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Japan Workplace
Entry into the labor force widens the circle of social
relationships. For many adults, these contacts are
important
sources of friendships and resources. For men especially,
the
workplace is the focus of their social world. Many both in
and
outside of Japan share an image of the Japanese workplace
that is
based on a lifetime-employment model used by large
companies. These
employment practices came about as the result of labor
shortages in
the 1920s, when companies competed to recruit and retain
the best
workers by offering better benefits and job security. By
the 1960s,
employment at a large prestigious company had become the
goal of
children of the new middle class, the pursuit of which
required
mobilization of family resources and great individual
perseverance
in order to achieve success in the fiercely competitive
education
system.
Lifetime employment refers not to a worker's lifetime
but to
the time from school graduation until mandatory
retirement, at age
sixty for most men. Workers are recruited directly out of
school,
and large investments are made in training. Employees are
expected
to work hard and demonstrate loyalty to the firm, in
exchange for
some degree of job security and benefits, such as housing
subsidies, good insurance, the use of recreational
facilities, and
bonuses and pensions. Wages begin low, but seniority is
rewarded,
with promotions based on a combination of seniority and
ability.
Leadership is not based on assertiveness or quick decision
making
but on the ability to create consensus, taking into
account the
needs of subordinates. Surveys indicate continued
preference for
bosses who are demanding but show concern for workers'
private
lives over less-demanding bosses interested only in
performance on
the job. This system rewards behavior demonstrating
identification
with the team effort, indicated by singing the company
song, not
taking all of one's vacation days, and sharing credit for
accomplishments with the work group. Pride in one's work
is
expressed through competition with other parallel sections
in the
company and between one's company and other companies in
similar
lines of business. Thus, individuals are motivated to
maintain
wa (harmony) and participate in group activities,
not only
on the job but also in after-hours socializing. The image
of group
loyalty, however, may be more a matter of ideology than
practice,
especially for people who do not make it to the top.
Every worker does not, however, enjoy the benefits of
such
employment practices and work environments. Although 64
percent of
households in 1985 depended on wages or salaries for most
of their
income, most of these workers were employed by small and
mediumsized firms that could not afford the benefits or achieve
the
successes of the large companies, despite the best
intentions of
owners. Even in the large corporations, distinctions
between
permanent and temporary employees made many workers, often
women,
ineligible for benefits and promotions. These workers were
also the
first to be laid off in difficult business conditions.
Japan
scholar Dorinne K. Kondo compares the status of permanent
and
temporary workers with Bachnik's distinctions between
permanent and
temporary members of an ie, creating degrees of
inside and
outside within a firm. Traditions of entrepreneurship and
of
inheritance of the means of livelihood continued among
merchants,
artisans, farmers, and fishermen, still nearly 20 percent
of the
work force in 1985. These workers gave up security for
autonomy
and, when economically necessary, supplemented household
income
with wage employment. Traditionally, such businesses use
unpaid
family labor, but wives or even husbands are likely to go
off to
work in factories or offices and leave spouses or retired
parents
to work the farm or mind the shop. On the one hand,
policies of
decentralization provide factory jobs locally for families
that
farm part time; on the other hand, unemployment created by
deindustrialization affects rural as well as urban
workers. Whereas
unemployment is low in Japan compared with other
industrialized
nations (less than 3 percent through the late 1980s), an
estimated
400,000 day laborers share none of the security or
affluence
enjoyed by those employees with lifetime-employment
benefits.
Although Japanese workers are known worldwide for their
hard
work and dedication to their firms, more than 50 percent
of
respondents of a 1988 government survey said that they
would rather
have more free time than increased income. The proportion
preferring free time to increased income was greater among
professionals, supervisors, and white-collar workers.
There was
also evidence of increased interfirm mobility among some
types of
workers in the late 1980s, as a result of a labor shortage
and
changing attitudes toward work among young people.
Data as of January 1994
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