Sociological Theory of Employment Relations

Abstract

The long economic recession after the serious asset deflation in the early 1990s marked the start of a series of reform efforts developed at various levels of Japanese society During this period, the rate of economic growth was constantly below that of western advanced industrial countries,1 and this was seen as a clear sign of the maladaptation of economic and employment institutions towards liberalization pressures and industrial structural changes. Industrial policies and industrial organizations (for example, keiretsu and the main bank system) and also Japanese employment relations, characterized by a ‘lifelong’ employment and ‘seniority’ wage system, are particularly called into question2 (Kikkawa 2005). Against the backdrop of a struggling economy, mounting distrust against these institutions within the business sector, which had supported the rapid and stable economic growth until the end of the 1980s, spurred society-wide reform movements. ‘Deregulation (kisei kanwa)’ became the phrase of the period.