Would It Be Useful to Import "Lifetime Employment" Into Russia?

This article is formatted as a written response disputing the material of Iu.P. Voronov's "Without Relying on a Pension," which can be found in this issue. It calls into question the author's proposal that Russia partially introduce a system of lifetime employment similar to that in Japan. This article shows that the Japanese system functions on the basis of complementary social institutions, each of which produces serious socioeconomic systemic defects. In particular, it leads to increased exploitation of workers, especially younger and older workers, and incites employers to seek the early retirement of older workers. Thus, the economic position of these workers deteriorates. Lifetime employment cannot be adopted partially. This is confirmed by the experience of the United States and Europe, where this term mistakenly refers to a system of open-ended (permanent) work contracts. An analysis of changes in the institutional environments of the Japanese, European, and U.S. labor markets shows that lifetime employment is gradually being modified in Japan and is in fact dying out. Permanent contracts are also gradually dying out in Western countries, since the change in technological paradigm (digital transformation) requires a more flexible labor market. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]