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This study presents an overlapping generations model to analyze the impact of population aging on fiscal policy and intergenerational fiscal burden. Aging populations incentivize governments to increase capital and labor income tax rates and the public debt‐to‐GDP ratio, consistent with OECD evidence. Our model‐based simulation for Japan and the United States (2000–2070) reveals that Japan will experience higher labor income tax rates, a greater public debt‐to‐GDP ratio, and a lower government expenditure‐to‐GDP ratio compared to the United States. From 2040 onward, Japan is predicted to surpass the United States in terms of the capital tax rate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Previous studies on health and socio-economic determinants of later-life labour force participation have mainly come from high-income European countries and the United States of America (USA). Findings vary between studies due to different measures of socio-economic status and labour force outcomes. This study investigated longitudinal associations of physical incapacity and wealth with remaining in paid employment after age 60 in middle- and high-income countries. Using harmonised cohort data in the USA, England, Japan, Mexico and China (N = 32,132), multilevel logistic regression was applied for main associations. The age-related probabilities of remaining in paid employment by physical incapacity and wealth were estimated using marginal effects. This study found that physical incapacity predicted lower odds of remaining in paid employment in each country. Wealth was associated with higher odds of remaining in paid employment in the USA, England and Japan, but not in Mexico. Probabilities of remaining in paid employment were high in Mexico but low in China. The absolute difference in the probability of remaining in paid employment between the richest and the poorest groups was greater in the USA than that in any other country. In the USA, England and Japan, the inverse association between physical incapacity and remaining in paid employment could be partially compensated by wealth only when physical incapacity was not severe. National policies, including considering older adults' changing capacities for job placement and prioritising the provision of supportive services for socio-economically disadvantaged older adults, developing pathways for informal workers to access social security and pension coverage, and encouraging employers to hire socio-economically disadvantaged older workers and enhancing their employability, could be facilitated. Future studies, such as exploring health and socio-economic determinants of remaining in part-time and full-time paid employment separately in more countries, and the moderating effects of relevant policies on these associations, are needed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The COVID-19 pandemic has created an extraordinary situation for undergraduate students. The aim of this study is to evaluate the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the national examination for pharmacists in Japan. In this study, we analyzed the content of Twitter to assess the impact of COVID-19 on the national exam, including psychological aspects. Tweets including the words "national examinations" and "pharmacists" were compiled from December 2020 to March 2021. ML-Ask, a python library, was used to evaluate the emotional register of the tweets on the basis of ten elements: Joy, Fondness, Relief, Gloom, Dislike, Anger, Fear, Shame, Excitement, and Surprise. The presence of COVID-19-related terms was clearly visible in tweets about the national examination of pharmacists between December 1st–and 15th, 2020. It was precisely during this period that the government had announced a strategy regarding national examinations, in the light of COVID-19. The analysis found that post December 16th, words associated with negative emotions were mainly related to the examination, but not to COVID-19. As a result of analyzing only infected areas, a relationship between employment and negative feeling was detected. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Three institutions predominantly care for preschool children in Japan: kindergartens, authorized childcare institutions, and nursery centers. Recently, the turnover rates of preschool workers in these institutions have been high, and Japan has been facing a shortage of kindergarten teachers. The study aimed to provide concrete counterplans to reduce preschool workers' turnover rate. To determine the causes of turnover, we conducted a cross-sectional survey. We recruited preschool workers from several kindergartens, authorized childcare institutions, and nursery centers in Japan to fill out a survey regarding counterplans for employment. Of the 1002 surveys, 551 (541 women; 10 men) complete surveys were received (response rate: 55%). A total of 295 participants answered that they were unwilling to continue working for longer than five years and completed the questionnaires. The Jiro Kawakita method was used to categorize and analyze the four sections of the counterplan questionnaires. The results showed that the main reasons for high turnover were overtime work, low salary, and difficult human relations. To solve these issues, the counterplan ideas such as workshop ideas and conditions conducive to continuing working longer were related to human relations, work conditions, and mental health. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Policy & Internet is the property of Wiley-Blackwell and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The field of migration studies regards intermediaries as actors who manage the mobility of people, but academic works on their roles in the making of cross‐border labour markets remain scarce. Using the frameworks of market‐making and relational work, this study examines how Japanese intermediaries participate in the making of a cross‐border labour market between Japan and Vietnam. The study's findings are threefold. First, linguistic certification by an intermediary serves as a gatekeeper of labour's quality and allows an officially implemented linguistic boundary to shift. Second, intermediaries train employers and skilled migrant worker candidates by adjusting their presentation in recruitment venues. Third, intermediaries assist in officializing the employment relationship between employers and migrant workers. This study argues that, due to the absence of a concrete migration policy in Japan, intermediaries actively participate in market‐making practices by shifting, adjusting and making visible the boundaries within cross‐border labour exchanges. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Angle Health Law Review is the property of Angle Publishing Co., Ltd. and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Career formation in professional occupations is heavily influenced by national institutional contexts. In common with many professions, however, in academia international exposure is attractive to employers and valued by employees. This national-international dualism presents early career academics (ECAs) with potentially contradictory challenges in navigating their career development. Drawing on multidisciplinary approaches we researched international mobility in academic career formation. We designed a rigorous five-stage mixed methods quantitative and qualitative methodology to question whether a lengthy early career sojourn in Japan assists British-trained scholars in pursuing an academic career in Japanese studies in the UK. Further, we ask whether and why a lengthy sojourn might hinder academic career formation. Although we researched experiences in Japanese studies, our research is relevant to any discipline where significant periods are spent overseas. We found that early career international mobility caused scholars to experience significant challenges of distanciation and socialisation in navigating their imagined career paths, including the potential to become marooned in Japan. Fortunately, our informants are adaptive in the best use of their circumstances and decisions. We conclude with a brief discussion of theoretical implications and provide advice for ECAs in managing international career transitions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examines the productivity of working from home (WFH) practices during the COVID‐19 pandemic. The results reveal that the mean WFH productivity relative to working at the usual workplace was about 60%–70%, and it was lower for employees and firms that started WFH practice only after the spread of the COVID‐19 pandemic. However, there was a large dispersion of WFH productivity, both by individual and firm characteristics. Highly educated and high‐wage employees tended to exhibit a small reduction in WFH productivity. The results obtained from the employee and employer surveys were generally consistent with each other. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives A growing literature examines the effect of retirement on cognitive function, but pays little attention to how this relationship may depend upon the nature of retirement. Of particular importance is the growing prevalence of gradual retirement characterized by continued employment—either with a new employer or with the same employer—after retiring from a career job. Methods We use data from men and women aged 50 or older in the Japanese Study of Aging and Retirement to examine the effects of full retirement, partial retirement with the same employer, and partial retirement with a new employer on cognitive function. Our analyses consider the moderating role of career job complexity and exploit distinctive features of the Japanese public pension and mandatory retirement systems to estimate the causal effect of retirement type on cognition. Results Results indicate that partial retirement with the same employer has a significant and adverse effect on cognitive function (relative to those not yet retired). In contrast, those who experienced either full retirement or partial retirement with a new employer were, on average, no different from those still in their career job. Partial retirement with a new employer has a beneficial effect on cognition among those who had a high-complexity career job. Discussion Results are consistent with the idea that novel work exposures and experiences have a beneficial effect on cognition. They also suggest that ongoing policy efforts to promote partial retirement with the same employer may have unexpected adverse implications for cognitive health. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

How do authoritarian leaders in modern organizations influence work team emotional climate and performance? Defining authoritarian leadership as an ambient, demanding, and controlling leadership style, we conducted a survey study of 252 leaders and 765 subordinates matched in 227 work teams in three large public Japanese organizations. The results indicate that authoritarian leaders are more likely to create a team climate of emotion suppression, which induces a higher level of team emotional exhaustion that negatively impacts team performance. Furthermore, we found that authoritarian leaders' own emotion suppression enhances the above sequential mediation effects, i.e. the more emotion suppression the authoritarian leader him/herself exercises, the stronger the team climate of emotion suppression, the higher the level of team emotional exhaustion, and the lower the team performance. These findings suggest that leadership effectiveness may be improved if leaders can reduce their authoritarian behaviors and identify appropriate channels for employees to release emotions in the workplace. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Stress‐induced mental illnesses have become the focus of increasing international attention, particularly in Japan since the 1990s, where judiciary cases and welfare‐state initiatives established causal links between work stress and mental illness. However, how individuals retrospectively construct this causality remains a marginal topic in the literature. This ethnographic article explores the ways in which male workers seeking compensation for their condition (depression and adjustment disorder) reconstruct aetiology narratives and to what avail. This paper demonstrates two themes: (1) how objectivising stress (related to specific formats of worker compensation), no‐faulting (dispensing with individual blame to view stress as pervasive in the workplace) and negotiating blame (seeking explanation in terms of individual psychology) construct a case, and (2) how narrative reconstruction functions as both a barrier to recovery and way of working towards recovery and collective function. It is argued that the narrative reconstructions of workers, who become unwell and seek recognition, suggest uncertain self‐victimisation despite the broader understanding of mental illness in contemporary Japan. The findings imply the heuristic potential of relativising causality and treating analytical dichotomies, including causality–narrative, victimhood–agency and fact–fiction, not as contradictory alternatives, but as different analysis levels, to better understand ambiguous illness narratives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper empirically examines labor‐management communication concerning in‐house training programs and its relation to the actual on‐ and off‐the‐job training policy and wage structure. Using governmental datasets from Japan, we study how different labor‐management communication institutions may affect the training interests of employers and employees differently. We classify these institutions in terms of whether they have a legal (i.e. statutory) foundation ('de jure') or not ('de facto'). We find that collective bargaining, with legal grounds, may crowd out employees' willingness to communicate about training. However, the existence of 'de facto' communication channels such as joint labor‐management councils or shop floor committees is positively correlated with both on‐ and off‐the‐job of training. At the same time, the existence of unions is positively correlated with the steepness of wage profiles for mid‐career workers, which is consistent with the fact that employers and employees assume a long‐term relationship. Thus, we show that a multi‐tiered structure of labor‐management communication, together with a long‐term orientation toward the employment relationship, contributes to strengthen employees' voice in training matters. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Faced with a pressing demand for eldercare workers, Japan signed Economic Partnership Agreements (EPAs) to recruit workers from Southeast Asian countries. The EPA limits the employment period for migrant workers, unless they successfully pass the healthcare licensure examination in Japanese. Therefore, they receive on-the-job training and prepare for the examination, making their host institutions partly responsible for assisting the training and exam preparation. In this system, migrants' Japanese ability, tested against a strict standard, is the key to their being successfully accepted as good workers. Migrant workers and their employers are thus important actors in a neoliberal logic in which mastering a specific language practice and demonstrating it on standardized tests is deemed important for one's social mobility. To analyse how this logic is realised in a healthcare workplace, this paper draws on fieldwork data in an eldercare home employing EPA workers. The operation scheme of the EPA and institutional policy will be highlighted as underlying mechanisms for the creation of neoliberal subjects. I argue these measures primarily support the hierarchical relationships between Japanese and non-Japanese, and between employer and employee. I also discuss consequential ways in which on-the-job training has differentially impacted employment trajectories of the migrant workers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

BACKGROUND: Research has shown that employers' negative attitudes about hiring people with mental illness is due to stigma. While social contact has been proved to be effective for improving prejudicial attitudes, the influence of knowledge about mental illness on attitudes has been unclear. OBJECTIVE: To investigate the relationship between employers' mental health literacy and their experience or intention of hiring people with mental illness. METHODS: A web-based survey was conducted with Japanese employers. The survey included questions regarding participants' knowledge about mental illness and whether they had hired those with mental illness. RESULTS: Seven hundred employers participated in the survey. Among participants, while depression was widely recognized and understood according to medical criteria, schizophrenia was not well known. Thirty-five per cent of participants had hired people with mental illness. Those having experience of employing them were more knowledgeable about mental illness. Participants wanting to employ people with mental illness also possessed greater mental health literacy than those who did not want to do so. CONCLUSIONS: Employers' better mental health literacy could lead to hiring people with mental illness. However, as the relationships between the literacy and employment attitudes are complex, further research is needed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article compares and contrasts the Renault-Nissan and DaimlerChrysler-Mitsubishi mergers to consider the relative and combined effects of national and organizational culture on the performance of Nissan and Mitsubishi. It also examines the reasons why the Renault-Nissan merger was successful and the DaimlerChrysler-Mitsubishi merger failed. It finds that Japanese national culture influenced organizational culture and HRM practices, which created organizations that had no sense of urgency, profit orientation, or accountability and led to poor market and financial performance. It also finds that leadership was a major factor impacting on the success of the turnaround efforts of these two organizations. These findings have implications for leaders and human resource management practitioners engaged in international business and are of particular relevance to Western organizations working with organizations in high-context countries with a collectivist rather than individualist orientation. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Japan's traditional long-term employment practice, loosely termed "lifetime employment," once attracted much attention, but its fortunes have not been tracked since the 1990s. The authors use micro data from the Japanese government's Basic Survey on Wage Structure to estimate permanent full-time workers' tenure patterns in the years during and following Japan's decade-long recession. Mean tenure, they find, grew for both genders between 1990 and 2003. The main explanation for this trend was a changing relationship between tenure and the attributes of workers and firms, rather than changes in the attributes themselves--although the importance of the latter increased for some women. Beyond the tendency at the mean, the authors find substantial variation. Notably, workers who had gained employment protection under the traditional system, mostly in large firms, saw larger gains in mean tenure than did other workers. This divergence, the authors suggest, could eventually exacerbate lifetime income inequality in Japan. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Labor productivity growth in major advanced countries has been experiencing a slowdown in recent years. This paper examines the background of recent low labor productivity growth in Japan. There are two reasons behind the productivity slowdown in Japan. First, technology and ideas accumulated by research and development (R&D) as well as management resources such as capital and labor are not utilized efficiently. Second, these resources are not efficiently reallocated across corporations. In order to improve Japan's productivity in the medium to long-term, it is desirable to encourage the flexible reallocation of management resources such as capital and labor by changing working process at the corporate level in accordance with changes in the socio-economic environment and the advent of new technologies, as well as by improving efficiency in the labor and capital markets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Using a 1-year prospective design, we examined the association of organizational justice (i.e., procedural justice and interactional justice) with refraining from seeking medical care (RSMC) among Japanese employees. Methods: We surveyed 2695 employees (1994 men and 701 women) from two factories of a manufacturing company in Japan. A self-administered questionnaire comprising scales for measuring organizational justice (Organizational Justice Questionnaire) and potential confounders (i.e., demographic and socioeconomic characteristics as well as health-related behaviors) was administered at baseline (from April to June 2011). At 1-year follow-up (from April to June 2012), a single-item question was used to measure RSMC during the follow-up period. Multiple logistic regression analysis was conducted by gender. Results: After adjusting for potential confounders, low procedural justice and low interactional justice at baseline were found to be significantly associated with higher odds of RSMC during the 1-year follow-up for male employees (odds ratio = 1.33 [95% confidence interval = 1.16–1.52], p < 0.001 and 1.15 [95% confidence interval = 1.02–1.29], p = 0.019, respectively). Similar patterns were observed for female employees (odds ratio = 1.37 [95% confidence interval = 1.08–1.74], p = 0.009 and 1.23 [95% confidence interval = 1.02–1.50], p = 0.035 for low procedural justice and low interactional justice, respectively). Conclusions: The present study provided evidence that the lack of organizational justice is positively associated with RSMC among Japanese employees, independently of demographic and socioeconomic characteristics as well as of health-related behaviors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It has been believed over the years that the workers' desires are incompatible with those of the company, but others have been redoubling their efforts to harmonize the two. If the company's motive for improving productivity is only to increase the company's profit, it would be difficult to find a new system with which the company is able to get the workers' participation for improving productivity, and this system has been termed as "fusion system." The article suggests a new system based on the concept of the fusion system in which improving a accomplished by satisfying the workers desires, since 1970. Subjects that have been discussed include the status of workers' desires, some factors affecting the motivation of workers, and changes in both during the past six years in Japan; an example of a new production system which successfully harmonized workers desires with the company needs. The article summarize that each company must survey the changes in the workers' desires and working situations, and always be knowledgeable of conditions in order to redesign or adjust the production system as appropriate.

The article focuses on the practice of ignoring the uncertain elements of complex decisions prevalent in the Japanese economy. Bank credit allocations are determined by window guidance from the Bank of Japan and not interest rates. When a favored industry falls on hard economic times, the blame is placed on external uncontrollable factors. One of the most common delusions of corporate managers is that higher earnings per share will cause a higher stock price, though research has shown that the more logical source of value, which is cash flow has a stronger correlation. In terms of capital budgeting, Japanese companies rely on discounted cash-flow analysis much less than U.S. companies. Finally, in the area of union negotiations, the highly detailed work rules in union contracts are rare and a large portion of labor cost are adjusted to respond to changes in profitability.

This study examines the adoption of high-performance workplace management practices in Japanese and domestic manufacturing plants, spanning a broad range of products and technologies, that began operations in the United States between 1978 and 1988. Japanese transplants, the authors find, were likely to adopt "hybrid" systems of high-performance practices melding Japanese principles of workplace management with the American industrial relations system. Domestic startups incorporated many of these same techniques, but they tended to take a more limited and piecemeal approach. The managers of domestic startups also paid less attention to how individual high-performance practices fit into an overall system of efficient workplace management than did managers at Japanese transplants. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Japanese firms often attempt to influence the process and outcomes of wage negotiation by sharing confidential business information with their unions and employees through the joint consultation system. In this study, using a unique survey of Japanese joint consultation committees conducted in 1981, the author examines the effects of information sharing on the process and outcomes of wage negotiation. The results show that when firms engaged in increased information sharing, negotiation processes were shorter and easier, and unions tended to demand and accept lower wage increases. In contrast, a similar study performed in the United States found that information sharing increased labor's bargaining power. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study investigates the validity in Japan of union participation models developed in North America. The results of ordinary least squares analysis suggest that members' participation in unions is positively related to many of the same factors in Japan as in North America: for example, length of union membership, pay, dissatisfaction regarding pay and working conditions, degree of interaction with others in the work group, and perceptions of the union's effectiveness and its democratic character. Some findings at odds with those of Western studies, however, are that older workers and better-educated workers are less (rather than more) likely than others to actively participate, and job status is unrelated (rather than positively related) to participation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the work hours and pay of Japanese workers. Sony Corp. chairman Akio Morita has argued that labor's share in Japan is too low and working hours are too long. Japan's Prime Minister has also called for shortened working hours, making Japan known internationally for its living standards. The author believes that a great deal can be learned about the social, political and economic currents in Japanese society today by understanding the working hour reduction debate and its underlying premises. The author seeks to dispose of misconceptions held by Japan about eastern countries and vice versa. He proposes an alternative way to understand the long hours worked by Japanese employees.

The article discusses trade relations between the U.S. and Japan in 1987. The trade and industrial relations between the two nations are tense because both countries are major players in the global economy. The true nature of the conflict is about which country assumes global industrial and technological leadership. Analysts speculate that Japan could dominate many of the world's industries, particularly high technology. They say if this were to occur the U.S. would become increasingly poorer and its relative standard of living would decline.

This paper traces the development of the quality circle in Japan with reference to such traditions as permanent employment, nenko (seniority- based compensation), enterprise unionism, and management paternalism. Quality circles are examined as tools for motivating employees, reducing labor turnover, effecting employee "career expansion," and allowing employee participation in job redesign. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study demonstrates the analysis and findings of the field research undertaken in Japan in May 1988 on a small sample of Japanese firms with UK subsidiaries. The study examined the factors behind the marketing strengths of Japanese parent companies and the effects on their relationships with their UK subsidiaries. The research indicates that the Japanese companies saw their successes in the specific qualities and thoroughness of their management and labour, with a strong focus to committing resources to marketing, product innovation and R&D. The findings of the research with recommendations are presented. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the impact of the International Labor Organization (ILO) on the state of labor unions and labor relations in Japan in 1969. While it is still difficult to say whether there has been overall gain or loss, some firm changes or trends are centralization of power in national unions, growth of a professional union-paid leadership, perhaps greater administrative efficiency and less militancy. In light of these unanticipated repercussions of the ratification of Convention No. 87, the author suggests the need for a reconsideration of ILO intervention in national labor relations systems.

This article focuses on debate and arguments on the decision of the Japanese government to ratify the International Labor Organization (ILO) Convention No. 87. The convention deals with associational freedom of employees in the country. The debate focused on government unions, because unions in the private sector operate under labor law which provides them substantially with freedoms which bring them into conformance with the ILO's Conventions on freedom of association. In order to ratify Convention No. 87, it was necessary to amend the laws covering government labor relations. Japanese labor functions under three sets of labor relations laws covering workers in: (1) private employment, (2) public corporations, and (3) direct public employment.

Abstract: Using panel data on corporate social responsibility (CSR) matched with corporate proxy statement data for a large and representative sample of 1,492 publicly traded firms in Japan over 2006–2014, we provide fixed effect estimates on the positive and significant effects on gender diversity of CSR. Such effects are, however, felt only after two to three years. The CSR effects are larger and more significant for firms that adhere more closely to the participatory Japanese management system. Our findings are robust to the inclusion of controls capturing the mediating effects of various work–life balance practices, pointing to the direct impact of CSR on gender diversity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Revista de Sociologia e Política is the property of Revista de Sociologia e Politica and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

European managers constantly argued that "simple" Indonesian workers were being led astray by communist-led unions and urged the Indonesian Government to rein in worker activism and union militancy. Worker Activism and Decolonization Worker activism and the rapid growth of unions in the early 1950s were an important part of the lengthy process of decolonization in Indonesia. Keywords: Asia Pacific Journal; Japan; Asia Pacific; Pacific Rim; Asia; East Asia; Northeast Asia; Southeast Asia; Southwest Asia; South Asia; Contemporary Japan; Contemporary Asia Pacific; Contemporary East Asia; US-Japan relations; US-China-Japan-Korea relations; Japan-East Asian Relations; Japan-Northeast Asian Relations; Japan-Pacific Relations; Japan-Southeast Asian Relations; Japan-Middle East Relations; Japan-Central Asia Relations; Japan-South Asia Relations; Japan-European Relations; Okinawa EN Asia Pacific Journal Japan Asia Pacific Pacific Rim Asia East Asia Northeast Asia Southeast Asia Southwest Asia South Asia Contemporary Japan Contemporary Asia Pacific Contemporary East Asia US-Japan relations US-China-Japan-Korea relations Japan-East Asian Relations Japan-Northeast Asian Relations Japan-Pacific Relations Japan-Southeast Asian Relations Japan-Middle East Relations Japan-Central Asia Relations Japan-South Asia Relations Japan-European Relations Okinawa N.PAG N.PAG 1 12/14/22 20221030 NES 221030 PHOTO (COLOR) Figure 1: Cover of the author's Workers and Democracy: The Indonesian Labour Movement, 1949-1957, published in 2022 by NUS Press and University of Hawai'i Press. [Extracted from the article]

Individual-level variables such as gender, education, occupation, and employment type are well-known factors that induce wage gaps in the labor market. This article aims to divide wage gaps into two components-those arising within each firm (the intra-firm wage gap) and those arising between different firms (the inter-firm wage gap)-and measure their respective proportions by individual-level variables, as studies suggest that each wage gap based on an individual-level variable has a unique mix of an intra-firm and inter-firm wage gap. This measurement can help enrich investigation into the generative process of wage gaps and formulate effective labor policies to reduce them. Accordingly, we compared the coefficients of the independent variables of the wage function estimated by a pooled ordinary least squares model and a fixed-effect model, using nationwide employer-employee matching data collected by the Japanese government. We found that wage gaps by gender and employment type mostly consist of intra-firm wage gaps, and those by education and occupation have a larger share of inter-firm wage gaps. The findings suggest that different research strategies are required to investigate the generative process of each wage gap, and that regulations on and interventions in organizational processes are important to reduce wage gaps based on gender and employment type. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Returned and Services League (RSL) LifeCare Village in Narrabeen, Sydney, Australia, is home to roughly 1,000 ex-service men and women. Within the Village is a volunteer-run War Museum housing a collection that has been built up through donations from current and former residents. Since January 2012, Masters students from the Grimwade Centre for Cultural Materials Conservation (GCCMC) at the University of Melbourne have been undertaking onsite cataloguing and conservation of the collection in preparation for the relocation of the Museum to a new more central building within the Village, due to take place in mid 2015. The Museum is in a unique position as many Village residents donate items, meaning they are actively involved with the growth of the collection and its interpretation. Their knowledge of this "living collection" is invaluable to the Museum's cataloguing and conservation work. This paper aims to explore the intergenerational engagement between residents, conservation students, and Village staff, and how this informs decisions surrounding the management, display, and conservation of the collection. A Japanese senninbari textile object, which was souvenired by an Australian serviceman and later donated to the Museum, is used as a case study. By conducting a thorough investigation of the senninbari, including discussion of the literature, interviews with residents, and lab-based material characterisation methods, important insights are gained regarding the item's conservation, display, and management. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Growing evidence has shown that lack of organizational justice (i.e., procedural justice and interactional justice) is associated with coronary heart disease (CHD) while biological mechanisms underlying this association have not yet been fully clarified. Purpose: The purpose of the present study was to investigate the cross-sectional association of organizational justice with physiological CHD risk factors (i.e., blood pressure, high-density lipoprotein [HDL] cholesterol, low-density lipoprotein [LDL] cholesterol, and triglyceride) in Japanese employees. Methods: Overall, 3598 male and 901 female employees from two manufacturing companies in Japan completed self-administered questionnaires measuring organizational justice, demographic characteristics, and lifestyle factors. They completed health checkup, which included blood pressure and serum lipid measurements. Multiple logistic regression analyses and trend tests were conducted. Results: Among male employees, multiple logistic regression analyses and trend tests showed significant associations of low procedural justice and low interactional justice with high triglyceride (defined as 150 mg/dL or greater) after adjusting for demographic characteristics and lifestyle factors. Among female employees, trend tests showed significant dose-response relationship between low interactional justice and high LDL cholesterol (defined as 140 mg/dL or greater) while multiple logistic regression analysis showed only marginally significant or insignificant odds ratio of high LDL cholesterol among the low interactional justice group. Neither procedural justice nor interactional justice was associated with blood pressure or HDL cholesterol. Conclusion: Organizational justice may be an important psychosocial factor associated with increased triglyceride at least among Japanese male employees. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This research paper seeks to shed light on the involvement of the Friedrich Ebert Foundation (FES) and the trade unions of West Germany in the shaping of industrial relations in Japan. The period observed starts with the domestic crisis of 1960 flowing from the labour dispute at the Mitsui Miike coal mines and the renewal of the Japanese-American Security Treaty and concludes with the consolidation of industrial relations in Japan at the beginning of the 1970s. By examining the ways in which the key proponents with conflicting approaches toward Japan’s future industrial relations interacted with both the FES and West German trade union affiliates, it shall be demonstrated that the exchange between West Germany and Japan on trade union level provided positive impetus to the process of shaping industrial relations in Japan during the 1960s. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article discusses a study which seeks to explain the poor nature of industrial relations and apparent lack of Neo-Confucianist values in Meiji Japan (1868-1911). Topics discussed include the political structure and institutions during Tokugawa Japan (1603-1867), the use of Neo-Confucianism in Tokugawa Japan, and the reasons for the poor labor relations in Meiji Japan including the non-adoption of Neo-Confucianism as the state ideology from the beginning of the Tokugawa era.

This paper assesses developments in Japanese human resource management (HRM) practices and employment relations since the country's ‘post-bubble’ economic decline and in particular following the global financial downturn of 2008. Our research findings are broadly consistent with others that have provided a mixed picture of continuity, change and diversification but the most recent financial crisis has made the negotiated nature of workplace relations more apparent. These characteristics are not readily explained by conventional understandings of Japanese HRM as a culturally or institutionally determined phenomenon. We present new empirical evidence of developments in eight automotive plants and interpret these through the application of a conceptual framework that distinguishes between the actors' orientations to action and social relations in specific exchange relations. This framing allows a better assessment of the agency involved in the emergence of a more differentiated articulation and manifestation of ‘Japanese HRM’. We explain these dynamics through reference to strategic choice and the negotiations both between local and corporate managers, and between managers and trade unions. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Drawing on the self-interest and moral virtues perspectives of justice, we examine how self-esteem and justice orientation as individual difference factors moderate the effects of individual-targeted and group-targeted justice on helping behaviors and intention to leave. A scenario-based study was conducted using a total sample of 624 Japanese undergraduate students. The results highlighted the difference between the moderating roles of self-esteem and justice orientation. Self-esteem moderated the effect of individual-targeted procedural justice on intention to leave such that the effect was stronger when self-esteem was high. In contrast, justice orientation mainly moderated the effects of group-targeted procedural and distributive justice on helping behaviors such that the effects were weaker when justice orientation was high. Implications of our findings and future research directions are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]