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The Transformation of Japanese Employment Relations The Transformation of Japanese Employment Relations 9780230_209084_01_prexiv.indd i 11/25/2010 8:21:42 PM 9780230_209084_01_prexiv.indd ii 11/25/2010 8:21:43 PM The Transformation of Japanese Employment Relations Reform without Labor Jun Imai Assistant Professor, Center for the Study of Social Stratification and Inequality, Tohoku University 9780230_209084_01_prexiv.indd iii 11/25/2010 8:21:43 PM © Jun Imai 2011 All rights reserved. No reproduction, copy or transmission of this publication may be made without written permission. No portion of this publication may be reproduced, copied or transmitted save with written permission or in accordance with the provisions of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, or under the terms of any licence permitting limited copying issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency, Saffron House, 6-10 Kirby Street, London EC1N 8TS. Any person who does any unauthorized act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages. The author has asserted his right to be identified as the author of this work in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. First published 2011 by PALGRAVE MACMILLAN Palgrave Macmillan in the UK is an imprint of Macmillan Publishers Limited, registered in England, company number 785998, of Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 6XS. Palgrave Macmillan in the US is a division of St Martin’s Press LLC, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10010. Palgrave Macmillan is the global academic imprint of the above companies and has companies and representatives throughout the world. Palgrave® and Macmillan® are registered trademarks in the United States, the United Kingdom, Europe and other countries. ISBN: 978–0–230–20908–4 hardback This book is printed on paper suitable for recycling and made from fully managed and sustained forest sources. Logging, pulping and manufacturing processes are expected to conform to the environmental regulations of the country of origin. A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. A catalog record for this book is available from the Library of Congress. 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 20 19 18 17 16 15 14 13 12 11 Printed and bound in Great Britain by CPI Antony Rowe, Chippenham and Eastbourne 9780230_209084_01_prexiv.indd iv 11/25/2010 8:21:43 PM Contents List of Tables viii List of Figures x List of Abbreviations xii Acknowledgments xiii 1 Sociological Theory of Employment Relations 1 Did Japanese employment relations change? 1 Employment relations in sociological perspective 3 Contract/effort 4 Mobility 6 State- firm- labor negotiations at societal, organizational and workplace levels 8 Societal construction of labor markets 9 Welfare- employment policies 10 Labor management practices and authority relations 11 Research strategy and the structure of the book 12 2 Employment Relations in Postwar Japan 17 Introduction 17 A brief history of employment relations in Japan 17 The postwar labor struggle and its consequences 17 The end of the rapid economic growth and belt- tightening management 22 The characteristics of postwar Japanese employment relations 27 Contract/effort 27 Mobility 35 Summary 40 Regulations of employment relations: with or without labor 42 ‘Corporatism with labor’ at work 42 ‘Reform without labor’? 43 3 Political Segmentation of the Labor Market: The Establishment and Expansion of New Employment Forms 50 The employers’ initiative for labor market reform 50 Social organization of labor markets in the postwar period 53 v 9780230_209084_01_prexiv.indd v 11/25/2010 8:21:43 PM vi Contents The comparative strength of ‘flexible rigidities’ 53 Initial expansion of the external labor market 57 Deregulation of the labor markets 59 Policy shift 59 Descriptive characteristics of the labor market changes 64 Inequalities between regular and non- regular contracts 77 A high wall between contracts 82 Reconfiguration of employment contracts and job mobility 89 4 The DWS: Deregulation of Working Time and Its Impact on the Effort-Bargain 92 Working time regulation and employment relations 92 LSA regulation and the company citizenship 93 Working time reduction and renewed interest in the DWS 98 Working time reduction for better quality of life 98 Shifted aim of the reform of working time regulation 104 The political dynamics of the working time deregulation 111 Marginalization of labor in the politics of deregulation 111 Decentralization of working time regulations 116 The DWS: a legal base for the renegotiation of effort-bargain 119 5 Re- bargaining Effort: The Introduction of Results- Orientation at COMPUJ 122 Labor management reform and white- collar effort 122 The movement of labor management reform: the case of COMPUJ 123 Employers’ movement to introduce results- oriented labor management 123 COMPUJ in context 125 Initiating the results-oriented labor management 130 Management by objectives 130 Old practice of rotation, old attitude of adaptation 134 Conflict 138 Rising concerns over the new system 140 Intensification of results- orientation 142 Deliberation of the MBO and the diversification of career track 142 Formalization of evaluation criteria: ‘competency’ management 146 Self-management under control: job announcement and the DWS 152 9780230_209084_01_prexiv.indd vi 11/25/2010 8:21:43 PM Contents vii Marketization, formalization and individualization of labor management 156 Consequences of the changes within COMPUJ 158 6 Conclusion: Changes and Future Directions of Japanese Employment Relations 161 Changing employment relations 161 Contract/effort 162 Mobility 166 The declining presence of labor unions 167 Remaking employment relations: risks and opportunities for Japanese workers 170 ‘Deflation of employment’ in Japan 170 Right to a career without organizational membership 173 Appendices A1.1 List of interviewees 176 A3.1 Major reforms of labor market regulations in the post- WWII period 178 A3.2 Revisions of the limited-term contract 180 A3.3 Labor market changes 183 A4.1 Chronology of working time regulations 186 A4.2 Discretionary work regulations as of 2000 188 A5.1 Future principles of labor management 190 A5.2 The COMPUJ organizational chart as of July, 1994 191 Notes 192 References 210 Glossary 223 Index 225 9780230_209084_01_prexiv.indd vii 11/25/2010 8:21:44 PM Tables 1.1 Domains of contention by the levels of regulation 9 1.2 The structure and regulations of employment relations 15 2.1 The ranking and qualification system 37 2.2 The characteristics of employment relations in Japan (core regular workers) 40 2.3 The advisory council: the case of the Central Labor Standards Council as of 2000 44 2.4 The list of deregulation committees since 1995 47 2.5 Members of deregulation committees, samples from 1998 and 2001 48 3.1 Nikkeiren’s employment diversification strategy 52 3.2 Regular/non- regular composition of the Japanese labor market from 1956 57 3.3 Changes in labor market structure by employment status 65 3.4 Changes in labor market structure by employment status and firm size 68 3.5 Average hourly wages of temporary staff by occupational category 79 3.6 Methods of wage payment by employment status 80 3.7 Mobility within the labor force 83 3.8 The number of workers who changed jobs (1997–2002) 84 3.9 The number of workers who changed jobs (2002–7) 85 3.10 Distribution of employment status, origin and destination 86 4.1 Gradual implementation of 40- hours- per- week (manufacturing) 99 4.2 Gradual implementation of 40- hours- per- week (commerce) 100 4.3 Nikkeiren’s strategy for the application of the DWS 108 4.4 Summary of opinions on the expansion of the DWS by related actors: early stage 110 4.5 Changing working time regulations for white- collar workers 118 5.1 The chronology of the labor management reforms at COMPUJ 129 viii 9780230_209084_01_prexiv.indd viii 11/25/2010 8:21:44 PM Tables ix 5.2 The MBO evaluation sheet at COMPUJ (translation of the performance measures by rank) 132 5.3 Required capabilities in workflow 134 5.4 Employees’ assessment of the personnel evaluation, F Department 140 5.5 Three types of role in managerial rank 144 5.6 New categorization and definition of workforce 146 5.7 Basic competency at COMPUJ 149 5.8 Excerpts from the role-specific competency (system engineers) 150 6.1 Changes in employment relations since the 1990s (core regular workers) 163 9780230_209084_01_prexiv.indd ix 11/25/2010 8:21:44 PM Figures 2.1 The comparison of trade surplus: Japan and other G7 countries 24 2.2 Trend of overtime and business conjuncture by firm size (manufacturing) 25 2.3 The Japanese employment structure 28 2.4 Unpaid overtime work (hours per year) 34 2.5 Multi- layered structure of competition 39 2.6 The trend of unionization in Japan 45 2.7 The number of labor disputes in Japan 45 3.1 The rate of economic growth in Japan from 1956 to 2008 (GDP) 51 3.2 The trend of unemployment rates from 1970 to 2004 60 3.3 Proportion of regular employee by firm size 66 3.4 Proportion of regular employment by age 70 3.5 Reasons to use paato workers 70 3.6 Reasons to use haken workers 71 3.7 Reasons to use keiyaku workers 71 3.8 Changing occupational composition of Japanese labor markets 72 3.9 The Diffusion Index by occupation 73 3.10 Haken workers by occupation 74 3.11 Keiyaku/shokutaku workers by occupation 76 3.12 The number of yatoi- dome troubles reported by individual workers 78 3.13 Employment insurance coverage by employment status 79 3.14 Access to the rights of company citizenship by employment status 81 3.15 The trend in job mobility
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