how is japanese work culture nowadays?

Hey everyone

i wanted to ask some questions about the japanese work culture of nowadays, as a reference.

are people still only hired during march of every year? are there no companies that also hire people no matter what time of the year they apply for a job?

and, are there any unions for employees like in europe, who, for protection of employees in general, stand up to the company when it goes out of line?

it would also be interesting to know other differences like these between japanese and european work culture. if anyone has information about that, please post it.

thank you in advance for the replies.

As far as I know, Japanese companies in Japan have been hiring people all year round ever since they existed. It's just that most schools end in March, therefore most freshmen can't work until March or April.

Unions also have existed in Japan since 1897. Although not all organizations have unions, most major ones do.

I wonder where you got those ideas.

Recruit season is March because it is graduation season.
But, many companies employ workers midway through the year also.

Rate of organized workers is only 18.7 % (2005). As a result, many unorganized workers had been dismissed recently: for example at Toyota and Canon.
Originally, the labor laws were the excellent laws. But former Prime Minister Koizumi had revised the laws for the worse.

Hello again, thank you for answering.

i didnt mean to sound ignorant or anything, but the reason why i asked was because i didn't know.

the reason why i didn't think there were any unions is because i haven't really heard of any employees opposing the long working hours in japan, demanding more benefits etc. people seem very submissive to their company (if i am wrong about that too, then i apologize), so that is why i thought unions either didn't exist, or didn't have a significant importance in japan.

Macmac, if you live in Japan you wouldn't have missed the annual "shunto" the big spring labor offensives, in which unions protest for rights and raise, not to mention the many strikes going on. But generally speaking, Japan has been a relative wealthy nation, and therefore the protests haven't been that harsh. At least, probably not harsh enough to have been featured so much on international news.

However as mentioned, due to the economic crisis that has been spreading throughout the world, things have gotten critical enough to produce hundreds of lay-offs and homelessness in Japan (this includes both Japanese and foreign workers). So recently, at least domestic news have been featuring on a daily basis unions working to save these people.

On a related note, actually, the big "recruit" season is summer (was autumn a couple of decades ago). At this point, many receive informal acceptances for employment. Then the freshmen actually starts working in March or April after they finish school, and officially becomes an employee in April. And due to the economic crisis, many are turned down their informal acceptances for employment before they are officially employed in April.

First, a considerable number of unions, especially white-collar workers�f, don't stand by benefits of workers. In many case these unions are company unions, so-called goyo-kumiai. They don't want that they are in disfavor with the administration. They can't do any labor dispute.
This is the symbolic case. A young businessman had died caused by overworking seventeen years ago. His parent sued the company. But, the union of Dentsu didn't help them at all. And the parents had won the suit unaided.
Second, former Prime Minister Koizumi had destroyed system of labors�f benefit. Unorganized workers increased very much by the policy. He introduced system of temporary personnel service (so-called haken). Many manufacturing companies don�ft treat many workers working in their factory as their employee. And the policy enabled some questionable act for enterprise. A famous camera maker treats workers as subcontractor (giso-ukeoi).

About giso-ukeoi
http://www.asiamedia.ucla.edu/article.asp?parentid=5183...

hello again

there are strikes in japan? get out of here! i find that hard to believe, really, especially because its japan. so then i assume that japanese workers are less submissive than they used to be, right? you were talking about 'many' strikes going on, but those are strikes from which sectors?

in regards to nyantaro's reply, what is the point of having union if its not going to protect the workers? Uco didnt mention this. But if the majority of these white collar workers union are company unions, that means that the majority of the white collar workers are the ones losing when there is a possible dispute between them and the company. in such a scenario, arent there any independent unions that can be founded to better protect the workers and go against the company unions in times of disagreement?

Believe it, macmac. Japan doesn't exist in a weird bubble that means the work culture is totally different from the rest of the world- they have a lot of the same problems here, and the reactions are similar too.

You don't see large scale disruption here like when the French truck drivers blockade roads, for example, but there are workers, there are unions, therefore there are strikes from time to time.

Just as a small example, some time in the 1980s when the economy in Japan was enormously well, our company in the travel industry went on strike and the whole reservation section stopped taking calls until the company accepted our demand around noon. Needless to say, our company's union arranged everything. This was in the pre-internet days, so the reservation section not taking calls was critical.

A quick internet search reminds me that the most major airline in Japan, Japan Airlines, went on strike on June 18th, 2008 and 38 flights, both domestic and international, were to be cancelled on the 19th.

Really, I can't recall seeing any news on strikes in Swiss or Belgium, but I'm sure they exist.

Yes there are strikes in Belgium and Switzerland! ironically I found an old Swiss government document from the 1990s saying that there were seldom strikes in the country then noting that in 1992 there were over 5000 days loss for strikes. Not a big number but still...In Europe strikes affect more often than not the railways, gas and electricity (sometimes the same day!) so lots of people are inconvenienced.

Hello

Sira, i think you made a very valid point in saying that japan doesnt exist in a weird bubble. but, sometimes, i do actually think that japan live in this weird bubble on their own. i guess it must be the large cultural differences...

Uco, thank you for that information about the airline strikes. one thing though, why did you mention belgium in your previous post? i am from belgium, so i was just wondering if this wasnt some kind of coincidence.

for that matter yes, there have been strikes in belgium, needless to say. although probably more than in japan. every year, the public transportation goes on strike once or twice.

but in the past few years, buses have been striking more as well. this is due to an increasing number of bus drivers and passengers falling victim to assaults by other passengers on buses. and and a few months ago, employees at a big supermarket chain went on strike for several days as well. and schools also have their yearly strikes. but that however, is more of a day off for teachers and students than it is a real strike.

i would like to ask you one more thing, Uco. if someone is absent from work due to illness in japan, do you know if that person still gets his full monthly salary paid out, or is his salary reduced by the number of absent days? in belgium, employees here are protected by law to get their full monthly pay, even though they are absent for a number of days due to illness. so the system is essentially a good thing for employees, but a nightmare for employers. are there such laws in japan protecting employees too?

thank you

Macmac,

Me bringing up Belgium was an absolute coincidence. But I did think that countries like Belgium or Swiss are typical examples of nations far from Japan, modest enough to not get major news coverage, and yet sophisticated and civilized enough to have a fair share of economic rights and problems. But I do have a German friend that is married to a Belgian, by the way.

About illness, it depends on the contract, but typically, regular employees who work under monthly salaries have the right to take several paid days off a year that can be used for any purpose including illness. The following "paid holidays/personal days
" thread might help as well.

http://www.japan-guide.com/forum/quereadisplay.html?0+5...

macmac, have you been to Japan? It's a common idea of people who aren't that familiar with Japan that it is quite special, alien and different from other countries in many aspects, however if you lived here for a while you would see that the issues here aren't much different from anywhere else.

Human nature is human nature.

Uco is right about the paid sick days- if you are a full time permanent employee in Japan you get paid sick days, just like in most other developed nations. People on temporary and dispatch contracts often don't have paid sick days, and these people are a larger part of the work force than they used to be, which is causing concern.

Oh my goodness, slightly off topic, in all my posts I meant to write "Switzerland" instead of "Swiss"! That's what you get for living in a country that calls Switzerland "Su-i-su." Do excuse my ignorance.

I was born/ raised in Western Europe and have travelled extensively around Europe, besides living in Germany for a while. My first impression of Japan was taking a train from the airport to downtown then the subway then another train for a short tip to our suburban destination. What surprised me was how similar to the European ones these transit systems where, and how easy to use these systems were, for a non-Japanese speaking person, as so many signs are in English. I also found that modern Japanese houses had many similarities with Euro ones, unlike the North American ones. In fact I had much less of a cultural shock in Japan than in North America, where I now live.

Hello again!

Uco, how nice to hear that your friend is married to a belgian. its a small world it is. just off topic, but actually belgium has gotten major news coverage over the past year. you've probably heard about the political crisis that went on here for quite a while.

back to topic, i read the posts to the link you gave me on paid holidays. so i understand that japanese employees are entitled to at least 10, and a maximum of 40 paid holidays per year. a minimum of 10 days is very little by belgian standards. employees here get 4 weeks of paid holidays per year. but then again, a maximum of 40 days in japan seems a lot. though i wonder if de facto companies let their employees have 40 days off. if i'm not wrong, you, Uco, suggested that they are too busy to use up all their days. But is it not also that employees refrain from taking more days off if their colleagues aren't doing the same thing?

i also understood that there are no laws on sic leave in japan. i found that quite surprising. here, the employer is forced by law to pay the employee even when he is sick. if he is sick for more than a month, then the social security will pay the employees' salary from that point onwards until he is able to work again. but if the employee is sick for let's say 28 days, then gets back to work for a week, and then falls ill again for 14 days, the employer has no choice but to pay his employee, without intervention from the social security.
i guess the european system really is in favor of protecting employees, which certainly gives employers a very hard time...

oh by the way, Uco, don't worry about the swiss/switzerland mistake, i didn't even notice until you brought it up!

Sira, are you sure about the paid sick days? further down the thread Uco showed me, it says that japan has no laws on sic leave, so that would immediately rule out paid sick days, wouldn't it? Uco only mentioned that you get paid days off which can be used for sick leave, but not that paid sick days exist.

you may be surprised to hear this, but yes, i have been to japan before. i even studied there for a year as an exchange student. but unfortunately, i 'only' studied japanese there at the time and had lots of fun, but did not get the insights into the laws and working culture of japan. now, though, i am interested in knowing more about it.

I'm no expert on law, but I'm not sure if 40 is the "lawful" maximum. Someone on the other thread wrote that 10 was the lawful minimum, but 40 is just the impression I personally have as the typical number of paid days off due to contract rather than law.

Actually, I was also surprised to learn from the other thread that there are no laws on sick leave (although the poster who insisted that is very reliable, and I trust that comment). Because in reality, a lot of employees do end up getting a certain percentage of their salary even if they are sick for a long time. Also, lawfully, workers are entitled to compensation for industrial accidents (rosai-hosho). Therefore, if the company admits that certain injuries or sickness of an employee was caused by their labor, they will pay for the medical fees. I once slipped on the snow in front of my home on my way to work and broke a bone (Yes, you may laugh.). My boss heard the rumor, came up to me and insisted that the company pay for all my medical fees, in which they did, and I wasn't even a permanent employee.

However, this brings us back to what we discussed before. Not all companies compensate just like that. For example, if you were injured while handling a machine in the company's factory, that's obvious. But I know a foreign illegal worker who was injured while riding his bike during his meal break, and it took a while until the company decided to compensate for that.

Back to the topic, the government have been encouraging people to work less. Indeed, those who wish to go home on time tend to choose to become civil servants instead of company employees. Civil servants working situations are closer to what the government encourages.

And pressured by the government, company administration sections have been pressuring workers to work less. I remember that back in the late 80s, our company typically decided that Wednesday shall be "no-overwork-day (no zangyo dei)" and on Wednesday evenings, the guy from administration would started shouting around the office telling workers to pass their job to their bosses and go home. However, this didn't work, as bosses couldn't do the job as accurately as the employees who were doing it every day.

So maybe this is what you want to read about, Macmac. Japan does have a unique way of doing things when it comes to work ethics: People love to work. A lot of them are workaholics. Ever since the end of WW2, when people started thinking they need to work hard to regain what they lost during the war and to be as wealthy as the people in the GHQ, people have been workaholics. And it had been very rewarding: Honda, Mitsui, Sony, you name it. Therefore, business in Japan has been running in that sort of speed for a long time. So it's difficult to stop it now.

Let's say there's a company with 100 workers, and all of them work an average of 12 hours a day, and hardly takes days off (There are lots of these kind). Let's say, this company suddenly starts obeying the government encouragement and starts sending all their workers home at 5pm and makes all of them take 40 days off a year. That company will run out of business, because they can't maintain what they have been maintaining due to the long working hours.

But yes, this is gradually changing. A lot of company administrations are forcing workers to take more days off. For example, I remember that already in the 80s, our company contract was something like; you have the right to take 10 days off on your first year, that 10 plus another 10 (total of 20) on the next, another 10 on the next and finally you end up having the right to take maybe 40 days off on your forth year or something. But since 40 was the maximum due to the contract (not by law), workers tried to use them up little by little before the total goes over 41. In the recent decade or so, a lot of companies are forcing "refresh holidays (rifuresshu kyuka)" in which, typically, on your 10th year of working in the company, you are forced to take 2 weeks off or something.

Really though, work ethics differ greatly depending on the company, generation or region. In my New Years family-get-together, one of my cousins took a day off on January 5th, since this day was practically for the company's New Years greeting and there wasn't much desk work to do. Plus her company had been encouraging employees to take days off. But another cousin and an uncle grumbled (over too much beer, may I add) that she shouldn't have. They insisted that New Years company greetings are important upon building the workers work ethics and that workers should be more loyal by attending them. I was on the other cousin's side and said, "But that's the very reason that Japan is suffering lower birthrates! You can't work and raise families at the same time. You gotta take days off when you can." and the beer guys said, "You've got a point there."

So generally speaking, I think that the government and law in Japan are as concerned about the workers as they are in Europe. But due to circumstances, not all employers obey the government or law. And if the government/law should pressure them, the economy may collapse, because each country has its unique balance. But laws do work when there is a law suit or when there is a union protest. So the government and law always needs improving, and workers always need to reconsider their work ethics as time changes. Anyway, 1 plus 1 isn't really 2 in the real world. The real world is more fuzzy.

A bit off-topic, I'm not really surprised to learn that you've lived in Japan, Macmac. Your opinions sound like something that's coming from a typical young student internet-user. Lots of Japanese internet geeks have a really wrong impression about Europe and other foreign countries. Hey, they even have wrong ideas about working situations in their own country.

By the way, I can't recall the crisis on Belgium. I know I'm the ignorant one, but see? That's how people are.

Japan laws about work have similarities with those in the USA, not too surprising if you know that the USA influence was pretty strong after WW II. I live now in Canada, another country where politicians are only to quick to believe that whatever the USA does had got to be the best in the world. Fortunately we also have a tiny bit of socialist streak. in Canada,.hence our better health care. Nonetheless even unionized workers, like me, "only" get 30 days sick pay a year (in my company we are able to bank them for the future and even cash in any unused ones when retiring). But many non unionized people don't get sick pay at all. Holidays for non-unionized go from nothing at all (a % of the wage is added to the pay to compensate for no actual vacation days) to 2 weeks. Some companies offer more. My company was originally non-union (no sick pay, no benefits) but we had 3 weeks paid off a year. The first time I went on holiday (on year 2) my boss said that I couldn't go to Europe with only 3 weeks and gave me a full month!. Then we got unionized and started accumulating vacations days at a fast clip. Eventually I had 7 1/2 weeks per year that I divided in 3 to 4 small vac to get 8 weeks of actual vac.! Japan therefore may look bad compared to Western Europe but is similar to North America and much better than many other countries.

Japan having no laws on sick days does not automatically mean that therefore no companies pay for sick days. I know for certain that some do. Some companies value their employees enough that they do not have to be forced to provide benefits!

In the current economic climate though that will probably change for the worse.

I also believe that Japan is not the only country with this kind of work ethic- Koreans are said to work even longer hours than Japanese people.

The Japanese themselves love to believe they are unique though- many Japanese are astounded to learn that theirs is not the only country with 4 seasons, and some people here even think that Japanese people have special long intestines so they digest food differently to the rest of us!