74 research outputs found
Hope and Society
Hope is a subjective representation that is wanted as something desirable in the future. Hope can be categorized according to factors such as achievability and sociality. In a Japanese nationwide questionnaire of approximately 2,000 people in their 20s to 50s, conducted in 2006, about 80% of respondents said they had some type of hope and 60% said that they believed their hope was attainable. The largest number of respondents described hopes regarding work, far outnumbering those who suggested hopes regarding family, health or leisure. Hope that is considered attainable is strongly defined by three social factors. This makes it possible to explain why a loss of hope spread between the 1990s and the beginning of the 2000s. First, hope is influenced by the degree of choices available, which depends on affluence. Analyses have shown that people who are elderly and perceive their remaining time as limited, and those who have been marginalized in education and/or employment and/or who have low income and/or poor health, are more likely to report an absence of hope. Social changes, such as the falling birthrate, increase in low income population or unemployment, worsening health conditions and stagnating school advancement rates, have led to a rise in the percentage of people who lack hope. Secondly, hope is influenced by interpersonal relations based on exchanges with others, such as family members and friends. Individuals who grew up in an environment where they experienced expectations and confidence from their family are more likely to report having hope. Individuals with an awareness of having many friends are more likely to have hope. Further, those who interact with friends outside of work colleagues and family members are more likely to have hope regarding their work. Thus, friends have a great deal to do with the generation of hope not only quantitatively but qualitatively as well. The spread of loneliness among the Japanese population as a whole, symbolized by unstable family relations, bullying, social reclusiveness, NEETs, and the solitary death of senior citizens, has accelerated the spread of a loss of hope. In addition to economic and sociologic factors, we must focus on the narrative structure of society, which is believed to be necessary for facing an uncertain future, as a 2 social facet of hope. Statistical analyses show that individuals who have experienced setbacks that forced them to modify their hopes, and who, with the background of having overcome such obstacles, do not hesitate to make apparently vain efforts, are more likely to have attainable hopes. If the society in story consists mainly of people who have had such experiences and or who have such characteristics, people are more likely to have hope. We also need to have foresight about the direction of society beyond simply acceleration and efficiency, while being expected to make strategic judgments to avoid failures and to use non-wasteful problem-solving thought. Social circumstances in which there is no shared new value in story to provide such foresight can also contribute to an expansion of the loss of hope.
Does downsizing take a toll on retained staff? An analysis of increased working hours during recessions using Japanese micro data
Using official household micro data from the Labour Force Survey, this paper examines the increase in the working hours of regular male employees in Japan under recession from the late 1990s to the early 2000s. The most important findings of this paper are that working hours tended to be longer among male regular employees of firms in which (1) there was major employment adjustment, (2) substantial increase in proportion of non-regular workers, and (3) wide variance in regular wages. The results suggest that the existence of a large amount of fixed duties that are necessary to maintain internal organization and transition from the traditional employment system are the main factors that explain the increase in the working hours during the recession in Japan.
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Long-Term Effects of a Recession at Labor Market Entry in Japan and the United States
This paper examines effects of entering the labor market during a recession on subsequent earnings and employment for Japanese and American men, using comparable household labor force surveys. Previous analyses focus on search theoretic and implicit-contract arguments, which have their strongest effects on more educated workers. The authors argue that, in a country like Japan which has a dual labor market, there is an additional mechanism that affects mainly less educated workers. Namely, these workers are more likely to be trapped in the secondary sector if they graduate during a recession. We find a persistent, strong negative effect on earnings for less educated Japanese men, in contrast to no long-term effect for less educated American men; also, a substantial part of the effect for less educated Japanese men is attributed to the decreased probability of regular employment. The effect for the more educated group is more or less similar in both countries
GROSS JOB CREATION AND DESTRUCTION, AND LABOR MOBILITY IN JAPAN
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Bonus and Employment in Small Firms : Reconsideration of Share Economy
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The Japanese Labour Market during the Global Financial Crisis and the Role of Non-Standard Work: A Micro Perspective
This paper analyses aggregate labour dynamics during the global financial crisis in Japan and the role of nonstandard work using micro data. The analysis proceeds in two steps. First, using comprehensive establishment-level datasets for the period 1991-2009, it provides a detailed portrait of the adjustment behaviour of establishments at the micro level. Second, it compares aggregate labour market dynamics during the global financial crisis with that observed during the 1997 crisis and decomposes the observed differences into components that can be attributed to changes in the micro-adjustment behaviour of Japanese establishments, changes in the incidence of non-standard work and changes in the distribution of shocks across establishments. It finds that the incidence of non-standard work has increased considerably, worker turnover is much higher among non-standard than standard workers and adjustments in working-time are less important for non-standard workers. Counterfactual simulations suggest that the employment response during the global crisis would have been smaller if the incidence of non-standard work remained at the level observed during the 1997 crisis. The relatively small employment response observed during the global financial crisis is therefore driven by factors others than the increase in the incidence of non-standard work
Skill Premiums and Japan\u27s Wage Structure in the 1980s
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