Get 20M+ Full-Text Papers For Less Than $1.50/day. Start a 14-Day Trial for You or Your Team.

Learn More →

Employment of senior workers in Japan

Employment of senior workers in Japan The Japanese HRM practices and policies resulting from the compromises between labor, management, and the state emerged after WWII and coalesced in the 1960s. The subsequent emergence of a very cohesive, stable, and dynamic employment system is largely credited with playing an important role in Japan’s economic success and the stability of Japanese society in the postwar period. The treatment of senior workers after mandatory retirement occupied a specific place in this system. A mix of institutional, socio-cultural, economic, and demographic factors created a virtuous circle, and Japan was considered a model of management of those retired workers. Companies were able to maintain employment for many of them in relatively good social and economic conditions beneficial for both parties, even after mandatory retirement, and this assured a good transition to definitive retirement. However, despite Japan’s relative success in this regard, this paper exposes why the traditional HRM policies and practices are now considered socially and economically unsustainable in the treatment of retired senior workers. It argues that Japan cannot afford under-utilizing senior workers during the pre- and post-retirement periods of their career in the way that traditional policies and practices have institutionalized. Not only does Japan’s economy need senior workers, but not giving them the opportunity to maintain decent standards of living would have dire social and economic consequences. This calls for revamping the HRM system, so that the talent of senior workers can be used for their own benefit, while contributing to their employers and to society at large. http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png Contemporary Japan Taylor & Francis

Employment of senior workers in Japan

Debroux, Philippe
Contemporary Japan , Volume 34 (1): 29 – Jan 2, 2022
Download PDF

Employment of senior workers in Japan

Abstract

The Japanese HRM practices and policies resulting from the compromises between labor, management, and the state emerged after WWII and coalesced in the 1960s. The subsequent emergence of a very cohesive, stable, and dynamic employment system is largely credited with playing an important role in Japan’s economic success and the stability of Japanese society in the postwar period. The treatment of senior workers after mandatory retirement occupied a specific place in this system. A mix...
Loading next page...
 
/lp/taylor-francis/employment-of-senior-workers-in-japan-SL0bPEKjM2
Publisher
Taylor & Francis
Copyright
© 2022 German Institute for Japanese Studies
ISSN
1869-2737
eISSN
1869-2729
DOI
10.1080/18692729.2022.2028228
Publisher site
See Article on Publisher Site

Abstract

The Japanese HRM practices and policies resulting from the compromises between labor, management, and the state emerged after WWII and coalesced in the 1960s. The subsequent emergence of a very cohesive, stable, and dynamic employment system is largely credited with playing an important role in Japan’s economic success and the stability of Japanese society in the postwar period. The treatment of senior workers after mandatory retirement occupied a specific place in this system. A mix of institutional, socio-cultural, economic, and demographic factors created a virtuous circle, and Japan was considered a model of management of those retired workers. Companies were able to maintain employment for many of them in relatively good social and economic conditions beneficial for both parties, even after mandatory retirement, and this assured a good transition to definitive retirement. However, despite Japan’s relative success in this regard, this paper exposes why the traditional HRM policies and practices are now considered socially and economically unsustainable in the treatment of retired senior workers. It argues that Japan cannot afford under-utilizing senior workers during the pre- and post-retirement periods of their career in the way that traditional policies and practices have institutionalized. Not only does Japan’s economy need senior workers, but not giving them the opportunity to maintain decent standards of living would have dire social and economic consequences. This calls for revamping the HRM system, so that the talent of senior workers can be used for their own benefit, while contributing to their employers and to society at large.

Journal

Contemporary Japan – Taylor & Francis

Published: Jan 2, 2022

Keywords: Aging society; neo-liberalism; pension eligibility; psychological contract; dual labor market; life-cycle contracts

References

  • The Economic Impact of Age Discrimination
  • White Paper on Gender Equality 2020
  • Employment of Elderly Workers in Japan: The Limits of the Current System and Assessment of the Conditions for the Emergence of a New Dynamics
  • Elderly Workers in Japan
  • From Employment Security to Managerial Precarity: Japan’s Changing Welfare-Work Nexus and its Impacts on Mid-career Workers
  • Employment Policy Issues in Light of Abenomics: Aims of the Policy to Raise the Minimum Wage and Negative Scenarios
  • My Brilliant Career? New Organizational Forms and Changing Managerial Careers in Japan, the UK, and USA
  • The ILO’s Decent Work Agenda
  • Comparing HRM Responses to Aging Societies in Germany and Japan: Towards a New Research Agenda
  • Vocational Ability Development of White-collar Workers
  • Survey on employment and life for aged 60s
  • Survey of the employment of the elderly
  • Vocational Ability Development of White-collar Workers Japan Institute of Labor
  • Equal pay for equal work for temporary workers
  • Why Is There Mandatory Retirement?
  • Long-term Care Insurance Adoption in East Asia: Politics, Ideas, and Institutions
  • Nihon ni okeru kōrei nenreisha koyō to jinji kanri [Employment and Human Resource Management of Senior Workers in Japan]
  • Prolonging Working Life in Japan: Issues and Practices for Elderly Employment in an Aging Society
  • Pension eligibility
  • Amendments to the act on stabilization of employment of elderly persons
  • Rōdō hakusho: koyō antei o kiban toshita yutakana kinrōsha seikatsu e no kadai [Labor white paper: issues to achieve an affluent life for workers based on the employment security]
  • Japanese-style Human Resource Management and Its Historical Origins
  • 65 -Sai teinen sei ni okeru shōgu no jissai [Case studies of challenges of companies with retirement age at 65 years old]
  • Re-employment of Older White-collar Workers
  • Job switching hits 7-year high in Japan
  • Psychological and Implied Contracts in Organisations
  • Age and Productivity Capacity: Descriptions, Causes, and Policy Options
  • Rōdōryoku chōsa heisei 30nen heikin [Average of labor force survey 2018]
  • How Strict Is Japanese Law on Employers?
  • Japanese retirees in big demand as crunch worsens
  • Closing the Gap between the Retirement Age and the Normal Pensionable Age in Japan
  • Japan age dependency ratio
  • Live Long and Prosper, Aging in East Asia and Pacific
  • Kōnenreisha koyō jōkyō hōkokusho [Report on the employment situation of senior employees]
  • Long-term care insurance
  • Deleveraging and Monetary Policy: Japan since the 1990s and the United States since 2007
  • World population prospects. Japan fertility rate 1950-2021
  • Keisha koyō o meguru hōseido no genjō to kadai [Current situation and issues of the legal system related to senior employment]
  • Serious Flaws in Japan’s New Equal Pay for Equal Work Law
  • Nihon kōgyo ni okeru jinji dōkyu seido to yakushoku shōshin seido no jittai [Current situation of the HRM system related to executive treatment and hierarchical system in Japanese companies]
  • Nihon kōgyo ni okeru teinen seido no jittai to mondai [Ten problems and current situation of the retirement system in Japanese companies]
  • Emerging mid-career transformation in Japan