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1 – 10 of over 19000This paper attempts to discover whether or not social networks work in the same way in different sectors of the labour market in the same society, using data from the 2008 Asian…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper attempts to discover whether or not social networks work in the same way in different sectors of the labour market in the same society, using data from the 2008 Asian Social Survey. Labour markets in some societies are segmented; there are two segments in the labour market, namely, the core sector and the peripheral sector. The practices of each sector differs from the others. Some sectors employ CME labour markets, while others favour LME labour markets (Kanbayashi and Takenoshita, 2014). In other words, we can find both CME and LME labour market in one society.
Design/methodology/approach
Since Granovetter’s (1973) pioneer study, scholars are interested in investigating in what way social network influence our job searching outcomes. However, these researchers have not yet yielded consistent results. Scholars argue that the institutional context of labour market can shape the network impacts on our job search outcome (Chen, 2014; Chua, 2011).
Findings
Surprisingly, this paper finds that there is no room for the use of personal contact in the public sector in both China and Japan. But, mean status is positively related to annual income in the private companies sector in both Japan and China. The significant influences of mean status in the private sectors in both China and Japan reflect the reinforcing of existing social inequality structure. This is because as the status of contact can facilitate respondents' job attainment process, those who are already in higher social status are more likely than those who are in the bottom of the social strata, to get a better job with the help from their network members.
Originality/value
The above findings show us that social network can exert various impacts on people's job searching process even in the same society. This is because it is possible that the labour market are segmented. These segments have very different practices. This difference attributes to the inconsistent findings of network effects on occupational attainment process. Therefore, it is essential to locate which labour market respondents are in, and the features of this labour market. This can help us know more about the use and effectiveness of network in different types of labour markets.
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This study explores the manner in which gender inequality in the transition into self-employment is associated with the institutional contexts of family and labour market…
Abstract
This study explores the manner in which gender inequality in the transition into self-employment is associated with the institutional contexts of family and labour market structures in the East Asian countries of Japan, Korea and Taiwan. This work contributes to theoretical debates on gender inequality and entrepreneurship because prior research on female self-employment has lacked a theoretical viewpoint on the mechanisms by which conditions for female entrepreneurship depend on the macro-structural arrangements of family and labour markets. By evaluating female employment in light of the patriarchal Confucian ideology, I examine gender disparities among individuals in terms of effects of paternal self-employment, their experiences as family workers and their marital status on their transition into self-employment. The results of this study show that women in Japan and Taiwan do not benefit from the self-employed status of their fathers as much as their male counterparts. Additionally, female family workers in the three countries had considerable disadvantages in becoming self-employed, which implies that female family workers continue to be exploited by self-employed owners, namely, their husbands. In contrast, the effects of marital status, with both sexes, on their transitions into self-employment differed widely among the three countries, reflecting the various barriers to self-employment and the differing conditions for female employment in each country. Overall, this study demonstrates that gender inequality in the transition into self-employment is related to family structures unique to these East Asian countries. This study, however, did not compare the dynamics of self-employment between East Asian societies and other industrialised nations. Future studies should explore whether the findings of this study are applicable to other industrialised societies.
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The purpose of this paper is to examine how labour market changes impact the change in the aggregated household consumption, which is a topic that is under-researched in Japan.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to examine how labour market changes impact the change in the aggregated household consumption, which is a topic that is under-researched in Japan.
Design/methodology/approach
The author uses a three-step approach. The first step is a descriptive overview of the trends for cohort, age and year. The second step is to test the variation attributable to age-period-cohort interactions using APC analysis. The third step is to check if identifiable linear trend exists between the consumption changes and the labour market changes.
Findings
The analysis shows that major labour market changes per se do not contribute to household consumption adjustment. Meanwhile, the labour market conditions at the time of joining the labour force may be more important in shaping consumption during working life period than labour market changes during employment.
Research limitations/implications
The cohorts are created based on birth years, which is a limitation imposed by the data availability rather than characteristics of the population group. The main reason behind the limited data points is the survey being conducted every five years and 2014 being the most recent year for which the data are available.
Originality/value
Research about cohort consumption in Japan is limited to the consumption composition changes or to the growing population of unmarried singles. This analysis will examine how labour market changes impact the change in the aggregated household consumption, which is a topic that is under-researched in Japan. In the analysis, the author uses the Python APC model and Python statsmodel OLS regression, providing the notebooks with code and full results in Appendices.
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The purpose of this paper is to ascertain the major characteristics of contemporary migrant workers in Japan. In order to illustrate their actual situations in relation to the…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to ascertain the major characteristics of contemporary migrant workers in Japan. In order to illustrate their actual situations in relation to the socio-economic conditions and government policies, data have been gathered from relevant government sources and several surveys conducted by Japanese researchers.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper discusses social background, socio-economic factors and the public response to migrant workers in Japan. The focus is placed upon Japanese policy context and recent trend which demonstrates an increase in foreign workers. The main method is statistical analyses of the government macro data. In addition, some data from the relevant research outcomes are systematised.
Findings
The inflow of migrant workers has consistently augmented, and this has fostered the public debate. Some observers indicate that government deceitfully accepts migrant workers through the “backdoor” and the “side doors”. There has been some criticism, relating to the fact that increasing numbers of foreign employees include many workers with no formal qualifications, such as technical internships and international students who take on part-time jobs.
Originality/value
This article provides some factors for certain migration patterns, featuring contemporary Japan's migration issues. In conclusion, some uniqueness of contemporary migrant workers in Japanese community has been depicted, and the implications of these findings can contribute to prospective research, Japan's policy and practice in this field.
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The two East Asian developmental states of Japan and South Korea share very similar familialistic male breadwinner welfare regimes. However, in the recent years, both countries…
Abstract
Purpose
The two East Asian developmental states of Japan and South Korea share very similar familialistic male breadwinner welfare regimes. However, in the recent years, both countries have made significant social policy reforms that are gradually modulating their familialistic male breadwinner welfare regimes. Both countries have extended public support for the family and women by provisioning, regulating, and coordinating childcare, elder care, and work‐family reconciliation programs. At the same time, labour market deregulation reforms have also made employment more insecure, and created greater pressures on women to seek and maintain paid work outside the home. The purpose of this paper is to compare recent social policy reforms in Japan and Korea and discuss their implications for welfare state changes and gender equality. More specifically, it asks whether this signals the end of the old developmental state paradigm and a shift to a more gender equal policy regime.
Design/methodology/approach
To answer this question, the paper examines recent social policy reforms in conjunction with economic and labour market policy reforms that have also been introduced since 1990.
Findings
The analysis of social and economic policy reforms in Japan and South Korea shows a combination of both progressive and instrumentalist motivations behind social care expansions in these countries. Social care reforms in both countries were responses to the evident need for more welfare and gender equality determined by the structural and ideational changes that were taking place. But they were also a remodelling of the earlier developmental state policy framework. Indeed, social care expansions were not merely timely family friendly social policies that aimed to address new social risks; they were also important complements to the employment policy reforms that were being introduced at the same time. By investing in the family, the Japanese and Korean governments sought to mobilize women's human capital, encourage higher fertility, and facilitate job creation in social welfare and care services.
Originality/value
This paper shows how Japanese and South Korean developmental states might be changing and remodelling themselves in the recent decades, and how new social policies are evolving in close coordination with economic and labor market policy reforms.
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Hyunjoon Park and Gary D. Sandefur
A good deal of work in demography and sociology has examined the dynamic and complex patterns of the process through which young people move from being dependent on their parents…
Abstract
A good deal of work in demography and sociology has examined the dynamic and complex patterns of the process through which young people move from being dependent on their parents and families to supporting themselves financially and forming their own families. These studies have described, in detail, specific features of many aspects of the transition to adulthood, especially in the European or American context (Corijn & Klijzing, 2001; Hogan & Aston, 1986; Sandefur, Eggerling-Boeck & Park, forthcoming). They have, furthermore, provided us with some explanations of how institutional variations in educational systems, labor markets, or family formation are associated with differences in European and American young people's transitions to adulthood (Breen & Buchmann, 2002; Cook & Furstenberg, 2002; Fussell, 2002a).
Kenta Ikeuchi, Kyoji Fukao and Cristiano Perugini
The authors' work aims to identify the employer-specific drivers of the college (or university) wage gap, which has been identified as one of the major determinants of the…
Abstract
Purpose
The authors' work aims to identify the employer-specific drivers of the college (or university) wage gap, which has been identified as one of the major determinants of the dynamics of overall wage and income inequality in the past decades. The authors focus on three employer-level features that can be associated with asymmetries in the employment relation orientation adopted for college and non-college-educated employees: (1) size, (2) the share of standard employment and (3) the pervasiveness of incentive pay schemes.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors' establishment-level analysis (data from the Basic Survey on Wage Structure (BSWS), 2005–2018) focusses on Japan, an economy characterised by many unique economic and institutional features relevant to the aims of the authors' analysis. The authors use an adjusted measure of firm-specific college wage premium, which is not biased by confounding individual and establishment-level factors and reflects unobservable characteristics of employees that determine the payment of a premium. The authors' empirical methods account for the complexity of the relationships they investigate, and the authors test their baseline outcomes with econometric approaches (propensity score methods) able to address crucial identification issues related to endogeneity and reverse causality.
Findings
The authors' findings indicate that larger establishment size, a larger share of regular workers and more pervasive implementation of IPSs for college workers tend to increase the college wage gap once all observable workers, job and establishment characteristics are controlled for. This evidence corroborates the authors' hypotheses that a larger establishment size, a higher share of regular workers and a more developed set-up of performance pay schemes for college workers are associated with a better capacity of employers to attract and keep highly educated employees with unobservable characteristics that justify a wage premium above average market levels. The authors provide empirical evidence on how three relevant establishment-level characteristics shape the heterogeneity of the (adjusted) college wage observed across organisations.
Originality/value
The authors' contribution to the existing knowledge is threefold. First, the authors combine the economics and management/organisation literature to develop new insights that underpin the authors' testable empirical hypotheses. This enables the authors to shed light on employer-level drivers of wage differentials (size, workforce composition, implementation of performance-pay schemes) related to many structural, institutional and strategic dimensions. The second contribution lies in the authors' measure of the “adjusted” college wage gap, which is calculated on the component of individual wages that differs between observationally identical workers in the same establishment. As such, the metric captures unobservable workers' characteristics that can generate a wage premium/penalty. Third, the authors provide empirical evidence on how three relevant establishment-level characteristics shape the heterogeneity of the (adjusted) college wage observed across organisations.
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Thomas Lange and Keith Maguire
This article examines the cases of Germany and Japan where education and training is orientated towards producing workers who can consistently deliver high standards of quality…
Abstract
This article examines the cases of Germany and Japan where education and training is orientated towards producing workers who can consistently deliver high standards of quality control in manufacturing industry. It begins by examining why unemployment is such a serious problem for Europe and then moves on to analyse the significance of training for quality. The discussion contains a case study on Germany. It considers the dilemma between reducing the problem of too much regulation while ensuring that standards remain to ensure high quality training. A second case study looks at Japan and the question of training for quality there.
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The rise of East Asia to most dynamic center of processes of capital accumulation on a world scale is a phenomenon of the 1970s and 1980s. As a first approximation, the extent of…
Abstract
The rise of East Asia to most dynamic center of processes of capital accumulation on a world scale is a phenomenon of the 1970s and 1980s. As a first approximation, the extent of this rise can be gauged from the trends depicted in figure 1. The figure shows the most conspicuous instances of “catching‐up” with the level of per capita income of the “organic core” of the capitalist world‐economy since the Second World War. As defined elsewhere, the organic core consists of all the countries that over the last half‐century or so have consistently occupied the top positions of the ranking of GNPs per capita and, in virtue of that position, have set (individually and collectively) the standards of wealth which all their governments have sought to maintain and all other governments have sought to attain. Broadly speaking, three regions have constituted the organic core since the Second World War: North America, Western Europe and Australasia (Arrighi, 1991: 41–2; Arrighi, 1990).
This study aims to refocus the analysis of global political economies using concepts from studies on Varieties of Capitalism (VoC) to track Taiwan’s rise in the Thin Film…
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to refocus the analysis of global political economies using concepts from studies on Varieties of Capitalism (VoC) to track Taiwan’s rise in the Thin Film Transistor Liquid Crystal Display (TFT-LCD) industry. Taiwanese electronics firms began to outpace their competitors from Japan in TFT-LCD industry’s competition from about the year 2000.
Design/methodology/approach
Drawing on depth interviews and analysis of secondary source material, newspaper and magazine.
Findings
A time factor that helps determine advantage and/or disadvantage of high-tech industry in Japan and Taiwan. Stable organizational structure and less talent mobility in the Japanese TFT-LCD firms may well have been an advantage initially in the transformation process from US firms’ experimental technologies to tacit mass production technologies, but proved to be a disadvantage in the subsequent competition with more mobile talent in Taiwanese firms eager to standardize mass production techniques. Japanese firms’ rigid organizational structure could not keep pace to the market-oriented technology strategy in the global TFT-LCD industry, lost competitive advantage in a rapid pace.
Social implications
VoC literature should be focused to highlight two insights. The first is the premise of institutional forms specific to national models of capitalism. Patterns of technology transfer appear critical in the innovation process, and differ markedly between Taiwan and Japan. Second, the VoC literature suggests comparative institutional advantage.
Originality/value
Through the comparative analyses between Taiwanese capitalism model and Japanese counterparts, we can understand the reason and process of the rise of Taiwan in global TFT-LCD market.
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