DIJ Newsletter

59 | July 2019

Interdisciplinary Japanese Studies On Site
ReportDiversity and productivity –Japan’s employment system atthe crossroads

Participants of the workshop on labour market
liberalization in December 2018

million decline in the employment of working-age
Japanese men.
At first glance, it seems that Japan managed to adapt very well. However, the quantitative adjustment
was accompanied by fundamental changes in thetypes of employment. Between 1992 and 2017, thenumber of self-employed and family workers declined by 6.3 million. This was more than compensatedby a rise in dependent employment (6.6 million).
However, in this subcategory too the composition ofjobs greatly changed. Whereas the number of executive and regular employees declined by 4.1 million,non-regular forms of employment – part-time, nonpermanent, contract and agency work – grew by
10.8 million. As a consequence, the share of nonregular employment rose from 22 percent in 1992 to38 percent in 2017.1

The numbers indicate that employment growth in thelast decades has not been inclusive. This can beseen as the logical consequence of the prevailing
structural characteristics of Japan’s employment system. While
companies continue to commit tooﬀer their predominantly malecore employees “lifetime” employment – at least up to the ageof 55 – combined with wage andpromotion schemes based on
length of tenure, they have foundit increasingly hard to do so in thecontext of an ageing workforce
and dim growth prospects in the
Roundtable during the Workshop on
domestic market. Their naturallabour market liberalization with Paul
response was to reduce theHowever, significant national difMarx, Bruno Amable and Mari Miura
number of protected core emferences arise in the ways reployees while increasing thespective solutions are pursued
number of flexible work contracts. The shift wasand implemented. The speed and the quality of outsupported by labour market reforms, which expancomes will depend on how legal frameworks andded the scope of non-regular forms of employment.
policies, industrial relations, corporate structures,
It was also made possible by the fact that Japan’s
management practices as well as educational institucompany-based labour unions – in any case only
tions and social value systems are able to adjust.
existent in larger corporations – have always represented core employees and may not have been unJapan is an excellent case at hand. Presently, 28
happy with having the privileges of their members
percent of its population is of age 65 or older, a shareshielded by ever thicker layers of peripheral employtwice as high as in 1995, and bound to further inment.
crease. The working-age population, defined by theage group from 15 to 64 years, declined by 14 perThe “logical” reaction of coping with a more diverse
cent between 1995, when it had reached its peak,
workforce by diversifying respective employment
and 2018. Surprisingly, actual employment increased
relations basically reproduced existing labor market
by more than 3 percent over the same period of time.
segmentations by gender and age. The gender wage
This was above all brought about by 4.2 million more
gap in Japan remains the second highest amongpeople aged 65 and above entering employment. In
OECD countries, the largest factor being thatthe age group of 15 to 64 years, 0.8 million more forworking-age women despite similar educational
eigners and 1.0 million more Japanese women foundachievements are predominantly hired on a non-rejobs. Taken together, this more than oﬀset the 4.0
Many advanced economies have to cope with increased global competition and fast technologicalchange while being confronted with a rapidly ageing
workforce. For all of them, basically the same solutions apply:
increasing the labor participationof women and elderly persons,hiring more foreign workers, investing in education and training, and advancing the automation of production and services.
The common key variables underlying or addressed by thesemeasures are diversity and productivity.

German Institute for Japanese Studies, Tokyo

Newsletter 59｜July 2019gular basis. The growth of non-regular
employment also contributed to asteady rise in income inequality. Japan’s income inequality and poverty
indices are today well above theOECD average. The hiring of foreign
workers, too, mainly occurred in lowwage segments of labour intensive
manufacturing and service industries.
The work environment in Japan does
not seem to have been conducive tohighly skilled foreign workers.
Symposium on genderequality and workstylereform at the Japan Instituteof Social and Economic
Aﬀairs in November 2018

The article summarizes findings of the DIJ project“Work-related diversity inJapan – New Risks and Opportunities for Whom?” With
the aim to shed light on what
diversity and processes ofdiversification mean for contemporary Japan, the projectexamines the multifaceted
implications of growing diversity in employment for
both the individual and Japanese society as a whole.
The topic is approachedfrom a multidisciplinary perspective encompassing sociology, economics, politicalscience, psychology as wellas media and literary studies.
More details about the project, present and former research members and related
publications, workshops andconferences can be found on
our website:▶︎ dij.tokyo/diversity

It is not only the quality of jobs created that became a concern to policymakers. The discriminatory treatmentof non-regular workers pertains not
only to wages, but also to training andcareer opportunities. However, without
improvements and adjustments in skill
levels, Japan will face diﬃculties inmastering the digital transformationand in realizing its vision of a supersmart society as depicted by the policy framework of “Society 5.0”. The
growth of low-wage jobs has also
been detrimental to productivity
growth – an imperative in a “superageing” society. Japan’s labour productivity, measured in terms of grossvalue added per hour, remains below
the OECD average and more than 30
percent below the German and US
levels.
Those on the other side of the linewith secure jobs, higher income andcareer prospects are not necessarilyon the bright side either. Companies
expect loyalty and diligence in returnfor employment guarantees. Regular
employees suﬀer under time pressure
and long overtime work. This makes it
extremely diﬃcult to start a family or
to fulfil family obligations alongsidework. This is one of the main reasons
why women in particular, who according to still-dominant social norms are
expected to shoulder the lion’s shareof domestic chores, often decide tostay single or take up part-time work.
Overly long working hours are of course also detrimental to productivity as
they cause fatigue and negatively affect employees’ physical and mental
health.
The second Abe administration, which
took oﬃce in December 2012, soon
tackled employment issues as part of“Abenomics”. Under slogans such as“womenomics”, “productivity revolution” and “workstyle reform” and withthe propagation of inclusion as a core

German Institute for Japanese Studies, Tokyo

Participants of the workshop on diversity
management at the University of
Göttingen in March 2019

concept of “Society 5.0,” “Abenomics” not only drew widespread public attention, but also introduced policy measures ranging from appeals to
promote women into management
positions to stricter regulations concerning overtime work and the better
treatment of non-regular workers. Recent developments are promising andare prominently advertised by the government. Yet, they mainly constitute
soft law as they lack concrete sanctions, and might have little eﬀect beyond what the very tight labour market
already dictates to employers.
Fundamental change cannot be
brought about by fighting the symptoms. The basic structural characteristics of Japan’s employment systemand corporate human resource management practices need to be called
into question. Overcoming the segmentation between regular and nonregular employment and creating awork environment which gives employees more discretion over theirworking time and careers are prerequisites for combining diversity withequality and inclusion and for achieving the productivity growth needed tocope with demographic change andthe digital revolution. Policymakers arewell aware of the issues. What islacking are stricter measures withmore eﬀective sanctions to encouragebusiness leaders and personnel departments to overcome traditional
structures and practices. Last but notleast, social values related to workand family will have to follow suit.
— F.W.
1Statistical sources used: Population Census,Labour Force Survey, Employment Status Survey (https://www.e-stat.go.jp).

Newsletter 59｜July 2019

New Era

Japan’s new era has a
name: Reiwa
It was no April Fool’s Day joke: onApril 1st, chief cabinet secretary Yoshihide Suga announced Reiwa as
the new Japanese nengō (also gengō). On May 1st, 2019, the new Emperor Naruhito has ascended thethrone on under this new era namewhich could be translated as “RuleJapan” or “administered peace”.
The Japanese Foreign Ministry ordered
its missions abroad instantly to haveReiwa translated into foreign languages
as “beautiful harmony”. A nine-member
expert commission – including for the
first time two women – had chosen
Reiwa as its favourite from six candidates. The kanji for rei was selected forthe first time in the over 1300-year-old
history of the nengō, while the kanji forwa was selected for the 20th time.
Reiwa follows the era name Heisei(1989-2019). Many commentators suspect that the choice of wa may be an
explicit link to the preceding Shōwa era(1926-89) because it includes the samecharacter for wa. Prime Minister Abe

praised the “first-time” selection of kanji
from the “rich body of Japanese national culture which as Japanese one
should be proud of” as timely. By this,he was referring to how, until now, allnengō had been chosen from Chineseclassics. However, Japanese scholarsof literature quickly revealed that thetext passage containing Reiwa had
been used in China for several centuries
before it was incorporated into theManyōshū, a Japanese collection ofsongs, in the 8th century. It does notseem easy after all for “Japanese national culture” to rid itself from its Chineseorigins.
In addition, the tradition of nengō as era
names originates, of course, from China. Polls indicate an approval rate of thenew nengō between 62 (Yomiuri) and 87(Fuji/Sankei) percent. Critics have pointed out that the Manyōshū was heavily
used for nationalistic indoctrination during Japan’s imperialistic and militaristic
period and that it was therefore inappropriate as a source of an era name.
— T.W.

On April 1st 2019 Yoshihide
Suga announces Reiwa as
the new era name for Japan

DFG-funded Research Project

Nanjing War Diaries
When Japanese troops in autumn 1937
advanced to the Chinese capital ofNanjing, the German representative of
the Siemens Company, John Rabe
(1882-1950), decided to remain in thecity.
Until his return to Germany in February
1938, he led the International Safety Zone
there. In this role as ‘de facto mayor’ ofNanjing, Rabe helped to save thousandsof Chinese from death of cold, starvation,
or Japanese aggression (i.e., the ‘Nanjing
Massacre’).
When his diaries were discovered in 1996
and partly published in the following years, Rabe was called the ‘Oskar Schindlerof China’. For the first time, the completeversions of Rabe’s detailed diaries – written in Nanjing and Berlin – have become
available and can now be analyzed in thecontext of other war diaries, memoirs,The research activities of thisproject can be followed on:▶︎ rabediaries.hypotheses.org

John Rabe commemorated as“an international hero” in China(John Rabe House exhibition inNanjing)

letters, and archival sources from Germany, Japan, China, and the US.
The German Research Foundation (DFG)
has awarded Torsten Weber a three-year
grant to conduct this research project onJohn Rabe’s Nanjing Diaries.

German Institute for Japanese Studies, TokyoTorsten Weberis a historian at the DIJ withresearch foci in the modern
history of Japanese-Chinese
relations and interactions.
weber@dijtokyo.org

Newsletter 59｜July 2019

Upcoming Events

Short message

DIJ Library now with online access to theJapanese National Diet Library
The library of the German Institute for Japanese Studies has been recognized by the Japanese Ministryof Education as an institution that is permitted to duplicate library materials. Consequently the DIJ Libraryis being granted online access to digital documentsof the Japanese National Diet Library. — F.W.
Short message
Studying Japan: The impact oftransnationalization andtechnological innovation on
methods, fieldwork andresearch ethics
Renowned scholars fromAustralia, Europe, Singapore
and the US will discuss newtrends, opportunities andchallenges that have changed
the conduct of research on
Japan.
Venue:▶︎ Freie Universität BerlinDate:▶︎ 23. — 24. Juli 2019

DIJ Monograph series is now
Open Access
Since June 2019 the DIJ's monograph series Monographien aus dem Deutschen Institut für Japanstudien is freely available for download via the institute'swebsite. All editions starting from 1999 are Open Access, and the most recent volumes will be madeavailable one year after their initial publication. Singlechapter downloads are also available for edited volumes. — S.E.
You can access the monograph series via▶︎ https://dij.tokyo/monographs

Staff News
Markus Heckel is a Senior Research Fellow at the German Institute for Japanese Studies (DIJ) since November 2018. From 2012
to 2018 he worked at the Chair for the Study of Economic Institutions, Innovation and East Asian Development at Goethe University Frankfurt. He received his PhD from the University of Duisburg-Essen with a study on the Bank of Japan.

More Information:▶︎ dij.tokyo/studying-jp

Info
The DIJ Newsletter ispublished twice a year, inGerman and English. Bothversions are available online
on our website.
For a printedcopy, please contact:
dinkel@dijtokyo.org

Visit us online:

Under the DIJ research program “Risks and Opportunities in Japan”, he is currently working on a research project about “Monetary Policy and Central Bank Independence”. Main research interests
include macroeconomics, the political economy of central banks and labor economics.
heckel@dijtokyo.org

Tobias Söldner left the DIJ on February 1st after 5 years as a Senior Research Fellow tofocus on a career as an intercultural coach/trainer. While at the DIJ he conducted psychological research on acculturation, internationalization of the Japanese workforce, andpersonality differences on the national level (“National Character”). A common elementof both his projects at the DIJ and numerous presentations at international scientificconferences was a strong focus on the interplay between individual thought and behavior, social group membership, and parameters of the larger cultural environment.
Picture Credits: Page 1 {Participants of the workshop} German Institute for Japanese Studies. Page 2{Participants of the symposium and workshop} JDZB / DIJ. Page 3 {Yoshihide Suga} Prime Minister’s Oﬃceof Japan (CC BY 4.0), {Memorial plaque at John Rabe House Nanjing} Torsten Weber. Page 4 {Event poster}German Institute for Japanese Studies, {Website of the NDL Japan} National Diet Library Japan, {MarkusHeckel} Markus Heckel.
Author Key: S.E. - Sven Eichelberg; T.W. - Torsten Weber; F.W. - Franz Waldenberger

www.

dijtokyo.org@dij_tokyo

Publisher: Deutsches Institut für Japanstudien (DIJ).
Person responsible according to the German Press Law: Franz Waldenberger.
Editor: Sven Eichelberg (editor in chief).
Address: DIJ Tokyo, Jochi Kioizaka Bldg. 2F, 7-1 Kioicho, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo 102-0094, Japan
Tel.: +81 (0)3 3222-5077 — Fax: +81 (0)3 3222-5420

German Institute for Japanese Studies, Tokyo

Newsletter 59｜July 2019