Title: Portraits of the Japanese workplace : labor movements, workers, and managers /
Authors: Kumazawa, Makoto, 1938-
Publisher: Westview Press,
Year: 1996
Subjects: Industrial relations Japan; Industrial management Japan; Labor movement Japan; Labor unions Japan; Women Employment Japan.; Work environment Japan.
Abstract: "In this groundbreaking volume, one of Japan's most insightful contemporary labor analysts assesses the "light and shadow" of Japanese-style management, explaining why Japanese employees have stood apart from workers in other industrialized countries. Kumazawa brings to life the intense combination of competition and community within Japanese workplaces. He highlights dilemmas facing Japanese labor on the shop floor and in the labor movement. His discussion ranges from the role of women to issues of quality control and self-management. Highly critical of the hierarchical and undemocratic nature of Japanese industry, he offers a sympathetic view from the inside of the difficulties of surviving in the workplaces of contemporary Japan."--BOOK JACKET.
Contents: Introduction -- The "take-off" of Japanese workers -- Features of organized workers in postwar Japan -- Limits and costs of the postwar labor movement -- Light and shadow in quality control circles -- A postwar history of the workplace : management and unions in the steel industry -- A postwar history of women workers -- Twenty years of a bank worker's life -- Working like mad to stay in place : reflections on Japanese salary-men today.