“wh Factors Account For The Growth Of The A-Typical Workforce In Japan?
“What factors account for the growth of the a-typical workforce in Japan?”
Japan has steadily risen in stature since the Second World War, to become
a nation known globally for its driven workforce and since the
collectiveness of Japanese culture has been carried over to the companies
(Kashima and Callan, 1994 cited by Selmer 2001), it is now used as a guide
by many other countries - such as America - due to its high productivity, loyalty amongst employees and employers and a general sense of efficiency and innovation in business. However, in 1997 /1998 Japans’ economy suffered a recession due to the Asian Financial Crisis and intense competition from rivals, both nationally and globally, and this has since changed the shape of employment within Japan. It used to be the norm that students were recruited from university or college and that they were expected to be loyal and spend their entire career life working for one company. Since this economic crisis occurred, companies were forced to make countless employees redundant and so the notion of lifetime employment was then unattainable – so instead to save costs temporary or part time employees were used in order so that the companies could become reactive to current market trends in the future (Weathers 2001). Ever since this, the profile of an atypical worker or part time worker was created and according to Sato (2001) it’s when there isn’t a continuous employment relationship with only one company and even then the employment is only on a part time basis. Sato hence saw that atypical employment was “a new way of working” for Japan and since then it has increased in popularity due to many factors that I consequently will now explain.
However, throughout this essay, there are 3 main views that dominate the argument and they should be briefly explained. Sato (2001) believed that atypical employment was a free choice made by a...
Please login to view the full essay...