Transforming the Japanese Labour Market: Deregulation and the Rise of Temporary Staffing

Abstract

Coe N. M., Johns J. and Ward K. Transforming the Japanese labour market: deregulation and the rise of temporary staffing, Regional Studies. The Japanese employment system has undergone significant structural change since the early 1990s. Widespread deregulation and industrial restructuring have increased the number of non-regular workers in Japan, including temporary or ‘dispatch’ workers supplied by temporary staffing agencies, who numbered some 1.6 million and 2.8% of the total working population by 2007. This paper charts the evolution of the Japanese temporary staffing industry in three stages from 1947 to the present. These phases are delimited by two important regulatory changes with respect to temporary staffing: partial legalization in 1986, and full legalization in 1999. The paper argues that a distinct Japanese temporary staffing industry has been produced through a multi-institutional field involving the interaction of a range of actors. While government deregulation has been the key shaper of the industry’s emergence, other actors, including labour unions, transnational agencies, and domestic agencies, have played important roles at various times. While the growth of the industry is best interpreted as a gradual evolution of the traditional employment system, the size of temporary staffing employment – and non-regular working more generally – has now reached the stage where it has become a significant political and regulatory issue.

Coe N. M., Johns J. et Ward K. La transformation du marché du travail japonais: la déréglementation et l’essor de l’emploi intérimaire, Regional Studies. Le marché du travail japonais a connu d’importants changements structurels depuis le début des années 1990. La déréglementation généralisée et la restructuration industrielle ont augmenté le nombre de travailleurs irréguliers au Japon, y compris les intérimaires fournis par les missions d’intérim, dont quelque 1,6 millions, représentant 2,8% de la population active globale en 2007. Cet article cherche à tracer l’évolution des missions d’intérim au Japon à trois étapes, de 1947 jusqu’au présent. Ces étapes sont délimitées en fonction de deux importants changements réglementaires quant à l’interim: la légalisation partielle en 1986, et la légalisation pleine en 1999. On affirme qu’une mission d’intérim distincte a été établie au Japon à partir d’un domaine à institutions multiples, impliquant la participation d’une gamme d’acteurs. Alors que la déréglemetation s’avère la force motrice clé de l’essor de l’intérim, d’autres acteurs, y compris les syndicats ouvriers, les agences extérieures et intérieures, ont joué d’importants rôles à diverses reprises. Tandis que l’on peut interpréter l’essor de l’intérim comme l’évolution régulière d’un marché du travail classique, l’importance de l’effectif intérimaire – et de l’emploi irrégulier en général – est arrivé au point où il est devenu une importante question de politique et de réglementation.

Intérim Japon Travailleurs irréguliers Déréglementation Changement institutionnel

Coe N. M., Johns J. und Ward K. Der Wandel des japanischen Arbeitsmarkts: Deregulierung und die Zunahme von Zeitarbeit, Regional Studies. Seit den frühen neunziger Jahren hat der japanische Arbeitsmarkt signifikante strukturelle Änderungen erfahren. Durch eine umfassende Deregulierung und industrielle Umstrukturierung hat sich die Anzahl der unregelmäßig beschäftigten Arbeitnehmer in Japan erhöht; hierzu gehören auch die Zeit- bzw. Vertragsarbeitskräfte von Arbeitsvermittlungen, deren Anzahl sich im Jahr 2007 auf über 1,6 Millionen bzw. 2,8% der gesamten erwerbstätigen Bevölkerung belief. In diesem Beitrag wird die Entwicklung der japanischen Zeitarbeitsbranche in drei Phasen von 1947 bis heute beschrieben. Diese Phasen werden durch zwei wichtige Gesetzesänderungen hinsichtlich der Zeitarbeit definiert: einer teilweisen Legalisierung im Jahr 1986 und einer vollständigen Legalisierung im Jahr 1999. In diesem Beitrag wird argumentiert, dass auf einem multiinstitutionellen Feld mit den Wechselwirkungen eines breiten Spektrums von Akteuren eine charakteristische japanische Zeitarbeitsbranche entstanden ist. Der wichtigste Faktor für das Entstehen dieser Branche war zwar die staatliche Deregulierung, doch auch andere Akteure, wie zum Beispiel Gewerkschaften, transnationale Agenturen und einheimische Agenturen, haben zu verschiedenen Zeiten wichtige Rollen gespielt. Das Wachstum der Branche lässt sich am besten als allmähliche Evolution des traditionellen Arbeitsmarkts interpretieren, doch die Zeitarbeit – und generell die unregelmäßigen Arbeitsverhältnisse – haben inzwischen einen Umfang erreicht, der sie zu einem wichtigen politischen und behördlichen Thema macht.

Zeitarbeit Japan Unregelmäßig beschäftigte Arbeitnehmer Deregulierung Institutionelle Veränderung

Coe N. M., Johns J. y Ward K. Transformación del mercado laboral japonés: desregulación y aumento del personal temporal, Regional Studies. El sistema laboral japonés ha sufrido un cambio estructural significativo desde principios de los noventa. La extensa desregulación y reestructuración industrial han aumentado el número de trabajadores no regulares en Japón, incluyendo los trabajadores temporales o ‘migratorios’ suministrados por las agencias de personal temporal, que representaban unos 1,6 millones de trabajadores y un 2,8% del total de la población laboral en 2007. En este artículo presentamos la evolución de la industria japonesa de personal temporal en tres etapas desde 1947 hasta ahora. Estas fases están delimitadas por dos importantes cambios regulatorios con respecto a los trabajadores temporales: la legalización parcial en 1986, y la legalización completa en 1999. En este artículo sostenemos que en Japón se ha creado una industria diferente de trabajadores temporales mediante un campo multi-institucional en el que interaccionan muchos actores diferentes. Aunque el factor más importante de la aparición de esta industria ha sido la desregulación gubernamental, también otros actores, incluyendo los sindicatos, las agencias transnacionales y las agencias nacionales, han desempeñado importantes papeles en momentos diferentes. Si bien el crecimiento de la industria se interpreta mejor como una evolución gradual del sistema laboral tradicional, el número de los trabajadores temporales, y en general de los trabajadores no regulares, ahora ha llegado a la fase en que se ha convertido en uno de los temas más importantes en el ámbito político y regulatorio.

Personal temporal Japón Trabajadores no regulares Desregulación Cambio institucional

Keywords:

• Temporary staffing
• Japan
• Non-regular workers
• Deregulation
• Institutional change

JEL classifications:

• J21
• J44
• J58
• J63

Acknowledgements

This paper draws on a wider project exploring the globalization of the temporary staffing industry that ran from 2004 to 2006 (Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) Project Number R000-23-0616). Kevin Ward also acknowledges the receipt of a 2005 Philip Leverhulme Prize. The project was an equal, three-way collaborative effort and all papers are authored alphabetically. The authors would like to acknowledge the financial support of the ESRC, and to thank all the respondents for their time and involvement in this research. Many thanks are due to Mayumi Nakamura, Yoshihide Sano, and Hiroki Sato of the University of Tokyo’s Institute of Social Science for their invaluable advice and research assistance during fieldwork. Thanks also to Karen Shire and Jun Imai for help with data issues; and to the referees for their helpful comments. The paper also benefited from audience feedback during presentations made at the 2nd Global Conference on Economic Geography (June 2007) and at the Annual Conference of the Royal Geographical Society with Institute of British Geographers (September 2006). The usual disclaimers apply.

Notes

Another key contribution to this debate was the airing in 2006 and 2007 of three ‘NHK Special Documentaries’ – a highly respected television programme – on the working poor. Shinoda (2009) describes the widening and deepening of media and cultural interest in the phenomenon in more detail.

Conducting data collection in Japan necessitated a rigorous and self-reflective methodological approach to ‘penetrate’ the supposedly ‘closed’ world of Japanese information (Bestor et al., 2003). While qualitative methodologies are now the most commonly used approach in cross-cultural studies, there is a general lack of specific focus on cross-cultural interviewing and its implications for data collection and data interpretation (Shah, 2004). There were clear differences between the present authors’ research experiences when interviewing non-Japanese respondents (often Western European or American white males) and Japanese firm owners/managers and government officials. The authors’ positionalities shifted dependent upon a number of factors including the interviewing researchers (as the team was of mixed gender), the method of gaining access (through ‘cold-calling’ or ‘snowballing’), a familiarity with the firm or organization (high levels of contact had been maintained with some transnational firms across a range of geographies), and, finally, a familiarity of the interviewees with the global staffing industry and other staffing markets. Overall, during the research process it became apparent that the authors were not complete ‘cultural outsiders’, but that this resulted more from Japanese understandings of Western culture and society than vice versa. The authors also benefited greatly from discussions with the translator and academic contacts at the University of Tokyo.

Regular work is taken to refer to full-time employees with ‘open’ (non-limited term) contracts. Non-regular employees have employment restricted for less than one year in length – as written into Japanese labour law – and in general do not have the same fringe benefits (such as company housing, pensions, health coverage) as regular employees (Rebick, 2005). Non-regular work is highly gendered, with women making up 70% of the total; such jobs accounted for 53.1% of all female employment in 2007, and some 18% of the male workforce (although this had risen from just 8.8% in 1997).

Interestingly, and although it is beyond the remit of the current paper, the shifting composition of temporary staffing in Japan has also altered the intra-national geography of this employment type, with the growth in manufacturing placements driving a relative shift away from the Tokyo region towards long-established manufacturing centres such as Yokohama, Osaka, Nagoya, Kobe, and Fukuoka.

As workers may be registered with, and accept work placements from, more than one temporary staffing agency, such data do not always tally exactly with those provided through the Employment Status Survey.

While in many contexts – including Japan – the national scale is the dominant level at which labour market policy is formulated, in some contexts other spatial scales may be important. In Federal states, for example, regional/state/provincial administrations may be involved in the different areas of policy and regulatory activity that affect temporary staffing. The European Union is by far the most significant example of how employment legislation at the macro-regional scale can impinge upon national policy-making.

There have been several well-known attempts in the literature to classify countries along such dimensions, either through explicitly focusing on the labour dimension, for example, ‘modes of labour regulation’ (Peck, 1996), or by embedding labour within broader notions of ‘varieties of capitalism’ (Hall and Soskice, 2001) and ‘national business systems’ (Whitley, 1992).

In a similar way, inward investments by Korn/Ferry and Egon Zehnder in 1972 and Drake Beam Morin in 1982 were significant in launching Japan’s executive search and outplacement markets, respectively, during this period (Japan External Trade Organization (JETRO), 2003).

A large-scale business grouping of networked, affiliated companies that grew to prominence from the mid-1950s onwards.

The thirteen initial occupations were software development, machinery design, broadcast equipment operation, broadcast programme direction, office equipment operation, translation services, secretarial work, filing, investigative research, financial affairs, transaction document creators, demonstrators, and tour guides. Building cleaners, construction equipment operators, and receptionists were added later in 1986, and research and development, business operation planning, editing, advertising, interior design, announcing, office equipment training, telemarketing, sales engineering, and broadcast set/prop work were added in 1996 (JETRO, 2003).

Interestingly, Vogel (2006) also suggests that there were important sectoral variations, with smaller firms in the service sector being far stronger advocates of liberalization than large keiretsu manufacturers in competitive sectors keen to protect their core workforces.

Growing global interest in the Japanese market was reflected by the international staffing association (CIETT) holding a major conference in the country in May 2002.

For the data, see https://www.tempstaff.co.jp/english/corporate/ (accessed on 13 May 2009). TempStaff also established a partnership with US transnational Kelly Services in 2005 on the basis of the old staff dispatching division of Sony Corporation, but it sold the operation to Kelly Services in 2007.

For the data, see http://www.pasonagroup.co.jp/english/company/ (accessed on 13 May 2009). These developments raise the question of how the competitive dynamics of Japan’s staffing market will evolve over time. In longer-established markets, leading agencies have not been able to move towards higher value-added activities as quickly as they would like, and hence have been largely unable to insulate themselves from the harshly competitive conditions and low margins that prevail in general staffing. The comparatively young Japanese staffing market is still characterized by relatively high profit margins (in international terms) in all areas of activity and hence it will be important to monitor the shifting balance of different staffing activities as the market matures.