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Reforming the Regular Employment System: Toward a New Norm of Job-Specific Employment Contracts

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  • Kotaru TSURU

Abstract

The chief characteristic of Japan’s postwar employment system, built around the needs of large corporations, is (a) a higher rate of lifetime employment and (b) ‘deferred compensation’, which is reflected in Japan’s steeper age-wage profile, and relatively late-stage promotions and late-career tracking relative to comparable nations. However, a key attribute of regular employment in Japan—its ‘indefinite’ or ‘unrestricted’ nature’—has received less attention than it deserves. Companies make no guarantees regarding regular employees’ duties, job locations, and working hours at the time of hiring. All are left indeterminate. The indefinite nature of regular employment is linked to the causes of many employment problems. The diversification of regular employment needs to progress to the point where ‘job-specific’ regular employment, in which employees’ job contents are clearly defined, becomes the new ‘norm’. This article presents some of the policies that must be put in place in order for this shift to occur.

Suggested Citation

  • Kotaru TSURU, 2017. "Reforming the Regular Employment System: Toward a New Norm of Job-Specific Employment Contracts," Social Science Japan Journal, University of Tokyo and Oxford University Press, vol. 20(1), pages 59-72.
    • Handle: RePEc:oup:sscijp:v:20:y:2017:i:1:p:59-72.
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    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1093/ssjj/jyw045
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    Citations

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    Cited by:

    1. Asuyama, Yoko, 2021. "Determinants of job interestingness: Comparison of Japan and other high-income countries," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 73(C).
    2. Fukao, Kyoji, 2017. "Secular Stagnation and the Labor Market in Japan," SSPJ Discussion Paper Series DP17-2, Service Sector Productivity in Japan: Determinants and Policies, Institute of Economic Research, Hitotsubashi University.
    3. Fukao, Kyoji & 深尾, 京司, 2017. "Secular Stagnation and the Labor Market in Japan," SSPJ Discussion Paper Series DP17-002, Service Sector Productivity in Japan: Determinants and Policies, Institute of Economic Research, Hitotsubashi University.

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