Japan's Labour Management Relations example essay topic

Introduction The Historical Origins of Company ism: From Westernization to Indigenization BAN NO JUN JI During the 1980's bubble economy, social scientists in Japan and elsewhere showed great interest in Japanese-style management' and 'Japanese-style administration'. Although the bubble has burst, this interest persists. Now, however, instead of praise, the formerly admired patterns are subject to criticism. An important theme in investigations into Japanese-style management has been the effort to uncover the historical origins of the system. Given the severe economic problems of the first postwar decade, it is not surprising that scholars initially tended to look back to the prewar Showa period. The following statement made in 1952 by the well-known economist Takahashi Kamekichi explains this tendency: Japan's capital accumulation decreased greatly as a result of wartime waste.

At present it has sunk to levels as low as the Meiji period... Unfortunately, many of the country's present financial, administrative, and political leaders are people who established their careers during the prewar period when Japan's economy peaked. They have no experience with poverty and, therefore, do not know how to cope with it. This is one of the most serious problems in present Japan. 1 Takahashi's assessment of the prewar economy may be difficult to accept for Japanese who grew up being taught that prewar capitalism was very undeveloped. It also flies in the face of the frequently expressed notion that Japan's aggressive actions in Asia were a result of domestic poverty.

Nevertheless, according to Takahashi, the Sino-Japanese War broke out in 1937 when the Japanese economy was at its highest point. This view was endorsed by the famous "White Paper on the Economy" published in 1956, in which the following assessment appeared: In fiscal year 1955 the Japanese economy exceeded prewar standards in all areas except trade. Real national income was 113 per cent of the average of the three years from 1934 to 1936. Coincidently, the figure was identical to that of 1939, the highpoint of prewar Japan. Also, in fiscal 1955 the output of mining and manufacturing industries exceeded that of 1944, the highest previous total. In fiscal year 1955, therefore, the Japanese economy exceeded not only the prewar average but also its peaks.

2 I am grateful to Mr Michael Cuttler, Dr Dean Kinzley, and Professor Albert Craig for their help in completing my English text. All the quotations from Rodo were translated by Mr Cuttler, Dr Kinzley and Professor Craig corrected and revised my English draft. 3 Industrial Relations and the Union Movement TABATHA HIROKUNI I. Introduction It is a truism that Japan's labour-management relations are highly cooperative. This cooperation is widely believed to be rooted in particular features such as culture and employment practices such as lifetime employment and enterprise unionism. It is, however, a historical product rather than an intrinsic feature of Japanese society. Only since the mid- 1970's has Japan's harmonious system of industrial relations come to be highly praised.

Before the oil crisis of 1973, many Japanese regarded the industrialized societies of the West, including their systems of labour-management relations, as models for emulation. Labour leaders generally believed in an 'adversarial's ystem of labour-management relations, in which labour and management might cooperate but had different interests. The labour movement sought to overcome the defects of enterprise unions by establishing a movement based on industrial unions and socialism (or social democracy); in essence, it strove earnestly to change itself into a Western-style labour movement. The spring wage offensive, or shun to, led by the left-wing labour federation, Soho, represented an attempt to conduct Western-style industrial unionism based on an adversarial relationship between labour and capital, whereas Dome i, the right-wing labour federation, sought cooperative relations with management. Despite efforts to promote industrial unionism and other supposedly Western practices, the distinctive features of the Japanese employment system did not disappear. Indeed, they gained new prestige in the early 1970's when the OECD published a report praising the 'three treasures' of lifetime employment, seniority wages, and enterprise unions.

Moreover, organized labour's response to the oil crisis of 1973 presented a sharp contrast to the response of unions in the West. In Japan, as concern for the economy deepened, labour came to accept wage restraint and downsizing. The change in the labour movement's economic strategy helped strengthen the Japanese economy's international competitiveness from the mid-1970's, gaining favourable attention Notes Unless otherwise indicated, place of publication of works cited in the notes is Tokyo. Japanese names are ordered according to the convention family name first, followed by first name.

INTRODUCTION 1. Takahashi Kamekichi, Zaikai Showa (A Business History of Meiji Japan) (Chug ai keizai sha, 1952), 1.2. Keizai Kikakucho (ed. ), Showa sanjuichinen keizai hakusho (The White Paper on the Economy of 1955) (Shiseido, 1956), 22.3. James G. Abegglen, The Japanese Factory: Aspects of Its Social Organization (Glencoe, Ill.

: Free Press, 1958; repr. Salem, NH: Ayer, 1984), 1-2.4. Hyogo Tsutomu, Nihon ni oker u roshi kankei no ten kai (Development of Management-Labour Relations) (Tokyo: University of Tokyo Press, 1971); R.P. Dore, British Factory-Japanese Factory: The Origins of National Diversity in Industrial Relations (Berkeley, Calif. : University of California Press, 1973). 5. Chalmers Johnson, MITI and the Japanese Miracle: The Growth of Industrial Policy, 1925-1975 (Stanford, Calif.

: Stanford University Press, 1982). 6. See Ch. 5 below. 7. Noguchi Yukio, 1940 nen taipei ron, saraha 'Seni Keizai' (The 1940's System: Goodbye to the Wartime Economic System) (Tokyo: Toyo keizai shim po sha, 1995).

8. Albert Craig, Japan: A Comparative View (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1979), 5-8.9. See Andrew Gordon, The Evolution of Labor Relations in Japan: Heavy Industry, 1853-1955 (Cambridge, Mass. : Harvard Council on East Asian Studies, 1988). 10. On the importance of labour unions' commitment to their firms, see Ishida Mitsui et al. (eds.

), Roshi kankei no hikaru ken kyu (A Comparative Study of Management-Labour Relations) (University of Tokyo Press, 1993), 1-8.11. Rodo 292 (Nov. 1935), 21.12. Rodo 289 (Aug. 1935), 21.13. Rodo 287 (June 1935), 16.14.

Rodo 265 (Aug. 1933), 13.15. Rodo 282 (Jan. 1935), 8.16. Hazarna Hiroshi (ed. ), Nihon rom kari shi shiryoshu (Sources for the History of Japanese Management-Labour Relations), vi (Go zan shoten, 1987), 7-9.17.

Rodo 274 (May 1934), 20. -303-.