CONSTRAINTS ON THE LEVEL CONSTRAINTS ON THE LEVEL AND EFFICIENT USE OF LABOR IN AND EFFICIENT USE OF LABOR IN

JAPANJAPANBy: Hiroshi Ono & Marcus E Rebick

The AuthorsThe Authors

Hiroshi Ono Associate Professor, Texas A&M University, Department of Sociology. International Studies Degree Program. His research interests are Economic sociology; Work and organizations; Stratification and inequality; International business.

Marcus RebickDepartment of Economics Oxford University - Nissan Institute of Japanese Studies

Overview

This paper addresses impediments to the growth of the labor supply that are affecting the economy.

Barriers to inter-firm mobility for career employees, especially older men

Difficulty women face in developing meaningful careers after taking time off to raise children

Reluctance to accept larger number of immigrants into Japan

The Employment System

The Japanese labor market and institutions have been affected by the slump in growth that began in the 1990’s, but many of the main features remain largely intact.

These are features of the “Japanese model” Enterprise-based unionism Inter-firm mobility Low unemployment Compensation within gender groups that is highly

determined by age and seniority Large gender gaps in pay and promotions Widespread use of mandatory retirement systems

The Employment SystemThe Employment SystemEvidence of Only Minor Change

• Unions remain enterprise based, although union density has fallen steadily from around 35% at the time of the first oil shock to 21% in 2000.

• Job tenure for full time regular employees remains high and may even be increasing for some age groups.

• The 5.4% unemployment rate in May 2002, although high by Japanese standards, remains lower than the OECD (Organization for Economic Co-Operation and Development) average of 6.9%

• The gender pay gap has narrowed for full time employees (especially the young), but the gap in hourly pay between part time female workers and male full time employees remains large

• Some 40% of women work part time• Japan has relatively few women in senior management or director

positions compared with the United States or United Kingdom.

The Employment SystemExamples of Change

The proportion of individuals who are part-time or contract workers is increasing.

In particular the percentage of employees working part-time has been rising steadily since the 1960’s, reaching highs of 39% of women and 13% of men in 1999.

The number of temporary agency workers remains low at about 1% of the work force, but has been increasing rapidly with liberalization of the laws regulating agency work.

There has been a decline in the family based enterprise sector. Some women who would have been family worker, and men who

would have become self employed after mandatory retirement, are now in the part time employee labor force.

Managerial compensation is becoming much more sensitive to various measures of performance.

This is shown not only by surveys across companies, but also by the fact that the variance of pay of middle-aged men with higher education degrees has been increasing since the mid 1980’s.

Worker Protection

There is a long standing agreement between management and labor in Japan that allows management to mover workers around the company or even loan workers to other companies in return for a guarantee of employment until mandatory retirement age.

Japanese labor law does not, buy statute, provide guarantees of continued employment to employees, except that employers must give 30 days notice of dismissals.

Japanese constitution, however protects the individual’s right to work and the right to a minimum standard of “wholesome and cultured living”

Japanese courts have interpreted the law to impose four main standards on employers wishing to dismiss workers. The employer must show that:

It is under severe duress, such as facing possible bankruptcy and redundancies are unavoidable

It has made efforts to avoid redundancies by taking measures such as cutting overtime, hiring freezes, transfers, seconding workers to other companies, or seeking voluntary retirements.

It has consulted with its labor unions and employees. It has a rational procedure for selecting those to be dismissed.

Barriers to Mobility Between Firms

A long standing problem in the Japanese labor market concerns the lack of available employment information ◦ Workers do not know exactly (in terms of quality or quantity) what skills they have,

and employers are unclear about the skills they need. There has been a symmetric lack of information , and this is almost

certainly due to the poor development of the external labor market in an economy with overall low mobility.

Skill Mismatch ◦ Is a problem related to information availability◦ There are more jobs available for any given unemployment rate, which suggests

there may be an increasing mismatch of skills. Lack of pension Portability

◦ Japan implemented the equivalent of the U.S. 401(k) type defined contribution plans in October 2001.

◦ Prior to this there were no tax advantages to saving outside of the defined benefit plans offered by firms.

◦ Portability problems arise because payouts often are reduced more than proportionately if an employee leaves before mandatory retirement

◦ In other words, the likely losses in earnings from a move extend to losses in pensions

Seniority and Pay Structure

What makes the tenure effect so important for Japan, is that average tenure is higher in Japan than in most other OECD countries for all age categories.

As a result, middle-aged Japanese employees stand to lose stand to more by leaving their firm than their counterparts in most other countries

Age-Based Discrimination ◦ A consequence of the long-term employment and seniority systems is that Japanese firms

impose age limits when recruiting and hiring ◦ Workers exceeding the age limit of the jobs posted continues to be the most common reason

for workers not changing jobs.◦ Over 90% of Japanese firms impose age restrictions, generally 35 to 40 years of age is listed on

their job opening ◦ They are primarily concerned how older workers don’t not fit into the firm’s current

employment system◦ They are viewed as “hard to handle” or as “unable to adapt well to the corporate culture”

Under pressure for reform, “guidelines” to abolish age limits in recruiting and hiring were introduced in October 2001 as part of the revised Employment Measures Law.

As it stands, the guidelines are viewed mainly as a superficial gesture ◦ It simply states that employers should make efforts to abolish age limits

Female Labor Force Participation

Japanese women are more likely to work part-time (defined as less than 35 hours per week) than most of their counterparts in other countries. ◦ Women are more likely to exit the labor force for child-rearing or other family responsibilities and

then later return to the labor force. This exit and re-entry results in the M-curve pattern of labor force participation rates.

◦ The M-curve shows that the mass exit of women in their 30’s continues to be a pronounced pattern in international comparisons.

◦ However, the proportion of women who want to work but cannot also is highest among women in their 30’s .

◦ When this proportion is included in the actual participation rates, we get a curve that resembles the United States

Exclusion from Internal Labor Market◦ Japanese firms, especially the more desirable employers, typically create an internal labor market◦ This involves extensive training within the firm that presumes a long-term relationship between

workers and employers. ◦ Since women are more likely to exit for reasons for marriage or child-rearing , they face statistical

discrimination, because employers seek workers who plan to remain with their firm over a long period of time, so that the cost of their investments will not be lost.

◦ Older Japanese women are much more concentrated that young women in small firms and unskilled blue-collar occupations.

◦ Educated married women with children are more likely to remain non-participants◦ This may be because the available jobs are not interesting or otherwise attractive to suck women

Questions