CONTEMPORARY JAPAN: EDUCATION & WORK The Corporation |
| Much attention has been given to the rigor of the Japanese education system and workplace, both of which have certainly contributed to the country’s economic and technological growth. Japanese are expected from a young age to work hard and succeed in a highly competitive environment. In this video series, Harvard University professors Theodore Bestor and Helen Hardacre explain the educational system and path to postgraduate employment in Japan. |
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Theodore Bestor :: One of the common stereotypes about Japanese work life — working in corporations and business — is the notion that Japanese companies engage in lifetime employment. That you join a company or an organization when you finish your education, and that you stick with that company or organization until you retire. Now, historically that’s been true for part of this century, since World War II perhaps, but it’s only ever been true for a very small proportion of ordinary Japanese workers. It’s been true for males, but not for females. It’s been true for fairly well-educated employees, but not for less well-educated employees. It’s been true for mainly white-collar workers, rather than blue-collar workers. And it’s been true largely only in the biggest Japanese corporations. So, the huge multinational Japanese corporations that people know about, like Mitsubishi or Mitsui, have for part of this century had this practice of hiring people right out of college and keeping them on until they retire. But in fact the percentage of workers who have ever been part of a lifetime employment system in Japan is probably no more than 15 or 20 percent at any given time. And in the last few years, from the early 1990s onward as Japan’s been in a recession, those institutions have begun to crumble, so that it’s very rare now for people to expect to work for the same company throughout their life. |
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