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Japan Employment, Wages, and Working Conditions
Japan's work force grew by less than 1 percent per year
in the
1970s and 1980s. In 1991 it stood at 62.4 percent of the
total
population over fifteen years of age, a level little
changed since
1970 (see
table 14, Appendix). Labor force participation
differed
within age and gender groupings and was similar to that in
other
industrialized nations in its relative distribution among
primary,
secondary, and tertiary industries. The percentage of
people
employed in the primary sector (agriculture, forestry, and
fishing)
dropped from 17.4 in 1970 to 7.2 in 1990 and was projected
to fall
to 4.9 by 2000. The percentage of the Japanese labor force
employed
in heavy industry was 33.7 in 1970; it dropped to 33.1 in
1987 and
was expected to be 27.7 in 2000 (see
table 15, Appendix).
Light
industry employed 47 percent of the work force in 1970 and
58
percent in 1987. The sector was expected to employ 62
percent by
2000. Throughout the 1970s and 1980s, well over 95 percent
of all
men between the ages of twenty-five and fifty-four were in
the work
force, but the proportion dropped sharply after the usual
retirement age of fifty-five (by 1990 the retirement age
for most
men had risen to sixty). Women participated most actively
in the
job market in their early twenties and between the ages of
thirtyfive and fifty-four
(see Gender Stratification and the Lives of Women
, ch. 2). The unemployment rate (2.2 percent in 1992)
was
considerably lower than in the other industrialized
nations.
Wages vary by industry and type of employment. Those
earning
the highest wages are permanent workers in firms having
more than
thirty employees and those workers in finance, real
estate, public
service, petroleum, publishing, and emerging
high-technology
industries earned the highest wages. The lowest paid are
those in
textiles, apparel, furniture, and leather products
industries. The
average farmer fares even worse.
During the period of strong economic growth from 1960
to 1973,
wage levels rose rapidly. Nominal wages increased an
average of 13
percent per year while real wages rose 7 percent each
year. Wage
levels then stagnated as economic growth slowed. Between
1973 and
1987 annual nominal and real wage increases dropped to 8
percent
and 2 percent, respectively. Wages began rising in 1987 as
the
value of the yen sharply appreciated. In 1989 salaried
workers
receiving the highest average pay hikes over the previous
year were
newspaper employees (6.7 percent), followed by retail and
wholesale
workers (6 percent) and hotel employees (5.7 percent).
Workers in
the steel (2.5 percent) and shipbuilding (4.2 percent)
industries
fared worse. The salaries of administrative and technical
workers
were about 20 percent higher than those of production
workers. In
the late 1980s, with wages in manufacturing firms having
500 or
more workers indexed at 100, enterprises with 100 to 499
employees
were indexed at 79, those with thirty to ninety-nine
employees at
64, and those with five to twenty-nine employees at 56.6.
The gap
between wages paid to secondary school and college
graduates was
slight but widened as the employees grew older; wages
peaked at the
age of fifty-five, when the former received only 60 to 80
percent
of the wages of the latter (see
table 16, Appendix).
Workers received two fairly large bonuses as well as
their
regular salary, one mid-year and the other at year's end.
In 1988
workers in large companies received bonuses equivalent to
their pay
for 1.9 months while workers in the smallest firms gained
bonuses
equal to 1.2 months' pay. In addition to bonuses, Japanese
workers
received a number of fringe benefits, such as living
allowances,
incentive payments, remuneration for special job
conditions,
allowances for good attendance, and cost-of-living
allowances.
Working conditions varied from firm to firm. On
average,
employees worked a forty-six-hour week in 1987; employees
of most
large corporations worked a modified five-day week with
two
Saturdays a month, while those in most small firms worked
as much
as six days each week. In the face of mounting
international
criticism of excessive working hours in Japan, in January
1989
public agencies began closing two Saturdays a month. Labor
unions
made reduced working hours an important part of their
demands, and
many larger firms responded in a positive manner. In 1986
the
average employee in manufacturing and production
industries worked
2,150 hours in Japan, compared with 1,924 hours in the
United
States and 1,643 in France. The average Japanese worker is
entitled
to fifteen days of paid vacation a year but actually took
only
seven days.
Data as of January 1994
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