This shifting consciousness is also influencing employer loyalty. The increase of working women is another important factor contributing to these changes. More women with small children continue to work. This tendency makes it difficult to preserve the work style of the past, heretofore supported by full-time housewives. Corporate strategies, designed under the premise that rapid economic growth will continue, are now forced to reform.
Creative personnel are also now necessary in Japan.
In the past, Japanese corporations could have advanced into new sectors while preserving the existing sectors. However, because of the drop in overall growth, it became impossible for them to advance into new sectors unless the unprofitable sectors were reduced as a countermeasure. It also demanded that the workers be knowledgeable about issues concerning completely different specialties. Under the seniority wage system, the increase of middle-aged and elderly workers and the decrease of young workers will result in an increased average wage and thus bring on higher labor costs. The economic power of the Asian NIEs has transformed Japan's position from a nation that follows to a nation that is followed.