The Japanese Economy by Hiroaki Richard Watanabe;

Author:Hiroaki Richard Watanabe;
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Lightning Source Inc. (Tier 3)
Published: 2020-06-15T00:00:00+00:00

Source: Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare, Karōshi nado bōshi taisaku hakusho, 2016.

Several factors have contributed to the prevalence of long working hours in Japan. There is a cultural explanation of long working hours as a social norm in Japan: work is often based on teamwork and there is peer pressure to work for as long as one’s colleagues, otherwise they would need to work even longer hours (Kawanishi 2008; Nemoto 2013). There are also structural and agency factors. As we’ve already mentioned, Article 36 of the Labour Standards Law failed to ban excessive overtime and instead delegated the decision to employers and unions. Employers were often able to impose unlimited or long overtime by using their greater power over cooperative enterprise unions. Lifetime employment and seniority pay have also provided Japanese workers with an incentive to work for long hours so that they would get promoted and receive higher pay. Even when suffering many hours of unpaid overtime, employees could expect better evaluation from their managers (Mouer & Kawanishi 2005: 76–82; Takahashi 2006). From a macroeconomic perspective, however, unpaid overtime has reduced the number of otherwise available jobs (Tachibanaki 2004: 161).

To tackle the problems of excessively long working hours and karōshi and karō jisatsu, the current Abe administration has imposed a legal limit on the amount of overtime working hours with the Work-Style Reform. Although this is considered a worker-protective measure, it can also be seen as a measure to enhance labour productivity as well as a measure to improve work‒life balance and contribute to improvement in the fertility rate. The Work-Style Reform has imposed a limit of 100 working hours of overtime (each month in the busiest months) and 80 hours (per month on average for any six months) and 720 hours overall per year. This regulation is not only difficult to understand but also allows for more than 80 hours of overtime per month, which many mental health experts consider the karōshi line, above which karōshi is more likely to happen. Although penalties of less than six months imprisonment and/or a maximum fine of ¥300,000 (about $2,700) are imposed on those who violate this rule, these penalties are relatively light. In addition, there are notable exceptions to this rule, for example, researchers who engage in the development of new technologies and products, medical doctors, construction workers and truck drivers. This lax application of the maximum legal limit on overtime working hours is a consequence of employers’ greater strength in the policymaking process. As a result, it is not clear to what extent this legal limit will be effective.

As discussed in Chapter 2, the LDP government has implemented significant labour market deregulation since the late 1990s, mostly in non-regular employment (Imai 2011; Miura 2012; Watanabe 2012, 2014, 2015a). As a result, the percentage of non-regular workers among total workers has increased, while the percentage of regular workers has decreased (see Figures 5.5 and 5.6). Temporary agency work, which was legalized with the enactment of the Temporary Work Agency

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