HOME > PUBLICATIONS > Early Journals > The Journal of Social Policy and Labor Studies (Shakai-seisaku Gakkai shi) (1999-2007)

International Trends in Social Policy on Welfare and Work

Takafumi UZUHASHI

Since the 1980s, welfare-to-work or “workfare” policy has played a key role in the reform of welfare regimes in advanced states regardless of the type of welfare regime.

In the course of its introduction to other countries, workfare, a term derived from the U.S. experience, has evolved to become an umbrella term covering a wide range of policy positions, from hard workfare to soft workfare.

The aims of this paper are two.  First, we investigate the essential arguments for and key events leading to the implementation of welfare-to-work policy in advanced nations, including Japan. Of particular concern is the identification of what takes place after a change in social policy focus from welfare to work.

Two types of policy are recognized. The first is a type of ex-post compensatory policy with refundable tax credits for low-income people; this type is typically seen in Anglo-Saxon nations.  Use of this policy means that workfare must be accompanied by or supplemented with a “making work pay” policy.

The second type is ex-ante regulatory, that is, incorporating statutory minimum wage regulations; this is the policy advocated by ILO/ISSA. This policy is seen in employment protection legislation, but given the economic deregulation of the 1980s and 1990s, it was probably implemented defensively. Even so, it has the advantage of preventing the spread of low-paying jobs.

The second aim is to examine the implications for Japan of welfare-to-work policy developed in the United States and Europe. In examining whether this policy is relevant to Japan, we conclude that it is not. In Japan, the labor market participation rate of able-bodied single mothers is extraordinarily high and their dependency on welfare is lower than in other nations, especially Anglo-Saxon nations. But the problem of the working poor, who do not receive social assistance benefits, should be taken seriously, as in other OECD nations. A broad policy mix ranging from minimum wage legislation to in-work benefits (for example, refundable tax credits) are worthy of consideration.

Welfare and Workfare in Social Policies for the Poor

　　　　　　　                                                   Masami IWATA

The focus of social welfare has recently shifted from welfare to workfare, and the term “independence” has become common in the social welfare field. More particularly, welfare policies for poor working people emphasized the achievement of independence through job programs.

Job programs are not new to the social welfare field. Various methods are used to integrate job programs with welfare policies. This paper categorized adoption of job programs in welfare policies into three models:  the substitution model, the addition model and the exclusion model.  In the substitution model, job programs are seen as substitution to income supports and/or welfare services, while the addition model sees job programs as addition to income supports and /or welfare service as needed.  The exclusion model assumes un-employability, thus, according to the model, a job program is not applied to these incapable to work, i.e. the elderly and the disabled, but income supports or social services are provided to them instead.

In Japan before WW2, the Kyugo-ho (Poor Relief Law enforced between 1932 and 1946) was the typical implementation of the exclusion model. The Seikatuhogo-ho (Daily Life Security Law, 1950) first focused on balance between job programs and welfare benefits. The law became to exclude those capable to work and to target mainly the elderly and disabled, thus, job programs under the law hardly functioned.  Since the late 1990s, some local governments have developed job programs for homeless people under the pretext of “independent living support”. The national government enshrined these programs into 10-year provisional act, the Homeless Act based on efforts of local governments. The Homeless Act is to be applied before a person receives social assistance and is intended to first attempt to include the person in society through paid work. This program demonstrates substitution to the conventional model.

Experiences in Tokyo suggest a number of difficulties in homeless policies associated with job programs (the substitute model). First, there is a limitation in the public sector to promote jobs as substitution of welfare. It should be noted that the job programs helped the homeless to return to the labor market by bridging employment with welfare. However, the public institutions can only encourage expansion of employment, but they can not expand employment itself. Second, the programs rates people according to their employability, and as a result, some people are excluded from the programs.  Third, people excluded from the programs are stigmatized as people who have failed to become independent, and as a result of this stigmatization they may be undervalued. The contradictions of these programs led to the establishment of a new program in Tokyo known as “inclusion through housing”.  Yet this program also has its limitations ; its services only include introduction of temporary jobs but exclude income supports.

In 2005, new job programs were introduced to the Seikatsuhogo-ho and the child-care allowance to single-mother households. Unlike the job programs for the homeless, the introduction can be seen as the additional model ( addition to income supports). Although this paper is not in the position to judge whether the additional model is successful, it should be noted that it is important to give job programs to cover all poor working people without reducing income supports to them.

School-to-Work Transition and Social Welfare

Reiko KOSUGI

The transition from school to work is a process of evolving from dependence as a student to economic independence from the parents’ household. It can be consider one of most important events of a young person’s journey to adulthood.

Until recently, Japan was widely considered to have an effective system for the smooth entry into the workplace of recent graduates. Schools systematically supported students’ job-hunting activities. Corporations evaluated the long-term potential of students and developed their skills in a range of areas after employing them.

Since the 1990s, however, young people have experienced much more difficulty obtaining stable jobs. In response, the Japanese government began to respond clearer to say what the government actually did to the problem of youth unemployment in 2003.

The first aim of this paper is to examine Japan’s youth employment policy over the course of the school to work transition.  The second is to consider future areas of research comparison Japan’s efforts with youth policy in Britain.

The following two findings were elucidated from statistical analysis:

The percentage of young people able to transition to work under the new graduate employment system has fallen to 60 percent in case of the age cohort who was born in 1981-82.

People with low levels of educations, including school leavers, tend to become atypical employees when they are able to get jobs. They also become unemployed easily or do not participate in the labor market.

Analysis of the Japanese government’s youth policy uncovered the following two points:

Young people’s occupational consciousness, the demands of a changing labor market, and the unchanged process of transitioning from school to work are perceived as problems.

The government’s youth policy requires cross-ministry cooperation in light of the need for a multi-dimensional approach.

This paper offers these recommendations:

The first is to develop a system that consistently supports students with their efforts to develop a stable career starting while they are still in school.

The second is to develop new paths to acquiring occupational skills and employability in addition to the traditional system of hiring new graduates.

The third is to more closely relate employment policies to welfare policies. By this we mean to encourage policies that promote the social participation of people with low employability and that make higher education easier to obtain regardless of parental income levels.

Work, Welfare, and Citizenship

Tetsuki TAMURA

Since the 1990s, there has been a discernable trend toward welfare reform in advanced democracies despite the difficulties associated with welfare retrenchment.

Together with this movement toward welfare reform has emerged much debate on the concept of citizenship.

This paper has two aims. First, I seek to classify some of the principles of contemporary welfare reform from the perspective of citizenship rights and obligations. There are at least two conceptions of citizenship :the right-centered conception and the obligation-centered conception. By adding a left-right nexus to this right-obligation nexus, I create four conceptions of citizenship as they relate to welfare reform. These are (1) the left-libertarian conception of citizenship (basic income), (2) the right- libertarian conception (negative income tax), (3) the right-communitarian conception (workfare) , and (4) the left-communitarian conception (activation). Recent citizenship debates have exhibited a definite tendency to emphasize obligations rather than rights, especially the obligation to work. For this reason workfare and activation are more popular ideas for reform than basic income and negative income tax. There is an important difference between workfare and activation. However, it seems certain that the principles which emphasize work as an obligation have had a great influence on recent citizenship debates.

My second aim is to explain why we should not regard the work obligation as the most important aspect of citizenship obligations. In doing so, I make two points.

First, if we acknowledge that the significance of citizenship is in obligation, we should take into account not only work but also other obligations and activities. Referring to T. Fitzpatrick’s concept of diverse reciprocity, I argue for recognizing the significance of both unpaid care work and active political citizenship. In recent feminist debates on citizenship, unpaid care work has come to be seen as one of the most important components of citizenship. By active political citizenship, I mean the political citizenship that goes beyond suffrage and is located in collective action. Some radical democrats such as J. Habermas and G. Delanty emphasize such active political citizenship.

Today we cannot assume the boundaries of citizenship as given. The ability to define citizenship seems to have become increasingly important, and this will be possible only through political citizenship.

Second, if it is the case that citizenship is more that just the work obligation, we must also think about the new principles and institutions necessary both for the democratization of welfare and for welfare that encourages diverse reciprocity. Regarding the former, I focus on ‘deliberative welfare’ (Fitzpatrick), and for the letter, I refer to public policy, such as parental leave for men, and basic income, which has the potential to increase the time spent engaging in social and political activities outside to work.

Reconstructing the Social Contract:  Social Exclusion and the Reformation of the Welfare State in France

Takuji TANAKA

The purpose of this paper is to examine from a historical perspective the debates on “social exclusion” taking part in France, focusing on the transformation of the concepts of “citizenship” and “social contract”.  The French Revolution gave birth to the modern social contract theory, through which the political order is legitimated by the mutual consent of all who possess natural rights. This theory underwent a profound transformation at the beginning of the twentieth century. According to theorists such as Leon Bourgeois, leader of the Social Republican Party, and Emile Durkheim, a leading social scientist during the Third Republic, a social contract can only be considered a contract between the society and an individual within the society. Each individual acquires social rights in return for fulfilling certain social obligations, such as obtaining an education, working, and taking care of their health. This reworked conception of the social contract provided the philosophical foundation for the French welfare state after World War II.  Since the late 1970s, the widespread phenomenon of social exclusion has raised doubts about the legitimacy of the welfare state. Two solutions have been proposed.  The first is the dualization of the social security system, which separates the problem of the legitimacy of the social security system from the exceptional treatment of those who are marginalized. The second is the reestablishment of the social contract by empowering those who are excluded by creating voluntary agreements involving re-defined social rights and obligations.

Social Development Policy in the Philippines: Focusing on Poverty Alleviation Programs

Hanako ODAGAWA

This paper examines the characteristics of social development policy in the Philippines.  While Asian NIEs are developing social insurance system, the Philippines continues to experience widespread poverty. As a result, poverty reduction is one of that country’s most highly prioritized social policy issues.

High rates of unemployment and underemployment show the need for effective programs to generate employment and enhance employability. In the Philippines, income generating programs including skills training micro-finance programs have been a common strategy, but now more programs to support people working in formal sectors are being put forward under social safety net policies recommended by international agencies.

The framework of the current poverty reduction policy was developed as the Social Reform Agenda (SRA) by the Ramos administration. It covers vast areas of social development, including rural development, labor protection, housing, social service delivery and facilitation of people’s participation in governance.  Many of the programs in the SRA involve working with companies and NGOs on implementation and community organization strategy in order to develop mutual aid systems and strengthen resource management in the community.

Based on the SRA, the Arroyo administration has been implementing affirmative action policies for the most disadvantaged segments of the population through KALAHI-CIDSS. This project delivers funds to the most needy communities in the poorest municipalities and at the same time works to strengthen the capabilities of local governments. It expects local governments to mobilize funds and resources for projects to reduce the burden on the national government. It also aims to accelerate decentralization.

Reviewing the progress of social development policy in the Philippines, it can be characterized by the following four features:  1) capability building of local government’s ability to manage, 2) resource mobilization, 3) expectations for self-help and mutual assistance in communities, and 4) intervention by international agencies. From these characteristics, it can be concluded that the Philippines has not changed its principle, that of directing development, and continues to develop a welfare society supported by a variety of agencies. Pluralism is common in the experience of Europe’s post-welfare states. However, the major difference is that the Philippines has never had the “big government” essential for managing a welfare state. It is worth observing how the Philippines will combat poverty with its development-oriented strategy.

Part-time Society The Netherlands: Wage Differentials and Employment Choices among Married People

Eiko KENJOH

The proportion of part-time employment in total employment has increased considerably in the Netherlands since the 1980s. Today, it is by far large than in any other OECD country, and one therefore could call the Netherlands a “part-time society”. When considering the position of Japanese part-time workers, typically with low wages and low status, one could be tempted to view the part-time society as accompanied by a number of negative features. The review of the Netherlands’ “part-time society” in this paper, however, presents a different picture.

The Equal Treatment Act (Full-time and Part-time Workers) of 1996 prohibits discrimination against part-time workers in the Netherlands. The Working Hours Adjustment Act of 2000 gives employees and civil servants the right to increase or reduce their working hours regardless of their reasons for wishing to do so. The Dutch legal framework provides the most advanced and comprehensive treatment of part-time employment among the industrialized nations.

Even if a generous legal framework is provided, however, it is possible that part-time employment may turn into an inferior work arrangement. This paper therefore examines the characteristics of Dutch part-time employment.

We found the following. Wage differentials between part-time and full-time workers in the Netherlands are very small compared to those in Japan and other advanced countries. Dutch part-time work is found in many types of occupations and industries rather than being concentrated in low-skilled jobs. As a result, the proportion of so-called “involuntary part-time”, i.e. workers who are working part-time because they are unable to obtain full-time work, is the lowest in the EU-15 countries. Moreover, according to our empirical analyses of Dutch household panel data, OSA 1998, not only do married women, young people and old people work part-time, but also prime-age married men may work part-time when they have young children and/or the income of their spouse is high.

In conclusion, the Netherlands faces the challenge of building a “part-time society” in which individuals and couples are able to balance work and family life by adjusting their working hours to their personal and/or family needs without penalty from the market. Empirical analyses show that the Netherlands is gradually meeting this challenge.

The Korean Developmental Welfare Regime:  In Search of a New Regime Type in East Asia

Moo- Kwon CHUNG

This paper explains several distinctive features of the Korean welfare regime and analyzes its development from the perspective of “varieties of capitalism”(VoC), which can be used to illuminate the economy-politics-welfare nexus in the developmental process of a welfare regime.  In doing so, this paper attempts to establish a place for theoretical and empirical debate on the possibility of constructing a new type of welfare regime in the East Asian context, one that distinguishes its causalities and functions in the economy, society, and politics from those of advanced western welfare states. As part of this analysis, this paper i) critically evaluates previous analyses? of the East Asian welfare regime, ii) explores an analystical framework for a new type of East Asian welfare regime from the perspective of VoC, iii) examines the formation of the Korean developmental welfare regime over the course of the country’s industrialization and evaluates continuities and changes in the welfare reforms of the Kim Dae Jung government following the financial crisis, and iv) sets out new research directions for comparative implications in the East Asian context.

Social Transformation and the Development of Welfare Pluralism in Reform China:  An Assessment of China’s Welfare Regime

Yuegen XIONG

China has experienced unprecedented social change since economic reform began in the 1980s.  This change has also seen the restructuring of China’s social welfare and social security system, which was rooted in the Soviet model.  This paper begins with a description of China’s social transformation, its resulting social problems, and its impact on social policy.  It then examines the development of welfare pluralism in the context of a market economy. This paper argues that contemporary social welfare and social policy reform in China can be considered the outcome of the combination of pragmatic economic approaches and frozen political institutions dominated by the party-state.  Furthermore, compared to other Asian countries, China’s welfare regime should neither be oversimplified as a developmental welfare model or economic development-centered welfare model, nor simply summarized as an Asian Confucian welfare model.  The formation and transformation of the Chinese social welfare system is closely related to its traditional culture, unique political institutions, evolving approaches to economic development and changing social fabric. The paper concludes that there is still room for discussion on China’s welfare regime through empirical exploration and theoretical elaboration in future.

Employee Health Care Benefit Programs in the Era of Managed Care:  Purchasing Strategies Used by U.S. Companies

Chiharu HASEGAWA

Since the 1980s, numerous large U.S. companies have restructured their employee health care benefit programs.  This paper examines strategies used by these companies inreforming health care benefit programs in the context of managed care.

Since the late 1980s, the cost of employee, retiree and dependents heath care benefits has undergone double-digit increases.  To control these costs, employers have not only introduced managed care plans, but have also implemented health insurance purchasing strategies that pass higher costs on to their employees.

Many large U.S. employers have begun applying the principle of managed competition to their health care benefit purchases.  This strategy is called “value-based purchasing”.  Unlike the traditional purchasing of health benefits, in which an employer’s Human Resources department managed the employees’ health care benefits programs, the new value-based purchasing systems are managed by specialized  health benefits departments.  Some companies have established their own managed care companies or health provider groups.  Many have converted fully insured health plans into self-insured health plans. These actions suggest that large companies are working to cope on their own with the cost of health benefits.  Large companies also rely on competitive bidding to negotiate health insurance premiums and benefits packages to their advantage.  Most of the Fortune 500 companies use bidding in their health care benefits purchasing.

To implement value-based purchasing strategies, many large U.S. companies have formed healthcare coalitions. A number of coalitions encourage their members to ask plans for information on access, quality, member satisfaction, and plan stability.  Many companies have also established purchasing alliances that negotiate health care benefits on behalf of member companies, achieving lower premiums as a result of their purchasing power.

These strategies suggest that large companies actively seek to control the cost and quality of their employee and retiree health care benefits, and these efforts influence U.S. private health insurance markets.  This paper review U.S. managed health care from the perspective of these companies.

Empirical Analysis of Relative Deprivation in Japan using Japanese Microdata

Aya ABE

This study is one of the first ever to attempt to measure the extent of relative deprivation in Japan.  Its aim is to establish a relative deprivation scale, closely following the methods developed by Townsend (1979) and others and taking into account differences between the cultures of the U.K. and Japan.  Then, the study analyzes the relationship between relative deprivation and income poverty, and individual and household characteristics. The study uses two datasets from two nationally conducted surveys.  One identified socially perceived necessities, as developed by Mack and Lansley (1985).  The other established a relative deprivation scale using the necessities that were identified by the former.

Applying the relative deprivation scale, this study revealed three major findings.  First, under a certain threshold household income, the relative deprivation scale increases dramatically, as is the case in the United Kingdom and other countries.  This threshold is around 4 to 5 million yen per year.  Second, those whose lifestyle deviates from the social norm experience a higher risk of relative deprivation.  In particular, single people in their 30s to 50s, people with members of their household who are ill, and single mothers exhibited high levels of relative deprivation.  Third, young people are found to be at high risk of relative deprivation.  The deprivation scale is highest for those in their 20s, relatively low for those in their 30s to 60s, and rises again for those in their 70s. Comparing elderly people (greater than 60 years old) with young people (20 to 60 years old), both the prevalence and depth of deprivation was higher for the young, even for those in the same income range.

It is too early to draw conclusions for public assistance or other social security systems from the results of this study.  However, this study is an important first step in extending conventional poverty research which use only income or consumption data, toward understanding the complexity of poverty.

HOME > PUBLICATIONS > Early Journals > The Journal of Social Policy and Labor Studies (Shakai-seisaku Gakkai shi) (1999-2007)

From District Committees to Community Welfare Volunteers:  Public Assistance Policy in Historical Perspective

Hirotake YAZAWA

The aim of this article is to propose some ideas to put the reform of the public assistance policy of Japan in historical perspective. The public assistance policy termed Kyuugo-hou (Poor Relief Law) was established on a large scale in 1932. Because the number of households receiving income support in the prewar period was far smaller than that in the postwar period, it has been commonly believed that the policy provided only limited relief for poor households. However, the system generated positive policy impacts in prewar Japan. First, there were fewer foundlings (street children) in metropolitan areas than in other countries in early stages of economic development. Secondly, property owners took the lead in the district committees (houmen-iin) when they supported the system, while neighborhood associations were successively founded in the 1920s.

Immediately after World War Ⅱ, the public assistance system was drastically reformed by GHQ. The name of houmen-iin was changed to community welfare volunteers (minsei-iin). Welfare offices took over the role of houmen-iin ; for example, the offices introduced a means test to measure income. Minsei-iin had a reduced responsibility under the new policy, but still continued to play an important role in caring for the poor. Neighborhood associations were the source of minsei-iin in the postwar period as well as the prewar period.

These days, households receiving income support have been increasing in number and staying longer in supported status because of the depression. In addition, elderly persons who are unable to work and single-female-parent households account for a large proportion of households receiving income support. It is well known that welfare offices arbitrarily apply official criteria when deciding which poor recipients qualify for benefits. From a long-term perspective, the following four reforms are necessary to the public assistance system.

1. The minimum standard of living should be decided not only by flow-oriented information (e. g., total income) but also stock-oriented information (e. g., ownership and use of assets) from the viewpoint of relative deprivation.

2. Counseling to recipients on public assistance is needed to shorten the period during which they remain dependent on public support. Such recipients include people whose normal relationships have been destroyed by heavy debt, domestic violence, and other severe problems.

3. The system should provide incentives to youth to seek employment. Particularly important are NEETs, whose number is believed to be still increasing.

4. Policies targeting the elderly and the handicapped should be improved through better involvement of neighborhood associations and NPOs.

Systems such as neighborhood associations, which have been in operation since the prewar era, have continued to function effectively in local communities, and should contribute greatly to making public assistance policy more effective in the future.

Rethinking the Poverty Line in Japan

Kingo TAMAI

We hear that there have been rapid increases in economic and social inequalities in Japan. This is a consequence of the long depression of the 1990s. However, we also experienced various economic and social inequalities prior to the decade of the 1990s. Needless to say, various social policies were employed to tackle such problems, and for this reason the inequality issue has been a familiar one to social scientists. Although we pay attention to new inequalities, it is necessary to grasp them in the context of the history of social policy in Japan. If we do so, we can better recognize the differences between new and old inequalities.

This paper deals with the poverty line issues in Japan after the Second World War. Certainly, the high rate of economic growth drastically changed Japanese society and seemed to reduce poverty. Throughout the early postwar era, the social security system was expanded through the extension of social insurance coverage and benefits. It was enough that we believed that economic and social inequalities would gradually decrease. In the early 1980s, the central government stressed the need to establish a national minimum as a safety net. It is not unusual for nations to think that the poverty problem lessens as the percentage of beneficiaries on public assistance falls. In other words, we can see declining poverty as the result of social policy.

However, the 1990s constituted a turning point in Japan. From the second half of the decade, the ratio of persons receiving public assistance began to increase. Moreover, the national pension system caused a fiscal crisis. Finally, because of the increasing numbers of part-time workers, the minimum wage became a prominent issue. Thus, in the 1990s, debate about the poverty line spread to the fields of public assistance, public pensions, and the minimum wage. It is difficult to determine an appropriate poverty line due to differences in benefit levels by family size, age, and so on. Thus, we need to establish a new standard in benefit levels. This paper aims to make proposals regarding current issues in social policy through the insights gained from examining the history of poverty line determination in Japan.

Inequality in Education and the Rise of “Learning Capitalist Society”

Takehiko KARIYA

A number of advanced countries, including Japan, are conducting neo-liberal education reforms such as the decentralization and devolution of control over education, privatization, school choice, and national testing. In addition, economic globalization and the rise of the “knowledge-based” economy may make education an important arena of socio-economic policy as governments seek to enhance human capital and individuals’ employability, and to provide equal opportunity in life chances.

In this paper, I argue that those changes promote a shift of human capital formation toward the rise of “learning capitalism”. In Japan, especially, this shift coincides with the transformation from the “Japanese Mode of Credential Society” to the “Learning Capitalist Society”, where learning skills and competences become core mechanisms to form, accumulate, and arrange human capital. Previously, under the Japanese mode of credential society, career paths were seen as simple and straightforward. Success in entrance examinations was thought to be the main route to enter good schools and universities, then to get into good workplaces and lead happy lives. Being good at memorizing school knowledge was seen a key factor for this success story. Upon getting into good jobs, which usually meant working for large companies, employees form prestigious universities were given more opportunities to pursue advancement. Their learning skills, sometimes called “trainability”, might have played an important role behind the scenes, but their importance was not clearly recognized.

The Japanese mode of credential society changed and declined during the 1990s. This transformation was caused by changes in labor markets and in education. Acquiring learning skills and competences took the place of memorizing knowledge. Now both in the workplace and in school, people are expected to master advanced learning skills and competences to keep up with rapid changes in technology and society. People are also required to pursue lifelong learning. In addition, they are expected to become ‘clever’ investors in choosing what, how, and when they should learn in order to maximize their human capital. In other words, learning skills and competences have become “capital” in this society.

However, the distribution of learning skills and competences among students is not equal. In the paper, using survey results, I show that they are unequally distributed among children from different family backgrounds. I then argue that the recent decentralization of education funding and neo-liberal education reforms such as the introduction of voucher systems will increase inequality in learning capital accumulation.

From Widgets to Digits : Legal Regulation of the Changing Contract of Employment

Katherine V. W. STONE    

In this article, Professor Katherine Stone describes how employers in the United States have built a new employment relationship―a “new deal at work”―that differs from that which pertained for the past one hundred years. In the past, employers organized their workforces into “internal labor markets” in which they encouraged employees to stay in their jobs long-term by implicitly promising them lifetime employment, orderly promotion opportunities, generous health insurance and reliable retirement benefits. In recent decades, employers have abandoned their commitment to long-term relationships, and have instead instituted fundamental reforms in order to gain flexibility in the face of heightened international competition. The “new deal at work” involves an emphasis on employability rather than job security, a flattening of hierarchy, an implicit promise of training and networking in lieu of promotions, and an expectation that employees will manage their own careers.

Professor Stone argues that the new employment relationship shifts onto employees many risks that were previously borne by the firm. These risks include the possibility of job loss, wage uncertainty, loss of the value of labor market skills, loss of health insurance and pensions, loss of legal protections, and the undermining of labor unions. She shows that the U. S. labor and employment laws were built upon the assumption of a long-term employment relationship between employees and firms and thus they need to be revised to meet the needs of the new employment relationships.

Professor Stone argues that the new workplace has created new types of problems for workers, including new types of employment discrimination, the dissolution of employee retirement and health benefits, and the deterioration of employee representation. In addition, she maintains that public policy needs to focus on the problems created by the career transitions that most people will experience several times in their working lives. Professor Stone offers proposals for revising our labor and employment laws in order to enable workers to survive and thrive in these new, boundary-less workplaces.

Labor Law Reform and Employment Systems : The Case of Dismissal Regulations in 2003

Michio NITTA

The basic argument in this paper is that while the Japanese economy is under pressure from globalizing markets very similar to that experienced by the United States, the actors’ responses to this pressure with relation to employment relations are significantly different. For the U. S. case, I draw on the eloquent description in Prof. Katherine Stone’s book, From Widgets to Digits.

Pushed by economic and political pressures and pursuing the agenda of “Reform,” the Koizumi government introduced a bill to the Diet in 2003 to revise the Labor Standards Law. Opposition parties criticized the bill in the Diet, partly as a result of lobbying from unions. In the end, a compromise was reached. A new clause inserted into the Law stated that, “Employers may not discharge employees without just cause. ” Legally, this meant that the essence of current dismissal regulations based on case law was incorporated into a statute. The attempt to significantly change dismissal regulations ended up returning the status quo.

To correctly understand the political drama on dismissal regulations in 2003, it is particularly important to investigate in what direction the mainstream business leaders have tried to lead other employers through the channels of various business organizations. I hypothesize that their strategy in employment relations can best be characterized as a ‘dualist approach,’ keeping core employees as ‘lifers’ and surrounding them with various types of flexibly employed workers. The strategy called ‘Portfolio Employment’ was laid out in the well-known white paper titled ‘Japanese-style Management in the New Era’ published in 1995 by Nikkeiren, the national employer organization, before it merged with Keidanren. The ‘Portfolio Employment’ strategy envisions the following three groups of workers in a company.

1) Core workers, termed the ‘Long-term Competence Accumulation Group’

2) Peripheral workers, termed the ‘Flexible Employment Group’

3) In-between workers, termed the ‘Professional/Specialist Group’

This is a clear expression of the ‘Dualist Approach,’ which is different from the ‘Boundary-less Workplace Approach’ in large corporations in the U. S. as described in Prof. Stone’s book.

Recent Wage Reforms and Equal Pay for Work of Equal Value in Japan

Masumi MORI

Japanese companies facing intensifying global competition and seeking to reduce total personnel costs began a rapid shift to performance-based pay and promotion systems from the mid-1990’s.

The aims of this paper are to examine trends in wage system reforms and to explain the movement toward the realization of ILO Convention No. 100, the principle of equal remuneration for work of equal value, in Japan.

We can characterize recent wage reforms as a change from the work qualifications system to the performance-based personnel system, though the contents of reform vary by company.

Wage reform consists of three main components.  The first is a change of the grade system that determines an employee’s treatment. The second is a change in the basic salary, from pay determination based on age and performance evaluations to a role- and job-based pay system. The third is a change in the individual evaluation system that determines qualification grades and individual employees’ wages.

This paper examines the wage systems of five Japanese companies. As is clear from “Japanese-type job-based pay”, the term applied to these new systems, they are not equal pay for equal value work systems.

On the other hand, two industrial unions have adopted the principle of equal pay for work of equal value. One is the All-Japan Prefectural and Municipal Workers Union, which experimented with “putting into practice equal pay for work of equal value” for civil servants’ job evaluations in one city in 2003.

Rengo, the national labor union federation, promotes equal pay for work of equal value as a means of achieving equality for part-time workers. In 2005, Rengo started up a job evaluation system to achieve equal pay for work of equal value.

The findings from the analysis of this paper are as follows. One is that we should base more comprehensive job evaluations on the principle of equal pay for work of equal value in order to achieve fairness. The second is that labor unions should more actively attempt to implement fair and equal job evaluations by using precise job classifications.

Gendering Man : Necessities and Possibilities in Current Japanese Gender Studies

Saori MIYASHITA

Studies on men and masculinities have drawn increasing attention in Japanese gender studies since the end of the 20th century. There has been a yawning gap between the examination of women and that of men from gender perspectives, despite the approximately 20-year history of gender studies in Japan, of which studies on men and masculinities are an integral part. This paper seeks to explore the reason why Japanese gender studies have failed to develop critical studies on men and masculinities, which concern the relationship between patriarchy and men.

The answer to this question lies in the course of the development of Japanese gender studies as a whole. There has been little concern with ‘subject’ or ‘agency’ matters, which require empirical research on everyday life and culture. In the 1980’s, when gender studies emerged in Japan, Japanese academics, including feminists, tended to neglect diversity within society, while feminists in English-speaking countries of the same period confronted the diversity of women. Thus, Japanese academics lost sight of the need to explore subjective meanings or interpretations of people in their everyday lives.

Feminism requires studies on men and masculinities for two reasons. Firstly, the studies help correct misunderstandings about the concept of gender, particularly the way that many academics misconstrue gender as concerning only women’s problems. Secondly, the core component of patriarchy is deeply held by men and associated with masculinities.

We must launch critical studies on men and masculinities, while reflecting on the history of gender studies in Japan.

Problems concerning recent labor policies for the mentally disabled

 Junko EMOTO

Due to the rapid globalization caused by structural industrial change, the prolonged economic recession, ageing populations and declining birthrates, it has become necessary to review and redirect social policies all over the world. In Japan as well, social welfare policies have been radically transformed from policies based on social compensation such as income security to those focusing on social integration with an emphasis on independence. Labor policies for mentally disabled people have been greatly influenced by this transformation.

Since the late 1990s, the number of labor policies for mentally disabled people has been increasing, and during the present decade the government’s structural reforms have brought the multiplication of these policies. However, due to the rapid implementation of these policies and the resulting lack of discussion, they are characterized by ambiguity regarding conceptual definition. Consequently, the current system is not one based on social models wherein the mentally disabled can choose what they desire according to their needs. The conditions of mentally disabled people vary, depending on their situations and environments; therefore, a system that is not based on social models creates various problems. Moreover, “mental disability,” unlike other types of disabilities, develops during one’s working years and occurs in relation to one’s labor. Therefore, establishing a labor system wherein mentally disabled people can work in a normal manner despite disabilities is a step forward in establishing a system in which all workers can work safely.

Section 1 of this paper confirms the fact that labor policies for disabled people, like general labor policies, have been influenced by economic and financial conditions, and that those for mentally disabled people have developed likewise. Section 2 shows that one of the reasons that these policies have multiplied is that the government has aimed at reducing the budget for social welfare. On the basis of this understanding, Section 3 points out that the labor policies for mentally disabled people are not in accordance with international trends, targets, or theories. Section 4 proves that the policies are too unrealistic to have much effect, the basic reason for this being inadequately formed policy ideals. Therefore, policy ideals need to be discussed early on to heighten policy effectiveness.

The Attitudes of Part-time Workers’ Union Leaders towards Participating in Enterprise Unions in Japan

Kaoru KANAI

Although the number of part-time workers in the Japanese labor market continues to grow, for a long time part-time workers were not allowed to join enterprise-based unions. Nowadays, the proportion of part-time workers in unions is gradually increasing, especially in the retail industry, due to the unions’ need to maintain membership. But unionizing part-time workers could be seen by managers as representing a step towards more constructive relations with part-time workers. This paper examines the leaders of unions with part-time workers, and their attempts to improve part-time workers’ working conditions. The findings are based on 10 in-depth interviews with the leaders of retail industry unions that include part-time workers.

The paper concludes that leaders of unions that include part-time workers (who are all female in these cases) have strongly internalized gender role norms. I argue that this internalization occurs because the women workers are treated primarily as wives/mothers with family responsibilities, and only secondly as union members and workers. They willingly accept subordinate positions to their husbands at home, to regular (full-time) workers at the workplace, and to regular union members in the union, but nonetheless express satisfaction with their situation. My findings suggest that even if the work conditions of part-time workers have more or less improved since their inclusion into the enterprise unions, union leaders representing part-time workers are less likely to push for improving part-time workers’ working conditions if they do not let go of the gender role norms existing in enterprise unions.

Microfinance by Community Development Financial Institutions (CDFIs) in the USA and the UK

Takashi KOSEKI

Microfinance is regarded as a development method for developing countries. However, it has also been introduced in developed countries, including the USA, the UK, and continental EU countries. Now it is regarded as an effective method for solving the problem of social exclusion. One of the major agents of microfinance in the developed countries is Community Development Financial Institutions (CDFIs).

In this article, the author clarifies the present conditions of micro-finance in the US and the UK by focusing on the experiences of CDFIs.

CDFIs are financial institutions that target residents in deprived areas, the handicapped, micro-enterprises, voluntary associations and social enterprises. Why?

Because these people are unable to borrow from commercial banks.  CDFIs have grown rapidly since the 1990s.

The significant features of CDFIs are that they (1) provide outside resources and (2) promote financial social inclusion. Credit unions cannot deal with non-members’ assets, but CDFIs can under preferable conditions. Microfinance in the developed countries is understood as tackling social exclusion, especially for the disadvantaged (such as the unemployed, ethnic minorities or the handicapped), whereas microfinance in the developing countries basically seeks to improve the living conditions of vast number of residents in rural areas.

The role of CDFIs as money providers is often said to be quite important for disadvantaged people who want to start micro-enterprises or build homes in order to live independently.

In the USA, the CRA (Community Reinvestment Act) helps microfinance institutions raise private funds, but there is no statute like the CRA in the UK. Most such institutions in the UK still rely on public funds.

CDFIs should build up their competitiveness in managing finance, for most of them lack skill in this area.

Researchers of microfinance often insist that microfinance institutions should pursue sustainable development without relying on public grants. However, the condition of CDFIs in these developed countries is far from being able to promote sustainable development. Public funding and tax credits as well as private contributions are still needed.

The National Minimum of Living Level in China

Min ZHU

China began implementing economic reforms in 1978, and creation of a socialist market economy was formally proposed as an aim of economic reform in 1993. The social market economy aims to make all citizens prosperous, but in reality the disparities between the rich and the poor have grown larger. For a long time, poverty in China was commonly regarded as a rural issue, but with the accelerated reform of State-Owned Enterprises, the number of poor people in urban areas began increasing in the latter half of the 1990s. Because of this situation, the Minimal Living Security Scheme was promulgated in 1999.

This paper will focus on the following issues.

First, the Minimal Living Security Scheme, which supports a minimum standard of living, is explained and the present situation is described. The guaranteed standards of different provinces are compared, and the current minimum living standard guarantees in China are shown to be too low to effectively guarantee basic living requirements. In other words, the guaranteed standards are not sufficient to support physical existence. Moreover, according to several surveys, it is certain that the urban poor who received social assistance from the Minimal Living Security Scheme did not receive enough money to live on.

Second, the income and expenditures of urban households are analyzed to show the details and point out the problems of the urban poor. It is shown that expenditures for utilities, education and social insurance fees have become a large burden for the urban poor. Further, the income gap has a strong impact on lifestyle; as a result, the urban poor have to subsist at a level much below the average. This means it is necessary to reduce these expenditures in view of the national minimum livelihood level in China.

Since 1986, the social security system in China has been reformed by establishing old age, unemployment and medical insurance systems. But given the increasing number of urban poor and also the existence of a large number of rural poor, it can be said that China should place emphasis on a public assistance system such as the Minimal Living Security Scheme. And the system as such should be reconsidered and expanded. First of all, as shown above, the guaranteed standard of the Minimal Living Security Scheme is insufficient and should therefore be raised.

HOME > PUBLICATIONS > Early Journals > The Journal of Social Policy and Labor Studies (Shakai-seisaku Gakkai shi) (1999-2007)

The East Asian Path of Economic Development and the Quality of Labour and Life : An Historical Perspective

Kaoru SUGIHARA

This paper argues that there was a long-term path of economic development in East Asia, which underpinned the “industrious revolution” since the seventeenth century and labour-intensive industrialization since the late nineteenth century, and eventually produced the “East Asian miracle” during the second half of the twentieth century. Central to this path was its commitment to the improvement of the quality of labour. The improvement of the quality of life, expressed in education, health and housing, was also pursued from a relatively early stage in order to improve the quality of labour.

The first half of the paper describes the interactions between “high initial conditions”, international circumstances and government policies in postwar East Asia, and suggests that “developmentalism”, an ideology adopted by many governments of the region’s high growth economies, reflected its specialisation in labour-intensive industries in the global division of labour, based on the East Asian path, rather than its effort to “catch up” with the West.

The paper then considers how development economics in the postwar period had neglected the question of the improvement of the quality of labour and life, and attributes some of the reasons for the rapid improvement in education and, to a lesser extent, health in East and Southeast Asian economies to the region’s long-term commitment to “productivist” ideology.  The success was also helped by the “mechatronics revolution”, which combined the introduction of micro-electronics technology with traditional mechanical engineering in the 1970s and the 1980s.  The speed at which new technology was adopted to consumer electronics, computer and other manufacturing and service industries was faster in East Asia than anywhere else, because the region was able to combine good-quality labour of all kinds, from unskilled to highly skilled, to produce competitive manufactured goods. It was the quality of labour that determined where the region’s comparative advantage lay.

The paper ends with comments on the development of “social policy” in East Asia. In the literature on development, “social policy” often means human development policy, and includes all areas of education, health, housing etc. as well as the traditional areas covered by welfare state policies such as social security and unemployment benefits. While Esping-Andersen’s typology of welfare capitalism is formulated on the experience of the Western path of economic development, the East Asia path requires a different evaluation, on which to assess the history of a rather piecemeal introduction of Western-style welfare system to the region.

Perspectives for Studying East Asian Social Policies

Mari OSAWA

In the 2000s, at least two perspectives towards social policies in East Asian countries began to interweave and articulate themselves. One perspective is from comparative social policy or political economy, which originated in the West but began to include some East Asian countries in the 1990s, while another is from development studies, which have been paying greater attention to social policies in a developmental context, with a focus on East and Southeast Asian countries. Against this backdrop the current paper first tries to overview different but partly overlapping concepts of social policy in various perspectives. It suggests that much is expected of chronological as well as cross-sectional comparative studies of social policies, in order to cover policy measures other than social insurance schemes or their alternative modes of social protection on the one hand, and stages of development preceding industrialization and democratization on the other hand.

Secondly by introducing a conceptual framework of “livelihood security system”, this paper highlights a characteristic of 20^th century welfare states, in which the inherently individualistic and multi-dimensional risks of livelihood were reduced to the single-dimensional insufficiency of the income of male breadwinner, and explained away as employed or not employed in terms of main causes of risk. Of course, welfare states in the 20^th century did not share a similar structure, and the livelihood security systems of “advanced” nations around the 1980s can be grouped into three main categories: the “male breadwinner” model, the “work/life balance” model and the “market-oriented” model.

It is argued that 20^th century welfare state dysfunction has revealed itself as “social exclusion” in a broader sense, particularly in the male breadwinner model, designated as “the clearest case of impasse” in adapting to post-industrialization. Youth and women are excluded both within and outside the labor market, and exclusion is widely used by employers to avoid the burden of social insurance premiums. In Japan, where the male breadwinner orientation of the livelihood security system at the turn of the century is stronger than in other countries, social exclusion as accelerated “extra-legality” in social insurance schemes is evident. It needs to be contrasted to recent social security reforms in Korea and Taiwan that moved towards universalization of social insurance schemes in their efforts to restructure their strategies of economic development from labor-to capital-and skill-intensive.

A Comparative Study of Industrial Relations in Japan and Korea: Based on the Cases of Toyota Motor Corporation and Hyundai Motor Company

Jong-Won WOO

This paper examines the differences between the similarly enterprise-union-based industrial relations of Japan and Korea by focusing on union functions. In the case of Toyota, the union cooperates with management, which strives for “kaizen”. The core workers on the shop floor, who also take on leadership of the union, are systematically trained and committed to shop management. Other ordinary workers are able to work flexibly and are committed to long-term training. In contrast, the relation between union and management in Hyundai is adversarial.  Management does not depend on shop-floor workers but on engineers to maintain production system. Moreover, the union does not commit itself to functional flexibility or show interest in long-term training.

The paper investigates the historical contexts in which the contrasting practices were formed. First, the existence of skilled workers and the degree of their cooperation in the primary stage of economic growth influenced whether or not the production system made good use of the shop-floor workers’ skills.  Next, the democratization process affected the workers’ attitudes toward long-term training differently. In Japan, “democratization” after WWII meant “equalization” between white-collar workers and blue-collar workers. The latter tried hard to improve their long-term abilities in order to show that they deserved equal status with the former. In Korea, democratization after 1986 was limited to free collective bargaining between management and blue-collar workers. It could not attain “equalization” because management was not weakened and the white-collar workers were more privileged than their Japanese counterparts. Finally, ideology influenced managerial attitudes toward worker participation in management. In particular, the division of the Korean peninsular exerted a strongly negative effect on worker participation in South Korea because it was believed that managerial prerogative should not be infringed in the capitalist regime.

The most difficult issues facing Korean unions are how to commit themselves more strongly to long-term training and how to reduce the working condition differentials between permanent and contingent workers in the process of setting up industrial unions. The problems facing Japanese unions are covering contingent workers more broadly and managing lifestyles, which have not been viewed as a worker’s own but as a salaryman’s.

Comparison of Public Pension Reforms in the East Asian Countries: China, Korea, and Japan

Kwang Joon PARK

This is a comparative study regarding the purposes and contents of public pension reforms among the East Asian countries of China, Korea, and Japan. For the purposes of reform, the three nations, with varying degrees of maturity, are compared in terms of universal coverage, the adequacy of benefits, fiscal security (sustainability), and modernization.

To examine the nature of pension reforms, a framework of four ways of spreading-out in social policy－penetration, imposition, harmonization, diffusion－is utilized to examine how each nation assimilated experiences from other countries. Diffusion was seen as the most common way of expansion in pension reforms while under conditions of globalization harmonization and diffusion have became the more prevalent methods.

East Asian countries face the usual challenges of fiscal security, intergenerational equity, diversifying need (i.e., women’s rights to benefits), and public distrust, but each nation pursued its own objectives based upon its years of maturity. China, which started its reforms in the 1990s, has as its primary goal universal coverage followed by fiscal viability. Korea is, above all, seeking financial stability in its system, juggling between the adequacy of benefits and their sustainability. More mature than those two countries is Japan, which is, however, beginning to see the possibility of modernizing its pension system while pursuing fiscal stability as the primary objective.

The increases in the number of part-time workers and in public distrust of the pension system are still prevalent in these three countries. Sound and proper measures have not yet been developed to deal with demands for more fundamental reforms.

A Study on the Characteristics and Prospects of Japanese Industrial Relations

Yoshinori TOMITA

This study aims to examine the development pattern of Japanese industrial relations and trade union movements in the post-World War Ⅱ period. In addition, it also provides suggestions on overcoming the difficulties confronted by trade unions in Japan at present.

The mid-1980’s marked a turning point in industrial relations in Japan as various economic transformations, which influenced industrial relations deeply, took place in succession. The main transformations were (i)Globalization of the product market, (ii) Acceleration of market changes (shortening of the average product life cycle), (iii) Technological changes (introduction of microelectronics and information technologies), and (iv) Reduced demand for labor (slackening of labor markets).

These transformations in turn forced changes in systems of management, product development and production. The unit of management in firms became smaller and extended down to shop floors. Work teams on shop floors were designated as the smallest units to be responsible for firm profitability. At the same time, firm cost control became more severe. On the other hand, functions and responsibilities granted to lower level workers increased. As a result of these changes, the shop floor level became important because not only conflicts between workers and management, but also resolution of conflicts, took place there.

Another aspect of change in contemporary industrial relations is individualization. The individualization of industrial relations has had a deep impact on the trade union movement. This paper attempts to examine its impact by viewing (i) individualization of work hour controls, and (ii) individualization of payment controls.  It is vital for trade unions to alleviate the effects of individualization through collective regulation. In a firm that devotes sufficient time to labor-management consultation, workers succeed in regulating working conditions collectively. As a result, working conditions tend to get better in such firms. This indicates that, in the process of individualization of industrial relations, joint consultation is effective and practical than collective bargaining.

Centralization and decentralization of three-tiered structures of industrial relations within the U.S. automotive industry due to labor-management cooperation

Ken YAMAZAKI

This paper examines the transformation of industrial relations within the U.S. automotive industry, focusing on the evolution of the historically adversarial model into a cooperation- based approach to labor-management relations.

During the New Deal era, the federal government began supporting the collective bargaining process, a development which put labor unions on equal footing with employers for the first time. As a result, labor’s share of corporate success increased in the form of improved wages, conditions, and benefits, ultimately stimulating economic activity in the U.S. marketplace.  Around 1950, a new three-tiered structure of industrial relations was introduced and nearly fully realized.  This three-tiered structure was comprised of a strategy level on an industry-wide basis, a collective bargaining level on both an industry wide basis and a company basis, and a work place level on a plant or an office basis. At that time, the power relationships within these three levels were balanced. However, in recent years, these dynamics have been altered due to (1) the loss of union power due to a declining rate of organization, (2) the emergence of a non-union industrial relations system, (3) the use of human resource management or low-wage strategies, and (4) changes in marketplace competition due to increased globalization.  Under these new circumstances, the cooperative labor-management model’s goal of attaining competitive levels of productivity and quality, for both the labor union and management, has become more important than the objective of continuing traditional industrial relations.  Within the automotive industry, there are some patterns of labor-management cooperation unique to each company’s management style. Daimler Chrysler and General Motors have taken different approaches in their efforts to transform industrial relations and rebalance power within the three-tiered structure. Such examples illustrate not only the possibility of the labor union’s recovery, but also its limits and contradictions.

The Provident Fund Centered Social Security System: A Comparative Examination of Three Countries and Policy Implications for Nepal

Ghan Shyam GAUTAM

Provident funds that work through the mandatory saving accumulation are the dominant social security scheme in some Asian and African countries, though with varying levels of progress over the years. In this paper, we present a comparative analysis of provident fund performance in three Asian countries, Nepal, Malaysia and Singapore, respectively representing agriculture-dominated, industrializing and industrialized economies, and try to identify issues and prospects from the Nepalese perspective.  After briefly reviewing the existing social security structures in the three countries, we comparatively appraise provident funds from different angles. Thereafter, after examining issues and prospects of provident funds, we conclude with some policy implications for the future design of the social security system in Nepal.

In Nepal, where the social security system is a relatively new phenomenon, the scope of EPF is rather narrow in terms of participants and services compared to Singapore and Malaysia. More concretely, coverage is drastically low, health service is completely neglected and schemes to enhance members’ choices are lacking. In all three countries, no significant income redistributive features are available, necessitating the requirement of such provision by pooling certain funds among the participants. Positively, returns to members’ savings are comparatively attractive in the Nepalese provident fund and the overall progress since 1990 deserves considerable praise. It possesses strong potential to become an effective social security program by bringing all organized workers and upper-income persons into its coverage. Nevertheless, the provident fund can hardly incorporate the large population engaged in the informal and agriculture sectors in the near future, making necessary a supplementary scheme to guarantee social security for all.  Lastly, considering the possibility of introducing social insurance to incorporate the excluded majority into the social security net, we propose a two-layered four-pillared social security framework for Nepal. However, detailed preparatory work for the framework is needed for its successful implementation, and this has not been conducted in this study.

Defects in the Financial Verification of Public Pensions

Tohru HATANAKA

This paper reviews the report “Financial Report on the Public Pensions System Fiscal Year 2003” recently published by the Pension Mathematics Section (PMS) in the Social Security Council of May 2001. The report provides data calculated from annual financial verification, including comparisons of the actuarial revaluation in 1999 with actual results.  The report provides considerable information, but not enough information about National Pension and Basic Pensions benefits per insured person (B/P), which exceeded the forecast in the actuarial revaluation by 180 yen from 2000 to 2003. This paper argues that the inadequacy needs to be compensated for two reasons: (1) The National Pension involves over 20 million insured persons and attracts national attention, and (2) the financial problem affects all public pensions through the Basic Pension system, in which public pensions are mutually balancing.

To reveal what caused the actual result of B/P to exceed the forecast in the actuarial revaluation, this paper analyzes B/P using “Differences Analysis”, which PMS has introduced (the method of Difference Analysis is explained in this paper). The result shows that B/P was mainly influenced by three factors: (1) The decrease of benefits functioned to cut B/P, (2) The number of persons insured by employees’ pensions decreased because some of them moved to the National Pension, and (3) The rate of insured persons who don’t pay contributions to the National Pension increased. The latter two worked to raise B/P, and their impact was much stronger than that of the former. In the actuarial revaluation in 1999, the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare assumed that the number of persons insured by employees’ pensions would continue to increase and that the rate of contributors to the National Pension would be fixed. These optimistic assumptions resulted in differences between the forecast and actual result.

The conclusion is that PMS overlooks the serious problem above, so the MHLW should verify the National Pension and Basic Pension in more detail, and make available its results to encourage a discussion about public pension reform among researchers and associations.

Globalization and the Philippines’ Overseas Employment Program for Nurses

Ryoichi YAMADA

The growth of the elderly population demands a large health workforce in the world’s developed countries. Many health workers, especially nurses, in the developing countries are moving to the developed countries. The Philippines’ global strategy is to provide a supply of health workers according to the current demands of each country. The Philippines has a redundant supply of nurses, and can supply them for the U.S.A., the U.K., the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and many other countries. The remittances of OFWs (Overseas Filipino Workers) helps to maintain the economy and their families’ consumption.

The exodus of the nursing workforce has caused some measure of “Brain Drain”. It has cost the national economy the talents of many highly skilled professionals, such as licensed doctors who attend nursing schools to gain overseas jobs as nurses. The Philippines is at the brink of a healthcare worker and nursing crisis.

According to this research on the Philippines’ Global Age Strategy, we need to ensure that labour migration programs are orderly, efficient and protective of the rights of migrant workers.

Economic Basis of the “Ownership Society” in the United States: Analysis of “Ownership” in Private Pensions

Kenzo YOSHIDA

Since 2004, the Bush administration has emphasized an “ownership society” as a key political concept. This concept includes promoting the “ownership” of retirement income as a significant aspect. In 2005, the administration assigned top priority to introducing the individual account system into the Social Security. This idea signified the application of a structural change in the private pension system to the public pension system, namely the introduction of defined contribution plans, such as 401(k)s.

This paper examines the historical implications and the economic basis of retirement income ownership by analyzing the characteristics of defined contribution plans. It arrives at two primary conclusions.

First, ownership of pensions has made participants independent of their employers.  In defined contribution plans, the employer does not have the discretionary power to forfeit and reduce the benefits of the participants. It is a subject that the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (ERISA) and a series of legislation on retirement income security tried to cover for defined benefit plans. Further, participants in defined contribution plans can decide how to manage their pension assets independently from their employers.

Second, the ownership of pensions also signifies the involvement of participants in a new economic order instead of the old order, industrial relations. In defined contribution plans, participants are dependent on plan providers, whose financial services incorporate a condition according to which participants can “own” their pensions.  Participants need plan providers to manage their assets and generate profits from them.  Such services are an application of services for individual investors and have been developed in order to promote various investment options to middle-class families.  Hence, the independence of pension participants, or the ownership of the pension, is based on a specific historical condition-developing the financial business for middle-class individuals, which is also referred as the “money revolution.”

These finding suggest the emergence of new political issues over the ownership of pensions. In traditional defined benefit plans, the primary objective of retirement income policy is to coordinate industrial relationships, with a special focus on securing employees’ rights from employers. However, in defined contribution plans, it is also important to adjust for the conflict of interests between participants and financial institutions. For instance, disclosure of service fees and deregulation of investment management, banned under ERISA for potential conflicts of interest, have emerged as the main issue of retirement income policy since the rapid growth of defined contribution plans.

HOME > PUBLICATIONS > Early Journals > The Journal of Social Policy and Labor Studies (Shakai-seisaku Gakkai shi) (1999-2007)

The East Asian Path of Economic Development and the Quality of Labour and Life : An Historical Perspective

Kaoru SUGIHARA

This paper argues that there was a long-term path of economic development in East Asia, which underpinned the “industrious revolution” since the seventeenth century and labour-intensive industrialization since the late nineteenth century, and eventually produced the “East Asian miracle” during the second half of the twentieth century. Central to this path was its commitment to the improvement of the quality of labour. The improvement of the quality of life, expressed in education, health and housing, was also pursued from a relatively early stage in order to improve the quality of labour.

The first half of the paper describes the interactions between “high initial conditions”, international circumstances and government policies in postwar East Asia, and suggests that “developmentalism”, an ideology adopted by many governments of the region’s high growth economies, reflected its specialisation in labour-intensive industries in the global division of labour, based on the East Asian path, rather than its effort to “catch up” with the West.

The paper then considers how development economics in the postwar period had neglected the question of the improvement of the quality of labour and life, and attributes some of the reasons for the rapid improvement in education and, to a lesser extent, health in East and Southeast Asian economies to the region’s long-term commitment to “productivist” ideology. The success was also helped by the “mechatronics revolution”, which combined the introduction of micro-electronics technology with traditional mechanical engineering in the 1970s and the 1980s. The speed at which new technology was adopted to consumer electronics, computer and other manufacturing and service industries was faster in East Asia than anywhere else, because the region was able to combine good-quality labour of all kinds, from unskilled to highly skilled, to produce competitive manufactured goods. It was the quality of labour that determined where the region’s comparative advantage lay.

The paper ends with comments on the development of “social policy” in East Asia. In the literature on development, “social policy” often means human development policy, and includes all areas of education, health, housing etc. as well as the traditional areas covered by welfare state policies such as social security and unemployment benefits. While Esping-Andersen’s typology of welfare capitalism is formulated on the experience of the Western path of economic development, the East Asia path requires a different evaluation, on which to assess the history of a rather piecemeal introduction of Western-style welfare system to the region.

Perspectives for Studying East Asian Social Policies

Mari OSAWA

In the 2000s, at least two perspectives towards social policies in East Asian countries began to interweave and articulate themselves. One perspective is from comparative social policy or political economy, which originated in the West but began to include some East Asian countries in the 1990s, while another is from development studies, which have been paying greater attention to social policies in a developmental context, with a focus on East and Southeast Asian countries. Against this backdrop the current paper first tries to overview different but partly overlapping concepts of social policy in various perspectives. It suggests that much is expected of chronological as well as cross-sectional comparative studies of social policies, in order to cover policy measures other than social insurance schemes or their alternative modes of social protection on the one hand, and stages of development preceding industrialization and democratization on the other hand.

Secondly by introducing a conceptual framework of “livelihood security system”, this paper highlights a characteristic of 20^th century welfare states, in which the inherently individualistic and multi-dimensional risks of livelihood were reduced to the single-dimensional insufficiency of the income of male breadwinner, and explained away as employed or not employed in terms of main causes of risk. Of course, welfare states in the 20^th century did not share a similar structure, and the livelihood security systems of “advanced” nations around the 1980s can be grouped into three main categories: the “male breadwinner” model, the “work/life balance” model and the “market-oriented” model.

It is argued that 20^th century welfare state dysfunction has revealed itself as “social exclusion” in a broader sense, particularly in the male breadwinner model, designated as “the clearest case of impasse” in adapting to post-industrialization. Youth and women are excluded both within and outside the labor market, and exclusion is widely used by employers to avoid the burden of social insurance premiums. In Japan, where the male breadwinner orientation of the livelihood security system at the turn of the century is stronger than in other countries, social exclusion as accelerated “extra-legality” in social insurance schemes is evident. It needs to be contrasted to recent social security reforms in Korea and Taiwan that moved towards universalization of social insurance schemes in their efforts to restructure their strategies of economic development from labor-to capital-and skill-intensive.

A Comparative Study of Industrial Relations in Japan and Korea: Based on the Cases of Toyota Motor Corporation and Hyundai Motor Company

Jong-Won WOO

This paper examines the differences between the similarly enterprise-union-based industrial relations of Japan and Korea by focusing on union functions. In the case of Toyota, the union cooperates with management, which strives for “kaizen”. The core workers on the shop floor, who also take on leadership of the union, are systematically trained and committed to shop management. Other ordinary workers are able to work flexibly and are committed to long-term training. In contrast, the relation between union and management in Hyundai is adversarial. Management does not depend on shop-floor workers but on engineers to maintain production system. Moreover, the union does not commit itself to functional flexibility or show interest in long-term training.

The paper investigates the historical contexts in which the contrasting practices were formed. First, the existence of skilled workers and the degree of their cooperation in the primary stage of economic growth influenced whether or not the production system made good use of the shop-floor workers’ skills. Next, the democratization process affected the workers’ attitudes toward long-term training differently. In Japan, “democratization” after WWII meant “equalization” between white-collar workers and blue-collar workers. The latter tried hard to improve their long-term abilities in order to show that they deserved equal status with the former. In Korea, democratization after 1986 was limited to free collective bargaining between management and blue-collar workers. It could not attain “equalization” because management was not weakened and the white-collar workers were more privileged than their Japanese counterparts. Finally, ideology influenced managerial attitudes toward worker participation in management. In particular, the division of the Korean peninsular exerted a strongly negative effect on worker participation in South Korea because it was believed that managerial prerogative should not be infringed in the capitalist regime.

The most difficult issues facing Korean unions are how to commit themselves more strongly to long-term training and how to reduce the working condition differentials between permanent and contingent workers in the process of setting up industrial unions. The problems facing Japanese unions are covering contingent workers more broadly and managing lifestyles, which have not been viewed as a worker’s own but as a salaryman’s.

Comparison of Public Pension Reforms in the East Asian Countries: China, Korea, and Japan

Kwang Joon PARK

This is a comparative study regarding the purposes and contents of public pension reforms among the East Asian countries of China, Korea, and Japan. For the purposes of reform, the three nations, with varying degrees of maturity, are compared in terms of universal coverage, the adequacy of benefits, fiscal security (sustainability), and modernization.

To examine the nature of pension reforms, a framework of four ways of spreading-out in social policy－penetration, imposition, harmonization, diffusion－is utilized to examine how each nation assimilated experiences from other countries. Diffusion was seen as the most common way of expansion in pension reforms while under conditions of globalization harmonization and diffusion have became the more prevalent methods.

East Asian countries face the usual challenges of fiscal security, intergenerational equity, diversifying need (i.e., women’s rights to benefits), and public distrust, but each nation pursued its own objectives based upon its years of maturity. China, which started its reforms in the 1990s, has as its primary goal universal coverage followed by fiscal viability. Korea is, above all, seeking financial stability in its system, juggling between the adequacy of benefits and their sustainability. More mature than those two countries is Japan, which is, however, beginning to see the possibility of modernizing its pension system while pursuing fiscal stability as the primary objective.

The increases in the number of part-time workers and in public distrust of the pension system are still prevalent in these three countries. Sound and proper measures have not yet been developed to deal with demands for more fundamental reforms.

A Study on the Characteristics and Prospects of Japanese Industrial Relations

Yoshinori TOMITA

This study aims to examine the development pattern of Japanese industrial relations and trade union movements in the post-World War Ⅱ period. In addition, it also provides suggestions on overcoming the difficulties confronted by trade unions in Japan at present.

The mid-1980’s marked a turning point in industrial relations in Japan as various economic transformations, which influenced industrial relations deeply, took place in succession. The main transformations were (i)Globalization of the product market, (ii) Acceleration of market changes (shortening of the average product life cycle), (iii) Technological changes (introduction of microelectronics and information technologies), and (iv) Reduced demand for labor (slackening of labor markets).

These transformations in turn forced changes in systems of management, product development and production. The unit of management in firms became smaller and extended down to shop floors. Work teams on shop floors were designated as the smallest units to be responsible for firm profitability. At the same time, firm cost control became more severe. On the other hand, functions and responsibilities granted to lower level workers increased. As a result of these changes, the shop floor level became important because not only conflicts between workers and management, but also resolution of conflicts, took place there.

Another aspect of change in contemporary industrial relations is individualization. The individualization of industrial relations has had a deep impact on the trade union movement. This paper attempts to examine its impact by viewing (i) individualization of work hour controls, and (ii) individualization of payment controls. It is vital for trade unions to alleviate the effects of individualization through collective regulation. In a firm that devotes sufficient time to labor-management consultation, workers succeed in regulating working conditions collectively. As a result, working conditions tend to get better in such firms. This indicates that, in the process of individualization of industrial relations, joint consultation is effective and practical than collective bargaining.

Centralization and decentralization of three-tiered structures of industrial relations within the U.S. automotive industry due to labor-management cooperation

Ken YAMAZAKI

This paper examines the transformation of industrial relations within the U.S. automotive industry, focusing on the evolution of the historically adversarial model into a cooperation- based approach to labor-management relations.

During the New Deal era, the federal government began supporting the collective bargaining process, a development which put labor unions on equal footing with employers for the first time. As a result, labor’s share of corporate success increased in the form of improved wages, conditions, and benefits, ultimately stimulating economic activity in the U.S. marketplace. Around 1950, a new three-tiered structure of industrial relations was introduced and nearly fully realized. This three-tiered structure was comprised of a strategy level on an industry-wide basis, a collective bargaining level on both an industry wide basis and a company basis, and a work place level on a plant or an office basis. At that time, the power relationships within these three levels were balanced. However, in recent years, these dynamics have been altered due to (1) the loss of union power due to a declining rate of organization, (2) the emergence of a non-union industrial relations system, (3) the use of human resource management or low-wage strategies, and (4) changes in marketplace competition due to increased globalization. Under these new circumstances, the cooperative labor-management model’s goal of attaining competitive levels of productivity and quality, for both the labor union and management, has become more important than the objective of continuing traditional industrial relations. Within the automotive industry, there are some patterns of labor-management cooperation unique to each company’s management style. Daimler Chrysler and General Motors have taken different approaches in their efforts to transform industrial relations and rebalance power within the three-tiered structure. Such examples illustrate not only the possibility of the labor union’s recovery, but also its limits and contradictions.

The Provident Fund Centered Social Security System: A Comparative Examination of Three Countries and Policy Implications for Nepal

Ghan Shyam GAUTAM

Provident funds that work through the mandatory saving accumulation are the dominant social security scheme in some Asian and African countries, though with varying levels of progress over the years. In this paper, we present a comparative analysis of provident fund performance in three Asian countries, Nepal, Malaysia and Singapore, respectively representing agriculture-dominated, industrializing and industrialized economies, and try to identify issues and prospects from the Nepalese perspective. After briefly reviewing the existing social security structures in the three countries, we comparatively appraise provident funds from different angles. Thereafter, after examining issues and prospects of provident funds, we conclude with some policy implications for the future design of the social security system in Nepal.

In Nepal, where the social security system is a relatively new phenomenon, the scope of EPF is rather narrow in terms of participants and services compared to Singapore and Malaysia. More concretely, coverage is drastically low, health service is completely neglected and schemes to enhance members’ choices are lacking. In all three countries, no significant income redistributive features are available, necessitating the requirement of such provision by pooling certain funds among the participants. Positively, returns to members’ savings are comparatively attractive in the Nepalese provident fund and the overall progress since 1990 deserves considerable praise. It possesses strong potential to become an effective social security program by bringing all organized workers and upper-income persons into its coverage. Nevertheless, the provident fund can hardly incorporate the large population engaged in the informal and agriculture sectors in the near future, making necessary a supplementary scheme to guarantee social security for all. Lastly, considering the possibility of introducing social insurance to incorporate the excluded majority into the social security net, we propose a two-layered four-pillared social security framework for Nepal. However, detailed preparatory work for the framework is needed for its successful implementation, and this has not been conducted in this study.

Defects in the Financial Verification of Public Pensions

Tohru HATANAKA

This paper reviews the report “Financial Report on the Public Pensions System Fiscal Year 2003” recently published by the Pension Mathematics Section (PMS) in the Social Security Council of May 2001. The report provides data calculated from annual financial verification, including comparisons of the actuarial revaluation in 1999 with actual results. The report provides considerable information, but not enough information about National Pension and Basic Pensions benefits per insured person (B/P), which exceeded the forecast in the actuarial revaluation by 180 yen from 2000 to 2003. This paper argues that the inadequacy needs to be compensated for two reasons: (1) The National Pension involves over 20 million insured persons and attracts national attention, and (2) the financial problem affects all public pensions through the Basic Pension system, in which public pensions are mutually balancing.

To reveal what caused the actual result of B/P to exceed the forecast in the actuarial revaluation, this paper analyzes B/P using “Differences Analysis”, which PMS has introduced (the method of Difference Analysis is explained in this paper). The result shows that B/P was mainly influenced by three factors: (1) The decrease of benefits functioned to cut B/P, (2) The number of persons insured by employees’ pensions decreased because some of them moved to the National Pension, and (3) The rate of insured persons who don’t pay contributions to the National Pension increased. The latter two worked to raise B/P, and their impact was much stronger than that of the former. In the actuarial revaluation in 1999, the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare assumed that the number of persons insured by employees’ pensions would continue to increase and that the rate of contributors to the National Pension would be fixed. These optimistic assumptions resulted in differences between the forecast and actual result.

The conclusion is that PMS overlooks the serious problem above, so the MHLW should verify the National Pension and Basic Pension in more detail, and make available its results to encourage a discussion about public pension reform among researchers and associations.

Globalization and the Philippines’ Overseas Employment Program for Nurses

Ryoichi YAMADA

The growth of the elderly population demands a large health workforce in the world’s developed countries. Many health workers, especially nurses, in the developing countries are moving to the developed countries. The Philippines’ global strategy is to provide a supply of health workers according to the current demands of each country. The Philippines has a redundant supply of nurses, and can supply them for the U.S.A., the U.K., the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and many other countries. The remittances of OFWs (Overseas Filipino Workers) helps to maintain the economy and their families’ consumption.

The exodus of the nursing workforce has caused some measure of “Brain Drain”. It has cost the national economy the talents of many highly skilled professionals, such as licensed doctors who attend nursing schools to gain overseas jobs as nurses. The Philippines is at the brink of a healthcare worker and nursing crisis.

According to this research on the Philippines’ Global Age Strategy, we need to ensure that labour migration programs are orderly, efficient and protective of the rights of migrant workers.

Economic Basis of the “Ownership Society” in the United States: Analysis of “Ownership” in Private Pensions

Kenzo YOSHIDA

Since 2004, the Bush administration has emphasized an “ownership society” as a key political concept. This concept includes promoting the “ownership” of retirement income as a significant aspect. In 2005, the administration assigned top priority to introducing the individual account system into the Social Security. This idea signified the application of a structural change in the private pension system to the public pension system, namely the introduction of defined contribution plans, such as 401(k)s.

This paper examines the historical implications and the economic basis of retirement income ownership by analyzing the characteristics of defined contribution plans. It arrives at two primary conclusions.

First, ownership of pensions has made participants independent of their employers. In defined contribution plans, the employer does not have the discretionary power to forfeit and reduce the benefits of the participants. It is a subject that the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (ERISA) and a series of legislation on retirement income security tried to cover for defined benefit plans. Further, participants in defined contribution plans can decide how to manage their pension assets independently from their employers.

Second, the ownership of pensions also signifies the involvement of participants in a new economic order instead of the old order, industrial relations. In defined contribution plans, participants are dependent on plan providers, whose financial services incorporate a condition according to which participants can “own” their pensions. Participants need plan providers to manage their assets and generate profits from them. Such services are an application of services for individual investors and have been developed in order to promote various investment options to middle-class families. Hence, the independence of pension participants, or the ownership of the pension, is based on a specific historical condition-developing the financial business for middle-class individuals, which is also referred as the “money revolution.”

These finding suggest the emergence of new political issues over the ownership of pensions. In traditional defined benefit plans, the primary objective of retirement income policy is to coordinate industrial relationships, with a special focus on securing employees’ rights from employers. However, in defined contribution plans, it is also important to adjust for the conflict of interests between participants and financial institutions. For instance, disclosure of service fees and deregulation of investment management, banned under ERISA for potential conflicts of interest, have emerged as the main issue of retirement income policy since the rapid growth of defined contribution plans.