The Japanese HRM practices and policies resulting from the compromises between labor, management, and the state emerged after WWII and coalesced in the 1960s. The subsequent emergence of a very cohesive, stable, and dynamic employment system is largely credited with playing an important role in Japan’s economic success and the stability of Japanese society in the postwar period. The treatment of senior workers after mandatory retirement occupied a specific place in this system. A mix of institutional, socio-cultural, economic, and demographic factors created a virtuous circle, and Japan was considered a model of management of those retired workers. Companies were able to maintain employment for many of them in relatively good social and economic conditions beneficial for both parties, even after mandatory retirement, and this assured a good transition to definitive retirement. However, despite Japan’s relative success in this regard, this paper exposes why the traditional HRM policies and practices are now considered socially and economically unsustainable in the treatment of retired senior workers. It argues that Japan cannot afford under-utilizing senior workers during the pre- and post-retirement periods of their career in the way that traditional policies and practices have institutionalized. Not only does Japan’s economy need senior workers, but not giving them the opportunity to maintain decent standards of living would have dire social and economic consequences. This calls for revamping the HRM system, so that the talent of senior workers can be used for their own benefit, while contributing to their employers and to society at large.

This chapter explores human resource management (HRM) in three countries that share common geographic (East Asia) and economic (embracing capitalism) features, despite considerable differences in their ethnic and cultural make-up. The chapter presents reviews of each country’s typical approach to HRM explained by the increasingly (financially and politically) challenging contextual settings, including a new discussion on workplace diversity (and discrimination) management.

Japanese trade unions have contributed much to the economic stability and success of Japanese enterprises. Globalization has, however, placed substantial pressure on the Japanese industrial relations system and, in turn, upon the enterprise union system. Not all changes can be directly attributed to globalization. We contend, however, that the success of Japanese firms, both in exports and in overseas production, has made the Japanese economy reliant on a strong world economy. Economic downturns that have been witnessed in a number of countries in 1990s have weakened the demand for Japanese export products. This, in combination with the Japanese banking and financial crises, has created pressure for an overhaul of employment and human resource management systems. This article examines these pressures and the response by trade unions.

Introduction - assessment of the current situation and of the possibilities of change of the employment practices the nature of the human resource management system characteristics of the Japanese business system the incentive, appraisal and wage system the exogenous catalysts of change the challenges to the business system in Japanese society the directions of change organizational management changes changes in public policy small companies and atypical workers changes in industrial relations conclusion - global assessment of the changes.

This brief introductory discussion develops contexts within which to compare human resource management (HRM) responses to ageing societies in Japan and Germany. Here we define key concepts that occur throughout this Special Issue. While giving due attention to the historical and current contexts for emerging challenges to HRM policy-makers, practitioners and researchers posed by ageing societies in Germany and Japan, we propose that the relevant contexts for interpreting these challenges are essentially global, national, and regional in nature. In conclusion we present a brief overview of the contributions to this Management Review Special Issue.

Under demographic pressures, efforts to delay labor market withdrawal have replaced early retirement policies as a management tool of labor supply in many countries. In Japan, as the country is facing a dramatic demographic transition, the employment of elderly workers up to the age of 65 has become mandatory since 2006. This article discusses the recent developments in this field in Japan and their impact on the employment of elderly workers. It focuses more specifically on how the traditional win-win way of managing elderly employment is evolving under the impact of demographics, the socio-cultural context, the regulatory environment and the consequential need for changes in the social security system. Based on a case study of five Japanese companies, and on other research findings, this paper examines empirically how organisations in that country develop human resource management practices to cope with these environmental transformations and prolong employees’ work-life.

IntroductionEvidence suggests that Japan has been successful in social and economic terms in the management of older workers (Sueki, 2013). This national tendency has been translated systematically into the national system for human resource management (HRM) in Japan. Historically, policy-makers in Japan tend to encourage the unemployed or inactive back into jobs or urge those in employment to delay retiring in order to avoid a long disconnection from the labour market. As a result older employees tend to stay in the labour market in larger numbers and for longer time than in most European countries, including Germany (ILO, 2013).Correspondingly, policy at the national level has given the opportunity to large companies to utilize dedicated human resources at reasonable cost and to the public authorities the possibility to slow down the rising deficit of the social security system. However, there was always little attempt to optimize the talent of elderly people after mandatory retirement in teaching them new skills and to allow them to shift gradually to complete retirement in good conditions. Little public money has been devoted to training institutions for all types of workers, including the older workers until the last decade (Johns & Urasawa, 2011). Many of them occupy under-qualified jobs. They are also not given the opportunity to acquire new skills and they are not paid fairly. Other older workers perform qualified jobs and were reasonably rewarded so far because financial incentives complementing public pension could be added to their wage.However, these traditional practices appear increasingly unsustainable under the impact of demographics, the socio-cultural context, the regulatory environment and the subsequent need for changes in the social security system. Japan cannot afford not to continue to train older workers in order that they have marketable skills, even age sixty and above. The raising of the age of eligibility for receiving public pension means that the income of older workers would decline significantly without other kinds of public support, something that is very difficult in view of the public deficit, or companies' acceptance to pay higher wage, something that the large majority of companies declare to be beyond their means and economically unrealistic. Thus, it may be time to examine how the traditional practices of managing elderly employment can evolve, what kinds of new HRM approaches can be tried, what form of new deals might be offered to employees, and how these might be implemented.ContextLow fertility rates and rising life expectancy are causing the ratio of Japanese workers to retirees to shrink. Between 2010 and 2040, the share of Japan' working-age population will fall by more than 10 per cent (World Bank Group, 2015). Japan went from having one of the lowest dependency ratios in 1960 to one of the highest in the world nowadays. It is bound to escalate further and projected to more than double in the following twenty years (ILO, 2013).In Japan as in many countries ageing is still often correlated with less dynamism and entrepreneurial spirit, and lower productivity. However, efforts to prolong or sustain working life are increasingly understood in a broader and deeper perspective. It is increasingly thought that no upper limit should be decided in setting the threshold be- tween working age and retirement age. Many people are not only able to work longer, but prefer and choose to do so. Surveys suggest that Japanese people recognize the need to work longer and the desirability in terms of economic benefits and strengthened social engagement (World Bank Group, 2015). Research also suggests that the productivity of elderly workers may be maintained for some types of tasks: for example, through innovative technologies in shop floors and in offices. Because healthy life expectancy is increasing, cognitive decline is found to start later in life (Skirbekk, 2013). …

passée sous silence.L'ouvrage propose cependant un travail d'ensemble rigoureux qui vient éclairer l'art du nô sous des angles multiples.

Modern Japan was built on a strong linkage between government, business and society. But it did not proceed without fight, claims or revolts, as exemplified by the history of peasants and industrial workers' protests, the rise of environmentalist movements and the instability of the business and political system for long periods of time. The Japanese economic and business system, including the employment relations framework, is the result of an interaction between interests and ideologies that sometimes clashed and sometimes compromised in specific political, social and economic contexts. Ideas about the roles of business in society and the concepts of corporate social responsibility (CSR) that have emerged and evolved in Japan since the Edo period derive from these complex influences.

"International human resource management: policies and practices for multinational enterprises / International human resource management: a cross-cultural and comparative approach." Asia Pacific Business Review, 21(4), pp. 559–560

This chapter's objective and contribution is to describe and analyze HRM systems in East and Southeast Asia, paying particular attention to the conditions that would permit the evolution of the current systems on a sustainable basis. First of all, we describe the current context in terms of the philosophy, architecture, policies and practices underlying the HRM systems. Their forces and weaknesses are analyzed in general term and in the key countries of the region. Then, are explored the possibility of development of sustainable HRM policies and practices taken into account the specific characteristics of the socio-cultural, political and economic environment. In this period of transition the characteristics of the systems that are observed in all key countries attempt to integrate sets of new concepts, practices and expectations developed in the region but also in the other parts of the world. They consider the concept of sustainability in a broader perspective, for example in incorporating the social and ecological dimensions. As a result it could be argued that they are more efficient and effective than before in some respects. However, the transformation is still incomplete and uncertain. The serious problems, notably of inclusiveness of important categories of human resources that are still observed put in question their sustainability in a long-term perspective if they are not tackled earnestly in the years to come.

Cet ouvrage edite sous la direction de Claude Hamon analyse au fil de ses cinq chapitres differents aspects des relations entre entreprises et societe dans le Japon d’avant-guerre. Un premier chapitre presente la politique sociale de la firme Kanebō. Le deuxieme decrit les activites des marchands d’Ōmi 近江 et la base ethique a laquelle ils se sont efforces de lier la performance commerciale. Le troisieme chapitre apporte un eclairage sur la contribution francaise au developpement technologique...

edited by J.S. Eades, Roger Goodman and Yumiko Hada, Balwyn North, Australia, Trans Pacific Press, 2005, 371 pp., £26.17 (paperback), ISBN 978-1876843236 This book is one product from an extensive ...

Reforms of the human resource management system have proceeded at an accelerating pace in East and South-East Asia since the 1980s. It could be said that the reforms have been strongly influenced by concepts and practices that originated in the United States: more strategic importance given to the human resource function with involvement of all employees and managers in the devising and implementation of practices; introduction of appraisal based on individual merit and pay-for-performance systems with a drastic decline of the traditional elements of age and tenure; adoption of the concept of flexible enterprise with a clear categorization of employees in terms of status, career prospects, and working conditions; nurturing of a unitarist corporate culture minimizing or removing organized labor. The adoption of such systems has deeply changed the HRM and business strategy of a large number of Asian firms.

Philip Altbach and Jorge Balan, Baltimore, The John Hopkins University Press, 2007, 322pp., £53.67 (hardback), ISBN 10 0-8018-8662-7, ISBN 13 978-0-8018-8662-1 This book focuses on research univers...

This detailed study of female entrepreneurship in Asia examines the high economic growth that is increasingly driven by market-oriented economic reforms favouring entrepreneurship. There is a higher awareness by women of their political and socio-economic rights and recognition by society at large of social legitimacy of women pursuing business activities in their own right. This book assesses socio-cultural and economic factors influencing female entrepreneurship in Asia as well as the process and the tools and challenges that accompany it.