Work and Health in a Diverse and Disparate Labour Market

Japan’s economic growth excelled in the twentieth century. Since the 1990s, there has been a long period of low economic growth (the ‘lost decades’) and expanding social disparity. Traditional lifetime employment, mainly for men, gradually shifted towards diverse working arrangements including part-time, temporary, and fixed-term contracts, for men and women. Deregulation aimed to introduce labour market flexibility in response to the economic slowdown. Working regulations were not reformed in response to diversification of working patterns. Economic and health gaps between regular workers and non-standard workers expanded. Non-standard workers were disadvantaged by relatively limited access to healthcare. Epidemiological and policy analysis is limited partly because participants in non-standard employment are difficult to follow. More research evidence on current diverse working patterns and health is necessary for policymaking in the Japanese context. Social changes in employment arrangements prompted the Japanese government to initiate work reforms in 2019 to secure fair treatment of all workers, regardless of work arrangements, and to reduce working hours.