Hirosuke Kawanishi – författare

What shapes the decisions of employees in Japan? The authors of this comprehensive and up-to-date survey of the relationship between work and society in Japan argue that individual decisions about work can only be understood through the broader social context. Many factors combine to affect such choices including the structuring of labour markets, social policy and, of course, global influences which have come increasingly to impinge on the organisation of work and life generally. By considering labour markets, social policy and relationships between labour and management, the book offers penetrating insights into contemporary Japanese society and glimpses of what might come in the future. Underlying the discussion is a challenge to the celebration of Japanese management practices which has dominated the literature for the last three decades. This is an important book for students of sociology and economics.

What shapes the decisions of employees in Japan? The authors of this comprehensive and up-to-date survey of the relationship between work and society in Japan argue that individual decisions about work can only be understood through the broader social context. Many factors combine to affect such choices including the structuring of labour markets, social policy and, of course, global influences which have come increasingly to impinge on the organisation of work and life generally. By considering labour markets, social policy and relationships between labour and management, the book offers penetrating insights into contemporary Japanese society and glimpses of what might come in the future. Underlying the discussion is a challenge to the celebration of Japanese management practices which has dominated the literature for the last three decades. This is an important book for students of sociology and economics.

First Published in 1998. This volume first appeared in Japanese as Sengo Nihon no Sõgi to Ningen (1986). Published by Nihon Hyõronsha in Tokyo it included the reflections of nine union leaders who had taken their unions through some of Japan's most important post-war industrial disputes. In 1983 each of the leaders came to a student seminar at Chiba University near Tokyo. The talks were recorded and then transcribed with two aims in mind. One was to provide information on the events which led to the formation of Japan's industrial relations as we know them today. During the 1950s and early 1960s a number of Japan's key labour unions lost a succession of campaigns to establish and to defend what they saw as the natural rights of their members. Many of the unions experienced schisms, and the end result was a fundamental shift in the balance of power between labour and management.

During the 1980s many Japanese began to feel the pressures of ‘internationalizing.’ At the same time, Japanese-style industrial relations came to receive wide international attention. For most people ‘Japanese-style industrial relations’ came to mean the ‘three sacred treasures’: lifetime employment, seniority wages and enterprise unionism. During the 1980s many Japanese began to feel the pressures of ‘internationalizing.’ At the same time, Japanese-style industrial relations came to receive wide international attention. For most people ‘Japanese-style industrial relations’ came to mean the ‘three sacred treasures’: lifetime employment, seniority wages and enterprise unionism.