Japan Transforms From Traditional Industrial Relations System

By Author: Henry Ford
Total Articles: 189
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The transformation in the employment sector of Japan cannot be over emphasized. The pressures of globalization are continually spreading from one corner of the world to another and Japan has not been left out. These pressures most of the time conflicts with the Traditional Industrial Relations systems and firms have to be well be prepared to cope with them. The conflicts are early indicators of a paradigm shift of the economy ways of operations (Simeon, 2009). According to Simeon (100) “the past two decades have seen a transformation in Japan employment relation, from a Traditional Industrial Relations system to a Contemporary Employment Relations.” This is very true because already there are noticeable changes in the economy already which include the wage levels, the working hours, job security and job anatomy.

The wage levels of the Japanese workers, was such that the salaries rose as they aged. They adopted the seniority system; regular promotions came along and job security came along with longer periods of work at a certain organization. The aging population has negative connotations to the firms in which ...
... they work in. Since they are permanent and receive high wages, the firms suffer as these aged groups are less productive compared to the younger generation. When the stagnation of Japan’s economy was experienced, some of these old traditional methods of employment had to be changed to better and newer methods of employment to ease the burden. From the survey that was carried out, though there was a minimal group of people who supported the old ways of operation, the larger group was in support of new methods of operations like the use of performance contracts and evaluation feedbacks to determine the employees to be promoted and those to receive bigger wages. (Abdullah, Ahmad, & Jusoff, 2009). With the new system, more young people are able to get into the labour force since the job consideration is that of job experience rather than loyalty to the employer. Japan’s current law has the minimum wages that a person in a particular job should be paid. There are two sets of minimum wages to guide the payment of the women employees: the regional wages based on the collective agreement and the minimun wages based on studies and dliberations of minimum wage council of Japan (Kawaguchi & Yamada, 2007).

The entry of women into the male dominated workforce in Japan also indicates that the traditional system is facing a lot of changes to empower women (Gelb, 2000). In the past, the Japanese women worked in low-skilled work, like tea-ladies, and if they got jobs they were the contract jobs. The Equal Opportunity Law that was passed changed everything for the women, (Hunter, 2000). Earlier on the employers were “requested” not to discriminate the employees but that law has been recently changed to make discrimination illegal. Research on the National Economy of Japan also shows that if more women were given work opportunities, the economy would benefit more in the next ten years to come. The Japanese government is looking for ways to get more women in business. Undermining terms that were used on women like “Women salespersons” has now been changed to “partners” instead. Nevertheless, the changes are not quick to adapt to. However, there are worries about how women will manage to balance the family life and work. In order to cater for this, Japan introduced the Childcare Leave Law (CCLL) and later on this was changed to Childcare and Family Care leave Law (CCFCLL). These laws allow employees and especially women to request for leave in order to take care of their children. Although when these laws were introduced they did not include if the employee taking leave could still be paid, the laws were reviewed to ensure that there would be normal payment during the leave and also a returning allowance (Gottfried & O'Reilly, 2002).

Japan has adapted to working by contracts rather than offering permanent jobs to individuals. The white collar job also known locally as “Sarariman” or Salaryman in Japan has since been replaced by “Contract-man” . The older system tended to accommodate a permanent way of employment since the employers put more trust on the older people who had worked in their firms for a longer period. This was however not very beneficial to the firms. The older the people the less effective they became even though they had experience at the firm. The fact that they had stayed there for long implied that they were loyal to the work and the firms. This did not increase their work-ability but instead they felt important to the firm; that the firm cannot do without them. With the recession at hand, Japan had to invest in ways that were less costly for the firms but those that would yield more benefits. Contract employment is one such way that is used to motivate the employees to work hard so as to get the next contract with the firms in question. The contract provides employers with the opportunity to retain the hardworking employees by renewing the contract as soon as it expires (Aoki, 1990). Some of the youth engage in searching for better jobs hence they would prefer temporary work systems. In the past there were no policies put to protect these people but in the recent past the Government of Japan has set policies that will see them get more regular jobs to improve their living standards. The employers also have to provide training to these people so that they can have hands on the job when they are called upon, either by the firms they are working for or by others.

With the new technical innovations (industrial revolution), employees now have to report to work at the specified time. The work is now specified with the time and so are the wages, the more hours on work the more wage that one gets (Blyton, 1995). The working hours in Japan economy have also changed. In the past less people were engaged in overtime and part-time jobs but lately more people engage in such jobs so as to compliment for their salaries. Over time payment provides a competitive labour pool to the employees. This is the time they use to complete the office work they had not finished in normal time and also to engage in more work that would benefit the firm and especially if the firms are production oriented. Although there is overtime work, Japan does not encourage privileges accorded to women under The Equal Employment Opportunity Law (EEOL). This particular law had provisions to work over-time, night work and rest day work so as to improve their welfare. This left the men out, thus it was a discriminating provision. In order to appear fair to all genders, this provision was scraped off and firms were encouraged to offer equal work time opportunities to all people regardless of their gender status. Preference in women employment under the new law is only allowed if it’s used to correct the earlier mistakes. Another thing is that with this kind of employment, where employees do not work on permanent basis but rather they come in at particular times, employment under contract and temporary employment have become the best ways of organizing work (Kalleberg, 2000). It is less costly as firms call in experts in certain areas to work on the issues within an agreed period of time. This kind of work is also good because the work will be done professionally and within a short period.
Job anatomy is also changing in work places, as in the past people were restricted on what to do, when and how to do it. Lately however, the globalization has changed this trend. The freedom given to employees makes them feel comfortable and more self-oriented in the work place. Employees are attracted to places of work where they are not restricted and monitored throughout. With the current changes employees set their own goals and objectives that they want to achieve by the end of the year. The review systems are set to give feedback to the employers and then back to the employees.

In the past work was seen as tedious and there were no people who would engage into work (Anthony, 2001). Today things have changed and work is seen as the main sector that not only brings about economic empowerment to countries but also those being engaged in this work. Everything that people do today is in order to get better work that will instead bring in better economic status to these people. This is why investing in a good labour force for companies are an important issue in this technologically changing world. As much as many firms would like to sustain the old traditional Industrial Relations systems, globalization forces such firms to adapt to the new systems either to cut down on their spending on wages for the old, in-effective labour force or to attract better performing young vibrant employees with new technologies which lead to the growth of the firms. Change in the employment or labour force is inevitable in Japan thus adapting to the new changes is a must.

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