Section 6 | Economics and Economic History | Session 4B, Panel
Chair: Arjan Keizer
Discussant: Kevin McCormick
For much of the second half of the 20 th century Japan experienced substantial economic growth and low levels of unemployment. Much of the Japanese post-war success was driven by the manufacturing sector and, in particular, the automotive and electronic industries. This high level of growth ceased in the early 1990s following the collapse of the ‘bubble’ economy, the rising competitiveness of a number of Asian countries and the financial crisis which spread through Asia in the late 1990s. These events took place within an increasingly globalised world, where many Japanese companies had relocated parts of their operations to other Asian countries to take advantage of lower labour and production costs. These factors led to a loss of competitiveness of Japanese industry and a rise in the unemployment rate. The importance of the manufacturing sector to the Japanese economy meant that the events of the 1990s would have significant repercussions on manufacturing employment and labour management. The paper will begin by outlining some of the key economic and social events affecting Japan over the last half of the 20 th century. This will be followed by a detailed analysis, using data from three surveys conducted by the author in the period 1991 to 2001, which examines how Japanese manufacturing companies have responded to these events. The paper concludes by considering the implications of these findings on the future labour strategies of Japanese companies and employment in this sector.
Pilar Garces (University of Valladolid Paseo Prado de la Magdalena)
It is widely accepted that culture, in its broadest sense, is going to determine both the viewpoints and the actions undertaken by people and organizations- which, at long last, are composed by individuals, and are what people are. Habits, behaviours, attitudes and customs are entwined in the culture of a certain community and belong to the social inheritance rather than to the genetic one. Culture can be part of the individual or part of the group. The former will determine the characteristics of the individuals, i.e. their natural inclinations, while the latter will determine the work, methods and the systems of the organizations together with their aims. Human behaviour is, thus, influenced by the genetic inheritance and by certain innate factors but, also, especially at specific times and circumstances, by what could be labelled as the socio-cultural inheritance, namely culture. For instance, an example of cultural inheritance in Confucianism is the value of the family with a clear distinction between the social roles of men and women inside and outside the household.
Our aim is to understand the nature and structure of the Japanese business recruitment system in order to identify the principles that have been observed in the actions undertaken by the main characters involved in the recruitment of women and the possibilities women have to be promoted. To reach this objective it is essential to understand the attitudes, both old and new, of employers and employees; the changes in the legislation regarding labour; the new ethics in the world environment; women´s expectations regarding promotion and young women´s new attitudes towards working life, leisure, and private life together with the obstacles they have to overcome. The subjection of women within Japanese culture, first as daughters, and later as wives and mothers, was a fact widely assumed by all members of the community for the sake of harmony within society. But nowadays women´s own particular wishes count, and they show that they reject the idea of being just a housewife, “ippan shoku” who can only accomplish clerical tasks. They are determined to become a “sogo shoku”, an independent woman who, on a free will, has decided to reach the same level of responsibility as men do in the working environment. Much of what is happening now in the Japanese society is what the society and the economy of the USA experienced 15-20 years ago, as is the desire of women to break the glass-ceiling and reach the top of the big companies of the nation. But this change is not just the result of individuals looking for self-fulfilment, this has also triggered some legal reforms like: The Labor Standards Law of April 1st. 1999 that abolished the former restrictions regarding women´s night shifts from 10 pm to 5 am. When women were allowed to work those hours, the number of women employed in assembly-plants increased considerably. In the 23rd plenary session of the Rengo Central Committee (Confederation of Japanese Unions) it was decided that the Unions would also try to improve the quality of the jobs performed by women. In order to achieve that they adopted several supplementary measures to ensure the fair presence of women in their own administrative and decision-making organs. The Department of Employment published on February 26 th 1999 the White Book on women´s employment. This book offered a comprehensive perspective that included the changes in women´s behaviour and attitudes regarding their professional life and the obstacles they have to overcome to adapt their working hours to the time spent in house chores. This has become the cornerstone of the changes that will affect the Japanese society in the future, for women´s underemployment has been originated by the absence of social infrastructures such as nursery schools, and by the time consumed by the house chores that are not shared, yet, by the husband.Women are extremely or entirely discriminated for different reasons. Companies just follow the discriminatory trends imposed by Japanese society for, traditionally, women, when they married, were asked, either by their husbands or by the companies, to leave their jobs.
The conclusions we can draw from our research is that the role of women in Japanese society is being reconsidered, and this is affecting both the structure of companies and the way women face their new possibilities in the labour market and their new obstacles in their families, for:
-There is an increase number of women that do not want to leave their jobs once they get married and would like to continue working, either full or part-time, to be able to combine working life with family life.
- There is an increase number of women who look for promotion in the companies they work for and are not satisfied with a clerical position.
- There is an increase number of women now doing jobs that require considerable physical effort that were formerly reserved for men.
- Companies now would rather employ specialists than people who have general skills just because they have dedicated their life to the same company full-time over the years. This fact favours women who leave their jobs temporarily and then return looking for promotion.