Understanding Behavior in Japan's Academic Marketplace

Abstract

IN recent years, several empirically based studies of blue collar and white collar Japanese workers-notably by Taira, Hazama, Marsh and Mannari, Cole, and Evans-have resulted in a substantial revision of our understanding of Japanese labor markets.2 These studies have disputed previous claims that Japanese workers commit themselves irrevocably to their employers and have shown that familiar economic and non-economic incentives affect marketplace behavior. Moreover, while these studies recognize the importance of paternalistic practices in shaping employment relations, they prove that these practices are not simple reflections of traditional values. In this paper, we wish to adopt the insights of this revisionist literature to a consideration of Japan's academic marketplace. To support our argument, we will present several tables with empirical findings from government documents and from two surveys we conducted of university professors. These are a Representative Survey of 805 scholars conducted in i967 and a survey of 220 recently Mobile Men conducted in I97I.3 Much of the academic gossip in Japan focuses on the powerful professors at leading universities who are said to control the rest of academia just as Grand Masters