The Best of the Bureau/The_Best_of_the_Bureau_Bureau_Development_Inc._1992.iso/dp/0033/00335.txt

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$Unique_ID{bob00335}
$Pretitle{}
$Title{Japan
Chapter 4C.   Employment, Wages, and Working Conditions}
$Subtitle{}
$Author{Stephan B. Wickman}
$Affiliation{HQ, Department of the Army}
$Subject{percent
labor
workers
power
construction
energy
nation's
industry
unions
million
see
pictures
see
figures
}
$Date{1981}
$Log{}
Title:       Japan
Book:        Japan, A Country Study
Author:      Stephan B. Wickman
Affiliation: HQ, Department of the Army
Date:        1981

Chapter 4C.   Employment, Wages, and Working Conditions

     Japan's work force grew by less than 1 percent per year in the 1970s, and
in 1980 represented about 63 percent of the total population over fifteen
years of age-basically unchanged since 1970 (see table 5, Appendix).
Unemployment, however, was twice the level of the boom years. Moreover an
increasing proportion of the work force was vulnerable to economic downturn.
Since 1971 the proportion of temporary workers or day laborers has increased
from 7 percent to 11 percent. Counting those of the regular employees who
might be laid off at a moment's notice, especially those in smaller
corporations, a large number of workers clearly would suffer from a protracted
recession.

     Labor force participation differed within age and sex groupings. Well
over 95 percent of all males between the ages of twenty-five and fifty-four
were in the work force. The proportion dropped after the fifty-five-year-old
retirement age. Women, by contrast, participated most actively in the job
market in their early twenties or between thirty-five and fifty-four years of
age (see Women, ch. 2).

     Wages varied by industry and type of employment. For regular workers in
firms with more than thirty employees, those with jobs in finance, real
estate, public service, iron and steel, petroleum, and publishing enterprises
earned the highest wages. The lowest paid were those in textiles, apparel,
furniture, and leather products industries. The receipts of the average farmer
were even lower. The average earnings of female part-timers were about the
same as for textile workers, many of whom were also women. The salaries of
administrative and technical workers were about 20 percent higher than those
of production workers. The wages of women averaged slightly over half those of
men (see fig. 7).

     Apart from wages, most businesses provided extra benefits to workers.
According to a 1979 survey of businesses having more than thirty employees,
the cost of non-wage benefits amounted to about 15 percent of the regular
wage, up from 13 percent in 1972. Of this percentage, benefits required by
law, such as social security and health insurance, represented 62 percent,
retirement and pension witholdings were some 37 percent, and housing funds,
saving plans, recruitment, education, and other costs accounted for the
remainder. Over 86 percent of the firms surveyed had some sort of plan to aid
their workers in purchasing a house, while only 12 percent had some form of
stock-sharing plan. The benefits usually increased with the length of
employment. (see The Aged, ch. 2).

     A major revision of the Unemployment Insurance Law of 1975 benefited the
nation's workers. The law exempted older workers from paying national pension
premiums, while employers were required to finance 62 percent of the national
pension premium. Employers could also receive from one-half to two-thirds of
the salaries paid to laid-off workers if the regional or national economic
conditions turned against the industry. This system reinforced the practice of
laying off workers temporarily at reduced salary levels but was terminated in
1980. Whether this type of support to the unemployed along with the regular
unemployment insurance could counter a protracted recession was in doubt, and
revisions were likely to occur in the basic legislation. The government
managed Public Employment Security Offices throughout the country, but they
processed only 20 percent of the nation's job seekers in 1979.

     Working conditions varied from firm to firm. On average, employees worked
a 43.5-hour work week in 1980; most large corporations gave their employees
two days off each week, while most small firms could manage only one or one
and one-half days off. Safety conditions were favorable by international
standards, as befitted a nation of Japan's technological development.
Nevertheless the advances in industrial technology and management control
systems have caused some workers to experience psychological problems. One
journalist who apparently worked on a production line at one of the most
sophisticated and prestigious of the nation's auto plants noted an abnormally
high incidence of psychological distress and even suicide, which he attributed
to the relentless pressure from the mechanized and computerized production
system. Bonuses and piece-rate wage adjustments were not uncommon, even in the
larger factories, and group output was monitored closely.

     These isolated reports aside, Japanese workers seemed no more, and
perhaps less, distressed with their working conditions than those in other
heavily industrialized economies. Part of their satisfaction may have stemmed
from such practices as "quality control circles," where workers could actively
participate in enhancing their productivity, eliminating product defects, and
sharing decisionmaking with management. More likely the system of incentives
and production seemed equitable to the average worker, who had witnessed a
continuous rise in wages during a remarkably long period of economic growth.

     Scholars have debated for some time whether Japanese employment practices
formed a system that was unique and, if so, whether this system was based on a
set of underlying social values (see The Japanese Company, ch. 2). Some
anthropologists have argued that the lifetime employment and seniority-based
wages constituted a unique system. Critics of this view pointed out that
perhaps only 30 percent of the labor force worked under such a system and,
furthermore, that the basic methods of management were probably the result of
economic necessities. Whatever the case, it seemed that the average male
graduate of a prestigious university would likely opt for long-term employment
in a large company. Less well-educated workers, female employees, and skilled
workers in high demand were more mobile and played the job market to get the
highest return for their labor.

Labor Relations

     In 1980 Japan had 34,232 independent labor unions organized at the
enterprise level and an additional 30,000 so-called unit unions at subordinate
levels in multi-factory firms. These unions represented about 31 percent of
the labor force-down about 4 percent from 1970. There were three main labor
federations: the General Council of Trade Unions of Japan (commonly known as
Sohyo); the Japanese Confederation of Labor (Domei); and the Federation of
Independent Labor Unions (known as Churitsu Roren-known in English as the
Liaison Conference of Independent Labor Unions). These three organizations
accounted for 37 percent, 17 percent, and 11 percent of union membership,
respectively (see Labor Unions, ch. 6). The only industry-wide unions were for
the nation's government employees, teachers, telecommunications workers, and
seamen.

     Labor unions and unit unions rather than the federations conducted the
major bargaining activities. Unit unions often banded together to conduct wage
negotiations, but the federations did not control their policies or actions.
Federations engaged in political or public relations activities such as the
conduct of the annual "labor offensive" each spring.

     The relationship between the typical Japanese labor union and the company
was unusually close. Both white-collar and blue-collar workers joined the
union automatically in most companies. Temporary and subcontract workers were
excluded, and managers with the rank of section chief or above were considered
part of management. In most corporations, however, ma