the MHLW, the occupation of the father and the professional average income of temporary workers (haken occupation of the son suggesting that social rōdōsha no chingin) calculated on a base of an intergenerational mobility is less pronounced in 8 hour work day amounted to 11,254 Yen per Japan than had been assumed. Both works work day. MHLW (ed.), “Dispatch workers rise analyze the decay of the Japanese ‘middle class’ to 3.99 million – Accumulated Results of the and argue that social inequality is increasing. 2008 Report on the Matter of Dispatching 8 Workers” [Haken rōdōsha ga 399 man nin ni Boas and Gans-Morse argue in their article zōka – rōdōsha haken jigyō no heisei 20 nendo “Neoliberalism: From New Liberal Philosophy jigyō hōkoku no shūkei kekka ni tsuite], to Anti-Liberal Slogan” that the term available here, accessed on 2 April 2010. neoliberalism has become an academic catchphrase, noting that 76 percent of all 6 See Japan Times Online, “Park Homeless scholars who use the term in their writings do Promised Shelter”, 5 January 2009, available not define neoliberalism (Boas and Gans-Morse

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2009). While a thorough discussion of the term 15 Honkawa Data Tribune, Process of the share neoliberalism is beyond the scope of this paper, of non-regular workers (according to gender we define neoliberalism as a set ofand age groups), accessed on 4 April 2010. deregulatory labor market policies that were 16 enacted in Japan in the 1980s and 1990s in Cabinet Office, Government of Japan (ed.), order to add flexibility to temporary demands Annual Economic and Financial Report 2009, of the labor market. especially chapter 3, accessed on 4 April 2010.

17 9 In 1974, a further reform of the A recent term that is being used to refer to Unemployment Insurance followed. Themembers of the younger generation in Japan is Unemployment Insurance was renamed into the label NEET (Not in Education, Employment, Employment Insurance and significantlyor Training). This term was first used in Great expanded through the integration of active Britain in the year 2000 to identify people between 16 and 18 years of age who are policy measures such as wage subsidies during neither enrolled in regular employment nor in economic downturn periods (Estévez-Abe 2008: further education. In Japan, the term NEET 213). applies to a much broader age group of people 10 Honkawa Data Tribune, accessed on 4 April between 15 and 34 years who are neither 2010. working nor enrolled in education nor occupied with household work. Apart from the term 11 See Asahi Shimbun, 14 February 2009: 3. NEET the expression freeter, which is a combination of the English word “free” and the 12 As Steven Vogel explains, in further revising German word “arbeiter” (worker), was coined the law, the government shifted from ain the late 1980s. This acronym refers to people “positive list” of restricting dispatch of workers who frequently change temporary jobs without to a “negative list” system in which dispatched a long-term perspective of finding regular workers were allowed to work in allemployment. occupations except for manufacturing, 18 For an overview of the changes in yearly construction, and harbor services (Vogel 2006: incomes per household, link. Accessed on 11 81). April 2009.

13 A further reform of the Labor Dispatch Law 19 Most recent Annual Economic and Fiscal with regard to the duration of temporary Report issued by the Cabinet Office, employment stipulated that the period of Government of Japan, especially chapter 3, dispatch labor could be extended up to three accessed on 4 April 2010. years instead of only one year as had been stipulated in the original law. Manufacturing 20 MHLW (ed.), Basic Survey on the Labor industry was at first exempted from this Force February 2010 [Rōdōryoku chōsa (Kihon extension, but in 2007 the one-year ban was shūkei) Heisei 22 nen], available here, accessed also lifted in manufacturing, which meant that on 4 April 2010. the maximum duration of temporary employment was extended to three years in 21 The most recent Annual Economic and Fiscal manufacturing as well. Report issued by the Cabinet Office, Government of Japan, especially chapter 3, 14 Cabinet Office, Government of Japan (ed.), accessed on 4 April 2010. See also:Japan Annual Economic and Financial Report 2009, Times Online, “60-day extension for especially chapter 3, accessed on 4 April 2010. unemployment insurance benefits OK'd,” 21

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January 2009, accessed on 4 April 2010. employment programs see the following websites of Yamagata Prefecture, and Miyagi 22 According to data from the OECD, poverty Prefecture, both websites accessed on 4 April rates for Japan lay at 14.6 percent for the year 2010. 1998, 15.3 percent in 2001 and at 14.9 percent in 2004. These data indicate that Japan had the 29 Hello Work, accessed on 19 March 2009. fourth highest rates among 30 countries investigated by the OECD with Mexico leading 30 Hello Work, accessed on 19 March 2009. in poverty rates followed by Turkey and the 31 United States. However, 2009 was the first Available here, accessed 21 October 2009. time that the Japanese government published 32 statistics on poverty that include single-parent A detailed listing of the measures included households with children under the age of 18. can obtained from the MHLW here, accessed These data were taken from the Asahi Shimbun on 28 October 2009. Online, “Employment Insurance – Towards Easing the Eligibility of Non-RegularReferences Employees – Insurance Premiums Rise” [Koyō Asahi Shimbun (2009), “Koyō shokku. Haken- hoken, hikisei no tekiyō jōken o kanwa he e – mura. Sono ato. Nakama to ie to sai-shuppatsu” Hokenryō wa hikiage], 20 October 2009, available here, accessed on 4 April 2010. [Employment Shock. The Temp Workers’ Village. Thereafter. With Friends and Home Off 23 The data in this section were taken from a to a New Start], 13 February 2009, p. 27. report entitled “Emergency economic measures for future relief and growth” (Ashita no anshin Asahi Shimbun (2009), “Haken uragirareta 10- to seichō no tame no kinkyū keizai taisaku). nen” [Dispatch Labor – 10 Years of Betrayal], 14 February 2009, p. 3. 24 These data are taken from a report released by the MHLW in July 2009 entitledBoas, Taylor C. and Jordan Gans-Morse (2009), “Employment measures in Post-Financial Crisis “Neoliberalism: From New Liberal Philosophy Japan”, accessed on 4 April 2010 to Anti-Liberal Slogan,” in:Studies in Comparative International Development 25 These data are provided by the statistics (SCID), 44-2, pp. 137-161. section of Miyagi Prefecture availablehere , accessed on 4 April 2010. Broadbent, K. (2005), “‘Pawā Appu! Women Only Unions in Japan,” in: Electronic Journal of 26 In the second fiscal quarter in 2007, the Contemporary Japanese Studies, available here, number of employees in the Tōhoku region was 31 October 2005, accessed on 26 September 4.7 million, representing an increase of 1.2 2007. million from the first fiscal quarter of 2007. A gender comparison reveals 2.69 million male Biggs, Stuart and Tōko Sekiguchi (2009), workers for the second fiscal quarter of 2007 “Suicides, Homeless Ranks to Swell in Japan as (plus 50.000 from the previous quarter) and Firms Slash Jobs,” Bloomberg Online, 4 2.01 million female workers (plus 70.000). Link. February 2009, available here, accessed on 5 February 2009. 27 See Honkawa Data Tribune, accessed 15 October 2009. Estévez-Abe, Margarita (2008), Welfare and Capitalism in Postwar Japan, Cambridge: 28 For further information on hometownCambridge University Press.

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Fukue, Natsuko (2009), Idled non-regulars to Kōron Shinsha. top 190,000, in: Japan Times Online, 1 April 2009. Shinoda, Tōru (2009), Which Side Are You On?: Hakenmura and the Working Poor as a Tipping Higuchi, Yoshio (2009), Fundamental Reform to Point in Japanese Labor Politics, in: The Asia- Deal with the Employment Crisis,” in: Japan Pacific Journal, Volume 12-3-09, 4 April 2009. Echo, 36-5, pp.39-42. Shūkan Diamondo (2009) Tokushū: Anata no Ōsawa, Mari (2007), Gendai nihon no seikatsu- shiranai hinkon [Special Issue: Unkown hoshō shisutemu: zahyō to yukue [Japan’s Poverty], Shūkan Diamondo, 31 March 2009: Contemporary Livelihood Security System: 30-69. Continuity and Fluidity], Tokyo: Iwanami Tachibanaki, Toshiaki (1998) Nihon no keizai Shoten. kakusa – Shotoku to shisan kara kangaeru, Tokyo: Iwanami Shinsho. Nihon Keizei Shimbun (2010), “Haken kisei 2 dankai de kyōka” [Strengthening Dispatch Takenobu, Mieko (2009), Repo: Koyō rekka Regulations in 2 Steps], 18 March, p. 5. fukyō [Report: Employment Deterioration Crisis], Tokyo: Iwanami Shinsho. Nihon Keizai Shimbun (2010), “Haken kisei seisan genba ni omoni” [Dispatch Regulations Vogel, Steven (2006), Japan Remodeled: How Put Emphasis on Production Site], 20 March, p. Government and Industry are Reforming 3 . Japanese Capitalism, Ithaca/London: Cornell University Press. Pempel, T.J. (1998), Regime Shift: Comparative Dynamics of the Japanese Political Economy, Yuasa, Makoto (2008), Han-hinkon: “Suberi-dai Ithaca/London: Cornell University Press. shakai” kara no dasshutsu (Against Poverty: The Economist, “The Job Crisis,” 14 March The Escape from the ‘Sliding Society’), Tokyo: 2009, p. 11. Iwanami Shinsho.

Satō, Hiroki (2001), “Atypical Employment: A Yuasa, Makoto (2009), “Hakenmura wa nani o Source of Flexible Work Opportunities?” in: toikakete iru no ka,” [What really is the Temp Social Science Japan Journal, 4-2, pp. 161-181. Workers’ Village?] in: Utsunomiya, Kenji and Makoto Yuasa (eds.), Hakenmura: Nani ga Satō, Toshiki (2000) Fubyōdō shakai Nihon. towarete iru no ka [The Temp Workers’ Village: Sayonara sōchūryū [Japan – Unequal Society. Questions that Arise], Tokyo: Iwanami Shoten, Farewell to the Middle Class], Tokyo: Chūō pp. 2-17.