The Japanese employment system

Seminar paper from the year 2006 in the subject Sociology - Work, Profession, Education, Organisation, grade: 1,7, University of Osnabrück, course: Economical and Technical Development and Organisation, WS 05/06, 23 entries in the bibliography, language: English, comment: This paper predominantly covers the development of the Japanese employment system since the early 1920s and tries to give an interpretation of recent trends. It is quite difficult to estimate the influence of trade unions on the development of the employment system. Unions´ history and impact, marked by controversies and disagreements, would go beyond the scope of this paper. Only Chapter 3.1 shall introduce the Japanese unions as a special phenomenon. , abstract: After Japan recovered from the disastrous defeat of World War II, its enormous economic growth provided a series of questions to the world's leading economists. With constant growth rates over 11% on average in the 1960s, Japan had the world's second largest GDP. Seeking explanations and reasons for this phenomenon, soon a couple of important influences on the Japanese economy were found. The increased demands on Japanese products during the conflicts in Vietnam after the Second World War (which led to the Vietnam War 1964-1973) and the Korean War 1950 to 1953 as well as the government aid for selected industries and protective duty accelerated its growth, which exceeded all former expectations1. Another important element of the Japanese prosperity was met with the Japanese-style employment system2. What would primarily influence the image of the Japanese to the further decades, the industrious, never sleeping blue-collar and white-collar workers, fulfilling a life for the company in a state of mutual dependence, is the result of an elaborate employment system. And in fact, lifetime employment, a predetermined career path and the seniority-based wage system were established to commit the regular workers to "their" company, while the t