Diversification of Work Conditions, Views, and Employment Situations in Japan: Evidence from the RIETI web survey (Japanese)

While work styles and preferences of workers in Japan are diversified, the conventional labor policy cannot cope fully with the issues from the diversification. To clarify the issues, Research Institute of Economy, Trade and Industry (RIETI) conducted an online survey. In this paper, we analyzed the results of the survey and argued its policy implication. Specifically, we discussed the difference between employment status and actual work, skill formation of workers, a limited regular employee system, compensating wage premiums for insecure jobs, an evaluation and response to the Labor Contract Act revision, the pros and cons of the Temporary Staff Services Law revision, the pecuniary compensation of dismissal, and the attitude toward a trade-off between tax burden and the expansion of social security service. It was found that actual employment styles vary more than the classification of employment status. Very few people can express clearly the pros and cons against legal revision. The answers to the counterfactual questionnaire show that the requested amount of pecuniary compensation for dismissals varies greatly. These results suggest that it is desirable to take into consideration of the various preferences and work styles of workers and the influence of the law revision on workers in making policy in order to cope with the issues of diversified and complicated employment.