Manajemen | Fakultas Ekonomi Universitas Maritim Raja Ali Haji 2002 2
FLEXIBILITY AT WORK? THE
FEMINISATION OF PART-TIME WORK
IN JAPAN
KAYE BROADBENT*
A
tkinson’s flexible firm model analyses the segmentation of the workforce utilising
the concepts of core and periphery. This model offers a starting point for examining the segmentation of Japan’s labour market but provides little direction in the exploration of why women are predominant in the part-time workforce. The disparity in
employment conditions between female and male workers in the periphery is fostering
the development of a gender hierarchy in Japan’s non-full-time workforce resembling
that existing in ‘lifetime’ employment practices. This raises questions which challenge
the applicability of a model for analysing part-time work in Japan, which ignores a
consideration of the gender contract.
Employment relations in Japan have generated intense analysis in recent decades.
Despite this attention, few studies document the diversity of employment conditions, work practices and life experiences of workers in the growing service
sector industries. As in other industrialised countries, the number of jobs constructed as part-time is increasing and women are predominant in these jobs. How
can we understand the explosion in part-time jobs and the predominance of
women employed part-time in Japan? Are employers simply responding to
increasing competitive pressures by instituting more flexible work practices? Are
women demanding jobs which require them to work fewer hours?–– and does
the increase in part-time work represent positive trends in employment for women
in Japan?
Flexibility has gained currency for its analyses of changes in workplace organisation, in particular for analysing labour utilisation. Atkinson’s flexible firm model
(1984) is one example of how flexible theorists have characterised these changes.
Atkinson’s model focuses on the ways the implementation and utilisation of new
technology, less rigid work practices and the greater use of an adjustable periphery contribute to a firm’s profitability and competitiveness. He observes that
employers have created a large periphery to bear the burden of restructuring.
The periphery will be comprised mainly of women ‘more of whom will find themselves relegated to dead-end, insecure and low paid jobs.’ (Atkinson 1984: 31)
The periphery bears the burden of restructuring in two ways. First, despite both
* Lecturer, School of Industrial Relations, Griffith University, Nathan, Qld 4111.
Email: k.broadbent@mailbox.gu.edu.au
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core and periphery work forces being governed by production demands,
employment for the periphery is less secure. Second, the periphery subsidises
the pay, security and career opportunities of the core workforce. Japan’s highly
segmented labour market certainly supports Atkinson’s observations. Women are
predominant in the periphery and the lower pay and inferior conditions of the
periphery subsidise the practices of ‘lifetime’ employment. Atkinson’s model however, provides little insight into why women are overrepresented in part-time
work. This paper draws on intensive analysis of one large national supermarket
chain in Japan, Daiichi (a pseudonym). Through an analysis of part-time work
in Japan this paper addresses the questions raised earlier and examines the explanatory power of Atkinson’s flexible firm model.
WOMEN
AND WORK IN JAPAN
Early studies of work in Japan conflated ‘lifetime’ employment to represent all
constructions of work in Japan. ‘Lifetime’ employment, once characterised by
continuous employment with a single employer until retirement, is now understood as employment until retirement, applying only to full-time male workers
in large companies. Women’s work experiences do not conform to this ‘standard’
male pattern and consequently have been, and are, valued negatively in terms of
both status and conditions. The proportion of women in the Japanese workforce
has not changed dramatically in the postwar period (approximately 39–40 per
cent) (Rôdôshô 2001: Appendix 5) but there has been a significant shift in
the composition of the female workforce. Figures indicate that the proportion
of married women has increased over time to 56.9 per cent of the female population in paid work compared with single women who represent 33.1 per cent
(Rôdôshô 2001: Appendix 31).
Employment patterns for women in Japan have developed through the connection between age and the sexual division of labour resulting in an ‘M-shaped’
curve. In recent decades the shape of the ‘M’ has changed, reflecting shifts in
female lifecycles. The M-shaped employment pattern is characterised by lower
numbers of women in paid employment between the ages 24 to 34 years. In recent
years the decrease at ages 24 to 34 years is neither as sharp nor as steep. This
reflects greater variety in lifestyle choices for women––to remain single, to marry
later, to have fewer children. Consequently there is less compulsion to quit the
workforce and fewer years out of the workforce. A further recent change in the
pattern of women’s employment is that the second peak of the M is not as sharp.
This indicates women are re-entering the workforce earlier combined with the
desire of more women to remain in the workforce longer (Rôdôshô 2001: 3).
PART-TIME
WORKERS IN JAPAN
Short-time workers, the literal translation of the generic Japanese term, comprise 20 per cent of Japan’s non-agricultural paid workforce. (Rôdôshô 2001: 35).
Women have always been a presence in the part-time workforce, but the past
decade has seen an explosion in the numbers of women working part-time. In
the past thirty years the increase in part-time jobs reflects employer resistance
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to hiring women full-time. As in other countries, married women (51.2 per cent
of part-time workers, Rôdôshô 2001: 35) and women over the age of 35 years
predominate in part-time work. The 2000 Labour Force Survey reports that
women in the age group 35–64 years represented 79 per cent of the part-time
workforce (Rôdôshô 2001: 37). Despite inconsistencies in definitions in government surveys,1 72 per cent of part-time workers are women (Rôdôshô 2001: 35)
and approximately 72 per cent of these are concentrated in tertiary sector industries such as retail and wholesale, finance and health (Rôdôshô 2001: 37). In 1995
the wholesale, retail and hospitality industries category was the second largest
employer of women (29.1 per cent, Rôdôshô 1997: 58).
Definitions of part-time workers in Japan
The Part-time Workers’ Law (1993) defines part-time workers as those working less than 35 hours per week (Rôdôshô 1996: 1). According to the Labour
Force Survey (2000), the number of part-time workers working less than 35 hours
per week had declined, despite the growth of part-time jobs (Rôdôshô 2001: 36).
The trend is for part-time workers to be employed for longer than 35 hours per
week. Those workers working longer than 35 hours per week are not defined as
part-time. Statistics are difficult to obtain, but estimates suggest that in 1993
approximately 30 per cent of part-time workers in manufacturing worked the
same hours as full-time workers (Ôwaki 1993: 14). Yamada’s (1997) study of parttime workers employed by a car parts manufacturer indicated that not only did
all part-time workers work the same hours as full-time workers, but they performed the same job. As these workers are not categorised as part-time, they are
not covered by the Part-time Workers’ Law but theoretically are covered by existing labour legislation, although this has not been tested. Evidence from Daiichi
and other studies (see Roberts 1994; Yamada 1997) also suggests male short-time
workers are not categorised as part-time workers. They are employed under different conditions from women who are categorised as part-time workers. Male
short-time workers are employed for longer hours, are paid higher hourly wages
and have access to greater benefits. In 1995, part-time workers earned 80 per
cent of a male short-time worker’s hourly rate (Rôdôshô 1997: 35).
SUPERMARKETS
Japanese supermarkets are divided into two main categories. The General
Merchandising Stores (GMS) which sell a range of goods: household items,
electrical products, food and clothing, including their own brand of these products, as well as services including ticket sales and travel. The second category,
supermarkets (SM), sell mainly grocery items. Both first appeared in the early
1950s. Supermarkets, unlike department stores, were not regulated, and both
GMS and SM chains were able to expand both the number of stores and the size
of each store, to enlarge their share of the market (Orihashi 1991: 24–30).
In 1995 approximately two-thirds (67 per cent) of women in the Japanese workforce were employed in the tertiary sector. In 2000 the retail, wholesale and
hospitality industries together employed 48.6 per cent of all part-time workers.
(Rôdôshô 2001: Appendix 75). In 1995 supermarkets were the largest single
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sector employing part-time workers, representing 27.7 per cent of the total
(Rôdôshô 1997: 15).
Daiichi
Daiichi is Japan’s largest retail company and largest supermarket chain with
365 stores throughout Japan and branches overseas. The number of its stores is
double that of its closest competitor. The Daiichi company includes department,
specialist and convenience stores, and services such as restaurants and hotel and
leisure facilities as well as financial institutions and real estate development.
Defined as GMS, supermarket chains such as Daiichi verge on superstore status
because of size, the volume of goods sold and their control over their own manufacturing, wholesale, distribution and retail process. Daiichi’s supermarkets sell
a range of goods including grocery and electrical products developed in collaboration with major manufacturers and retailing under its own private label
(Kunitomo 1997: 91; Daiichi 1993, company document).
Daiichi is representative of large supermarket chains nationwide in the proportion of women workers employed in its full-time and part-time workforce.
Of Daiichi’s 46 000 employees, more than half (27 000) are part-time or casual.
My earlier research at five Daiichi stores and two additional national supermarket
chains indicates all workers categorised as ‘part-time’ are women. Daiichi defines
a part-time worker as ‘a woman casual who has fulfilled the promotion criteria’
(1985: 217). Daiichi does not categorise its male short-time workers as part-time.
METHODOLOGY
With very little published in English on Japanese supermarkets, to generate sufficient data to analyse the construction and definition of part-time work in Daiichi,
I combined a number of methodologies including participant observation, a questionnaire survey and interviews. In 1992 I worked as a casual for 10 months in
one of Daiichi’s Tokyo stores. I conducted a questionnaire in 5 other Daiichi
stores. Follow-up interviews were conducted with 14 part-time workers2 and
casuals in 1993 and subsequently. In combining these discussions with a questionnaire, I have been able to get beyond a simple statistical profile of part-time
workers and to create a picture of part-time work in a supermarket. My sample
wasn’t random. To gain the depth of data I wanted, I interviewed people with
whom I was familiar and had developed a close relationship. The average age of
those interviewed was 50 years, all were married, and their average length of
service was 15 years.
HOW
CAN WE UNDERSTAND PART-TIME WORK?
Part-time workers, in particular the large numbers of women part-time workers
are explained in a number of ways. Barron and Norris (1976) examine the
gender dimensions of a segmented labour market and argue that women are
primarily located in the secondary labour market because of employers’ assumptions about women’s roles. Employers consider women good secondary workers
because they are ‘dispensable . . . [have] little interest in receiving training . . . and
lack solidarity’ (Barron & Norris 1976: 53). Breugel (1979) argues that women
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function as a form of industrial reserve army of labour because they are cheap
to employ and, not being the ‘main income earner’, are easily disposable. Shiozawa
and Hiroki (1988) argue that, in Japan, female labour functions as a ‘safety valve’
allowing employers to adjust their workforce in response to business cycles. Parttime workers therefore bear the brunt of economic downturns, and make it possible to adjust to economic cycles. Employers utilised women in this way in the
seventies and early eighties but, since the late eighties, part-time workers have
become a skilled, professional workforce central to the enterprise. (Takenaka 1991:
30). The focus of these discussions relies on the labour market as the sole determinant of the form of paid work performed. This argument is attractive as it
addresses the issue of women in the periphery, but focusing on the cheaper cost
of women’s labour or dispensability means they are unable to explain why women
are the first to be retrenched.
Hakim proposes a sociological perspective, arguing that part-time work is taken
up voluntarily by women who are giving priority to a non-market activity
(1997:31). Hakim (1997) is critical of what she identifies as the ‘feminist and trade
union perspectives’ for inaccurately portraying part-time work as being forced
on women because of childcare responsibilities. Hakim’s argument that working
part-time is a voluntary choice exercised by women giving priority to a nonmarket activity is difficult to sustain given the age restrictions placed on full-time
jobs in Japan which limit the choice women have in paid work to part-time jobs.
Beechey and Perkins (1987) form part of the literature that Hakim is criticising when referring to the ‘feminist and trade union perspectives’ of part-time
work which are ‘gloomy’ (Hakim 1997: 31). Hakim’s emphasis however is misplaced. It is not the feminist and trade union perspectives which are gloomy, as
they contribute signficantly to our understanding of part-time work in Japan, but
the picture of part-time work in Japan which is inescapably gloomy. Beechey and
Perkins, in examining conditions in Britain, argue that jobs are constructed as
part-time precisely because they are defined as ‘women’s jobs’ (1987: 37).
In order to understand part-time work in Japan it is necessary to analyse it as
part of ‘lifetime’ employment. For women in particular, it is one element of the
discriminatory employment conditions which exist within ‘lifetime’ employment
practices. Japan is a ‘corporate-centred society’ organised and structured around
large private companies. The role of women in this corporate-centred society is
to maintain the family: ‘while men work heart and soul for the company, women
must do the same to ensure men can continue to do so’ (Ôsawa 1995: 249).
Involvement in public life including full-time paid work is perceived as conflicting with the appropriate and effective conduct of this role. In this way, part-time
work is seen as ‘fitting in’ with a woman’s domestic responsibilities.
FLEXIBILITY
‘Flexibility’ explains employer motivations for the current restructuring of workforces and provides the terminology for describing these practices. It describes
the trend for increasing casualisation of work and forecasts continuity in the
composition of the peripheral workforce; that is, women will continue to be
marginalised in low-paying, low-status positions.
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According to Atkinson the periphery is divided into two categories. The first
is regular employees who, employed in clerical or supervisory positions, have less
job security and no career opportunities compared with the core. This group provides numerical and functional flexibility because their skills are readily available
in the external labour market, and so they can be hired and fired as the business
cycles demand. As the jobs involved are defined as less skilled than those in the
core, these workers receive little training. The second group comprises part-time,
casual and other temporary workers, providing the company with additional
numerical and financial flexibility. The employment of these workers matches
the company’s business needs. Atkinson describes their role as ‘maximising flexibility while minimising the organisation’s commitment to the worker’s job
security and career development’ (Atkinson 1984:29).
Part-time work at Daiichi
Atkinson’s model broadly applies to the segmentation of Daiichi’s workforce and
the division within the periphery. Earlier research from Daiichi and two additional national supermarket chains indicates that the part-time workforce is
divided into ‘permanent’ and ‘casual’3 type part-time workers (Broadbent 2002).
In agreement with Atkinson’s analysis, some full-time workers are included in
the periphery. What his analysis doesn’t illuminate is that, in large companies,
these full-time workers are largely female and employed in less secure positions
and with inferior conditions and fewer benefits than their male colleagues
(Ogasawara 1998: 36). Atkinson’s analysis is accurate in describing the status
attached to core and periphery. In Japan, employment in the core workforce does
imply higher value or status placed on workers. Those in the periphery are treated
as marginal, receiving lower wages and conditions and access to few benefits or
career opportunities. Part-time work in Japan, unlike part-time work in Sweden
isn’t a transitional phase to full-time work. Atkinson’s analysis however, doesn’t
highlight the utilisation of part-time workers’ labour. In terms of the hours
worked, length of service and the tasks performed, application of the term periphery doesn’t adequately reflect the benefits employers gain.
Job content
The jobs performed by part-time workers do not differ markedly from those of
full-time workers. Managers in interviews stressed that there was no discrimination between part-time and full-time workers. The jobs of full-time workers
are defined as involving ‘decision-making’, as are the jobs of permanent parttime workers, and prior to 1992, some associate part-time worker’s jobs were also
described in this way. Essentially, ‘decision-making’ involves responsibility for
sales plans, organising staff and reducing costs in their department. Survey
responses indicate that part-time workers and full-time workers perform roughly
similar tasks (Daiichi 1991: 2). As one would expect in retail, customer sales is
a major aspect of the job. Forty-four per cent of permanent part-time workers
work in customer sales compared to 53 per cent of former associate part-time
workers, 60 per cent of female full-time workers and 71 per cent of male fulltime workers.
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Apart from the organisation of staff, permanent part-time workers perform
identical tasks to female full-time workers. A casual in the household goods
section commented to her manager, at an informal drinking session on the 1993
company trip, that she had both the length of service and the job knowledge
to become a manager. His response was that the content of the job and the
status of the worker were important criteria. As many of the permanent parttime workers and associate part-time workers I spoke to are aware of how their
jobs compare to those of full-time workers, few are persuaded by company arguments that their jobs are different (Broadbent 2002).
Yoshizumi-san from haberdashery joined Daiichi in 1975. She was ineligible
to become a permanent part-time worker as she was six months over the age limit
by the time she had satisfied the two years as an associate part-time worker. She
describes an average day:
As my department [on the third floor] is separate from the centre of the ‘hard’
section [seventh floor], the manager and assistant manager only come to my sales
area in the morning to check I’ve arrived and then again in the evening to pick up
the register tape. I work from 10 AM until the store closes [7.30 PM] and I am responsible for closing and totalling the register. I am the only casual to do this and feel
trusted. Sometimes the responsibility is too heavy. Due to the lack of interference
from the manager it is easier to do my job but I don’t earn the same wages or conditions as a full-time worker for running a section.
In highlighting further the extent to which the jobs of permanent part-time
workers and full-time workers overlap, Takashima-san, a permanent part-time
worker in manchester (bed linen) comments:
I am consulted by a lot of the young full-time workers on work-related issues. Many
of them ask me about displays, sales techniques, how to organise seasonal sales which
gives me a feeling of satisfaction. I’ve been told that the full-time workers who have
been transferred from this section to other stores do not have a good reputation.
The reason is they are not knowledgeable about all aspects of the section because
we part-time workers are too competent. We have been told we have to let the fulltime workers do more.
The restructuring of the part-time workforce at Daiichi in 1992 was in response
to the deepening recession and the difficulty for retail outlets, particularly supermarkets, to attract male full-time workers while decreasing the number of fulltime female workers. Numerically, Daiichi’s workforce is dependent on part-time
workers. Since the introduction of the permanent part-time worker system (1981),
Daiichi has restructured its workforce, relying to a greater extent on permanent
part-time workers as a substitute workforce for women full-time workers. Daiichi
management has broadened the job content of permanent part-time workers to
involve greater decision-making, leaving those tasks defined as auxilliary to
casuals. Restructuring has seen all workers, including permanent part-time
workers performing a wider range of tasks (Daiichi 1991: 2).
In 1998 Daiichi did not have part-time workers in managerial positions, but
a personnel manager of a regional store commented in an interview that the
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practice is under consideration (Broadbent 2002). The system may not have been
introduced formally, but through the permanent part-time worker system,
Daiichi has a source of labour that performs a range of tasks similar to those performed by full-time workers but who are considerably cheaper for Daiichi to
employ.
Hours worked
Over time Daiichi’s construction of part-time working hours has changed, coinciding with general trends to lengthen part-time hours. In the seventies, part-time
hours coincided with school hours as many part-time workers had school-aged
children. The women were able to combine paid work and child care while
juggling schedules with their partners. The hours of many part-time workers have
doubled during their years at Daiichi, and not necessarily in response to their
own needs. When Miyake-san started in the stationery section twenty years
ago (1980–2000), her working hours allowed her to drop off and pick up her
daughter from kindergarten:
I now work from 10 AM until 6 PM When my daughter was in kindergarten and lower
primary school my hours were shorter. I worked from 11 AM until 2 PM. I didn’t
want to increase my hours, but it was made clear the choice was to work longer hours
or not have my contract renewed.
Child care is no longer an issue for the majority of part-time workers interviewed
and surveyed, but the responsibilities of aged/dependent parent/spouse care is
presenting challenges for their ability to continue paid work. Ono-san was able
to negotiate finishing her shift one hour earlier during the nine months she cared
for her hospitalised husband.4 The hours worked by part-time workers at Daiichi
had shifted from those accommodating employees desire to ‘fit’ their working
hours to children’s school hours in the seventies to the present demand
of having part-time workers working a similar number of hours to full-time
workers. The working hours of part-time workers are now set at the convenience
of the employer, a trend noted by Walsh in his study of retailers and hoteliers in
England (1990: 521).
Compared with full-time workers, part-time workers in Japan receive lower
wages and poor employment conditions which are justified on the grounds that,
because the majority of part-time workers are married women, they are not self
supporting. Women and part-time workers are treated by employers as secondary
or marginal workers who do not require benefits, training or career paths because
they are perceived as uncommitted to their jobs, an attitude Probert also notes
in her study of Australian part-time workers (1995: 15).
Atkinson’s model is useful as it describes the composition of Daiichi’s periphery,
but there is nothing new in the analysis of flexibility proponents such as Atkinson.
Employers have always demanded flexibility of workers and, in a number of industrialised countries, women are concentrated in low paying, low status jobs. The
terms Atkinson uses, ‘core’ and ‘periphery’, don’t extend our understanding of
the use of the periphery as a core workforce which is treated as a periphery, and
disguise the gendering of these workforces. As also found by the Junor et al. study
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of banking in Australia (1993: 178), part-time workers at Daiichi were employed
on six-month contracts for up to 20 years. Their length of service was not reflected
in their pay, benefits or access to training and promotion. The implications of
this are that women are locked into the secondary labour market and are not
recompensed for the skills and experience they acquire.
The flexible firm model assumes the ‘core’ of full-time workers is central to
the enterprise. This understanding is inappropriate and inaccurate for service
sector industries in Japan, particularly supermarkets. Part-time workers at Daiichi
are numerically the core workforce in some sections during store opening hours;
their pay, however, doesn’t reflect this responsibility. Part-time workers such as
Yoshizumi-san and Takashima-san are not remunerated for the responsibilities
they undertake. The focus on the full-time ‘core’ ignores the majority of the workforce whose presence is essential to the functioning of the company but whose
positions are marginalised through different employment conditions and benefits. As Lever-Tracy argues, most part-time workers serve functions other than
that of providing flexibility, instead fulfilling regular needs in continuing jobs
irrespective of their formal, company-defined status (1988: 235).
Atkinson’s flexible firm model assists in understanding the existence of employer
initiated strategies of flexibility, but it doesn’t deepen our understanding of why
women comprise the majority of the periphery. How can we understand that there
is a gender hierarchy developing not just in ‘lifetime’ employment with its dual
track path but in non-full-time employment? While female and male workers
both comprise the periphery, male short-time workers receive better pay and conditions than women part-time workers.
THE
IMPACT OF OTHER FACTORS
The significance of the labour market in determining forms of paid work is
undeniable, but to explore the work lives of part-time workers in Japan it is necessary to examine other impacts on the paid work options available to women. In
Japan it is necessary to understand the division of labour by sex and the role of
the state and legislation and the attitude of mainstream unions in legitimising
and institutionalising this division of labour as ‘natural’.
THE
ROLE OF THE STATE AND LEGISLATION
The introduction of the Part-time Workers’ Law in June 1993 ended the legal
limbo for part-time workers, but only covers part-time workers working 35 hours
or less per week. Using this definition, part-time workers at Daiichi are not
covered. Of the 14 part-time workers I interviewed, all but one worked more
than 35 hours per week, in excess of the number of hours used to define parttime workers in the Part-time Workers’ Law.
Equity legislation
With reduced spending on welfare services, as well as social pressure, women
must leave their jobs to raise children and care for elderly dependents. The introduction of the Equal Employment Opportunity Law (EEOL) 1986, has done
little to alleviate this necessity for women. It does not apply to part-time
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workers, so is of little value in improving their employment conditions. By not
guaranteeing income, legislation introducing Childcare leave and Dependent care
leave means women, the lowest paid, are the majority of applicants. For most
families it would not be economically viable for the higher paid male earner to
apply for leave and also jeopardise his progress up the corporate ladder. Despite
the active participation and commitment of feminists, the range of equity legislation has had the effect of institutionalising workplace inequalities. The Equal
Employment Opportunity Law (EEOL) (1986), Childcare Leave Law (1991) and
Dependent Care Leave Law (1996) do not cover part-time workers.
Prior to the introduction of the EEOL in 1986, ‘maternal protection’ policies
were part of the Labour Standards Law (LSL), the dominant legislation related
to employment conditions for working women until the 1970s. These clauses
focused on women’s reproductive functions and, while intended to protect women
from exploitation, delineated a woman’s capacity to participate in the workforce
through limits on overtime and bans on night work. In effect employers used
these measures to exclude women from certain occupations. The introduction
of the EEOL resulted in the revision of the LSL, and women in management
and specified occupational categories were to be employed equally with
men. Shinotsuka calculated that this applied to less than 5 per cent of women
workers (1994: 106). As Shinotsuka points out, the provisions in the LSL which
construed women as ‘different’ from men are still in existence despite the introduction of the EEOL (Shinotsuka 1994: 107).
Tax policies which construe women as dependent on a male income earner,
rather than as independent workers, encourage women to ‘choose’ part-time work.
The salary for a male white-collar professional includes a dependent spouse
allowance whereby a dependent wife can earn up to 1.03 million yen. The level
at which this threshold is set is too low for a woman to support herself independently, let alone include children. The incomes of the part-time workers I
interviewed exceeded this limit. This imposed an extra burden as they had to
finance their own employment insurance, health and pension contributions. By
remaining within the non-taxable threshold, a dependent wife is included in the
health cover and pension scheme of her husband. The ‘choice’ a woman can make
about paid work occurs within a framework of inequality, and is determined by
state and employment policies. Revision of the National Pension Law in 1986
and the tax code in 1987 put working wives in an inferior position to unemployed
wives.
The government’s desire to strengthen the foundation of the family means that
women bear the burden of welfare provision. A tension exists between governments that want women as carers of children and aged relatives in the wake of
further cuts in social welfare, and employers who want women as cheap labour.
Part-time work has been created as a way of resolving this tension. Part-time
work in Japan needs to be examined in relation to the gender contract which is
defined as:
the sociocultural consensus on sexual relations in the dominant societal model of
the family, which also entails a model for the integration of women and men into
society (Pfau-Effinger 1993: 389).
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The ‘breadwinner’ norm exists within Japan’s gender contract. A woman’s role
is indispensable to complement male full-time workers who form the backbone
of Japan’s corporate society, the ‘corporate warriors’.
UNIONS
AND AN INCREASINGLY PART-TIME WORKFORCE
The flexible firm model ignores union responses to the increasing use of a flexible workforce, assuming workplace relations are controlled by management.
Flexibility is not considered from the perspective of the workers, what it means
for them and how they have registered their dissatisfaction with being made flexible. There is no analysis of the nature and gender composition of unions which,
given the ideological reorientation of the Japanese union movement and the continued decline in union membership, are important issues.
Enterprise unions contribute to, and benefit from, the gendered construction
of paid and unpaid work and of the segregation of women into part-time work.
The enterprise union at Daiichi has given tacit support to these classifications,
and has adopted them as the basis for their own categorisation of part-time
workers. Permanent part-time workers at Daiichi differ from casuals in that they
are eligible for membership in the enterprise union.
Women employed as full-time workers are hired under different employment
conditions from men and do not receive wages, annual payments, promotion
opportunities and other fringe benefits equivalent to men. Men are protected
from competition from women for these scarce positions through their representation in enterprise unions and because of the scope of employer-enterprise
union bargaining. Enterprise unions benefit because there is no conflict in the
maintenance and protection of the working conditions and interests of their core
membership––full-time male workers.
Similarly, Cynthia Cockburn (1983) argued that male workers’ greater
participation than female workers in union–employer negotiations allows male
workers to maintain a privileged position with higher status as workers and higher
wages than women workers. For Japan, it is necessary to examine the scope of
issues on which unions are able to bargain.
There is no analysis of the nature and gender composition of unions nor the
impact of unionisation on the employment conditions of part-time workers. Parttime workers at Daiichi are unionised into the existing enterprise union, due
largely to affiliation with the industrial union, Zensen Domei,5 the Japanese
Federation of Textile, Garment, Chemical, Distributive and Allied Industry
Workers’ Unions which pursues a closed shop policy.
Of the unions surveyed, the organising of part-time workers is restricted to
permanent part-time workers. The unionising of part-time workers is significant
particularly as the Japanese union movement continues to experience decline. In
1999 union membership stood at 22.2 per cent of the workforce ( Japan Institute
of Labour 2000). However, Daiichi is one of only a few unions to unionise parttime workers. Accurate figures are difficult to locate but estimates indicate only
4 per cent of part-time workers are unionised (Rôdôshô 1996: 81).
According to the Rodo Kumiai Jittai Chosa (Survey on Trade Unions) 70 per
cent of enterprise unions surveyed replied that they had part-time workers at their
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workplace, but only 9 per cent of these unions included part-time workers in
their union (Furugôri 1997: 117). The 1997 Pâtotaimâ no Jittai reports that of
the 95.7 per cent of part-time workers who are not unionised, 91.1 per cent are
employed in companies where the enterprise union does not include part-time
workers (Rôdôshô 1997: 42). A 1980 survey of chain store workers conducted
by the textile workers union found 40 per cent of members replied, when asked
about unions, that ‘the union does not consider part-time workers so I can’t feel
it has any connection with me’ (Furugôri 1997: 119). A study by Rengo ( Japan
Council of Trade Unions) in 1991 supports these findings. Thirty per cent of
part-time workers responded that they wanted to join a union for non-regular
workers only, followed by 26 per cent who responded that they wanted to
join the same union as regular workers (Furugôri 1997: 120). Interestingly
Rengo’s Action Policy Plan for 1992–3 does not include any mention of part-time
workers (Japan Labour Bulletin 1992: 3). Nor are part-time workers listed in the
current actions on its website.
Daiichi’s enterprise union includes permanent part-time workers as members,
but they are unable to hold executive positions within the union. The union’s
explanation for this exclusion is similar to the explanation for low rates of unionisation among women; their working hours are short and they have family commitments, so can’t be around for the union meetings. It was one of the complaints
voiced by permanent part-time workers in my survey that union meetings were
held at times when they could not attend. At Daiichi, the main motivation for
including permanent part-time workers as union members was in response to
reductions in the employment of full-time workers. With numbers of full-time
employees declining, the union was losing not only its membership but its source
of finance, as well as facing a decline in its presence on the shopfloor. This raised
the possibility of part-time workers affiliating with an outside union and
forming a rival union within Daiichi, a situation that both management and the
enterprise union wanted to avoid. Both therefore had reason to agree to selective unionisation of part-time workers from the early eighties (Interview with
Zensen Domei union organiser in Tokyo, July 1989). Union and Daiichi management came to an agreement to restrict union membership to permanent parttime workers.
An attempt was made by part-time workers in the Hachiban store to organise their own union in 1980. This predates the unionisation of part-time
workers by the present Daiichi union. Some of the part-time workers involved
in the attempt are still with the store but have not attempted to organise a union
a second time. Their grievances which included few rewards for service and lack
of a career path compared to full-time workers, were resolved (not necessarily
to everyone’s satisfaction) by the store manager of the time who was both liked
and respected by many of the part-time workers. His actions were sufficient to
deter further discussion of union organisation. A year later the Daiichi enterprise union began unionising some part-time workers.
In general, the policies and practices of enterprise unions do not assist women
workers. Instead they legitimise the division of labour based on sex where women
are construed as wives and mothers. Women, despite their strong presence in
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Japanese workplaces, are not well represented in union committees, enterprise
and national, or in executive positions. Linked to this is the belief held by male
union officials that women are not interested in union issues. My fieldwork reveals,
however, that not only do part-time workers feel neglected by the enterprise
union, the union’s core membership of full-time workers also reported that they
would like to have an avenue for complaints that the union does not now offer
them. Kawanishi’s argument that enterprise unions are an ‘auxiliary instrument’
of management gains credence in this light (1986: 151).
In the views of the part-time workers I surveyed, unions need to focus on abolishing discriminatory employment conditions between part-time and full-time
workers and between female and male workers. Part-time workers stressed that
they wanted unions to address disparities with full-time workers in pay and annual
payments. As Takenaka and Kuba explained, ‘answers to the problems of parttime workers don’t lie in raising the income threshold’ (1994: 167).
CONCLUSIONS
Atkinson’s flexible firm model discusses in passing the presence of women in the
‘periphery’ and low paid dead-end jobs, but makes no attempt to incorporate an
analysis of gender into the conceptual framework. In analysing part-time work
in Japan, I examine the following areas of Atkinson’s model: the distinction
between core and periphery, the role of the state and legislation, and the impact
of the union on an increasing part-time workforce.
The increasing size of Japan’s ‘peripheral’ workforce has serious implications
for all workers but particularly women workers. Flexibility conceals a number of
important issues, such as those relating to gender, and ignores the point that labour
is losing significant employment conditions in order to revive the profitability
of the firm. Not all segments of the workforce will suffer however. Those defined
or represented as unskilled are most vulnerable and in this respect women are at
greater risk.
Central to understanding the relationship between women and paid work
in Japan is an understanding of the sexual division of labour. It is important to
examine ‘lifetime employment’ practices which have a direct impact on women
through the application of restrictive age limits. An examination of how
women workers are constituted by the policies and practices of governments,
employers and enterprise unions is also necessary.
The superficiality of the flexible firm model, which assumes a natural division
between the ‘core’ and ‘periphery’ based on gender, and thus concludes that
women will be relegated to the ‘low-paying, insecure, dead-end jobs’ in the
‘periphery’, does not begin to describe the complexity of employment relations
in Japanese supermarkets.
My study indicates the growth in the ‘periphery’ of the Japanese work force
has serious implications for workers, particularly women workers. The analysis
of the nature of flexibility using the flexible firm model conceals a number of
important issues, such as those mentioned relating to gender or age. Primarily,
labour is losing significant employment conditions, namely job security, in order
to revive the profitability of the company. Not all segments of the work force
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are suffering in the same way, only those deemed unskilled, and in this respect
women are at greater risk.
An analytical framework cognisant of the interplay of a number of variables
is necessary for a fuller understanding of the implications of part-time work
and its effects on Japan’s paid work force. A framework which examines the
impact of public policy on women’s employment options including employment
strategies, social policies such as tax and health insurance, and enterprise union
policies and practices which constitute women on the basis that they are dependent on a male income is also important. It is clear that women, especially women
with spouses, are the majority of part-time workers but the equating of women,
and women as ‘housewives’ in a quasi-naturalistic way with part-time workers
has negative implications for employment conditions and social policies for all
women.
The construction of women used by employers, governments and enterprise
union officials is a one dimensional representation of ‘women’. On the basis of
this representation, employers have ‘appropriated’ the working lives of women
further, by making assumptions about the type of paid work appropriate for
women. In Japan part-time work has been created based on the perception not
only of the kind of work that is appropriate for married women or women
with dependents, but what women demand. Put differently, employers are preempting women’s choices.
In Japan it is assumed all women exceeding company-imposed age limits are
‘mothers’ and so are employed as part-time workers, irrespective of their actual
family status. By utilising women in part-time work, employers are able to hire
workers cheaply. Despite classifying and employing workers on a part-time basis,
employers in Japan have constructed part-time work in such a way that it differs
little from full-time employment. Part-time workers work a similar number of
hours, and in similar and sometimes identical jobs, to full-time workers but are
not given the same status, or paid the same benefits, as full-time employees.
The attraction of Japan’s ‘economic miracle’, though fading, needs to be tempered with studies which examine the impact of gendered and discriminatory
employment policies on which the ‘economic miracle’ was predicated. As the
Japanese economy remains in recession and revelations of bribery and dubious
financial dealings foster disenchantment, the employment conditions of part-time
workers may appear trivial. On the contrary, the issue of discriminatory employment practices is of enormous significance, particularly for the many Japanese
women who work part-time. An analytical framework which examines part-time
work within the context of Japan’s gender contract will broaden our understanding
of the complex relationship between women and work.
NOTES
1. Most surveys use 35 hours per week or less to define part-time work, and this is the definition
used in the Part-time Workers’ Law (1993). The use of this definition has become more consistent since the introduction of the Law. It is not a definition however consistently used among
companies.
2. These workers had been classified as junshain (associate part-time worker) which was the classification prior to becoming a teiji shain or permanent part-time worker. An associate part-time
worker had to have at least 2 years’ experience, be under 45 years of age and pass a written
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exam and interview before being eligible for promotion. In 1992 Daiichi reorganised its
employee classification structure and eliminated the associate part-time worker step. All
associate part-time workers were then classified as patona (casual). There are many terms referring to non-full-time workers, depending on the company and the sex/gender of the worker.
These terms are my approximations for the English.
3. Distinctions still exist between casuals who work few hours, students working casually, and
permanent casuals.
4. In Japanese hospitals, while nursing staff are available, many family members (usually women)
prefer to feed, clean and generally care for patient.
5. Originally Zensen Domei unionised only workers in the textile industry, but gradually expanded
to include numerous other industries. To reflect the industrial diversity of its membership this
union adopted the abbreviated Zensen Domei as its preferred Japanese title, abandoning
the former title (Zenkoku Seni Sangyo Rodo Kumiai Domei) which referred only to the textile
industry.
REFERENCES
Atkinson J (1984) Manpower strategies for flexible organisations. Personnel Management August,
28–32.
Barron RD, Norris GM (1976) Sexual divisions and the dual labour market. In: Leonard-Baker
D, Allen S, eds, Dependence and Exploitation in Work and Marriage. London: Longman.
Beechey V, Perkins T (1987) A Matter of Hours. Cambridge: Polity Press.
Breugel I (1979) Women as a reserve army of labour: A note on recent British experience. Feminist
Review No. 3.
Broadbent K (2002) Women’s Employment in Japan: The Experiences of Part-time Workers. London :
Curzon Press.
Cockburn C (1983) Brothers: Male Dominance and Technological Change. London: Pluto Press.
Daiichi (1985) Union–Management Agreement.
Daiichi (1991) Paatotaimaa no tame no Jinji Seido.
Furugôri T (1997) Hiseiki Rodo no Keizai Bunseki. Tokyo: Toyo Keizai Shinposha.
Hakim C (1997) A sociological perspective on part-time work. In: Blossfeld H, Hakim C, eds,
Between Equalization and Marginalization: Women Working Part-time in Europe and the USA.
Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Japan Institute of Labor (Nihon Rodo Kiko) (1992) Japan Labour Bulletin, January. Tokyo.
Japan Institute of Labor (Nihon Rodo Kiko) (2000) Japan Labour Bulletin, January. Tokyo.
Junor A, Barlow K, Patterson, M (1993) Service Productivity: Part-time Women Workers and the Finance
Sector Workplace. Department of Industrial Relations, Equal Pay Research Series, No. 5,
Canberra: AGPS.
Kawanishi H (1986) The reality of enterprise unionism. In: McCormack G, Sugimoto Y, eds,
Democracy in Contemporary Japan. Sydney: Hale & Iremonger.
Kunitomo R (1997) Yoku Wakaru Supa Gyokai. Tokyo: Nihon Jitsugyo Shuppansha.
Lebra J (1978) Women in service industries. In: Lebra J, Paulson J, Powers E, eds, Women in
Changing Japan. Stanford: Stanford University Press.
Lever-Tracy, C (1988) The flexibility debate: Part-time work. Labour & Industry 1(2), 210–241.
Ogasawara Y (1998) Office Ladies and Salaried Men. Berkeley: University of California Press.
Orihashi S (1991) Supa Gyokai. Tokyo: Kyoikusha.
Ôsawa M (1995) Nihongata fukushi kokka. In: Totsuka H, Tokunaga S, eds, Gendai Nihon no Rodo
Mondai. Tokyo: Minerva Shobo.
Ôwaki M (1993) (Round table discussion) Patotaimu rodo no genjo to kadai. Jurisuto,
FEMINISATION OF PART-TIME WORK
IN JAPAN
KAYE BROADBENT*
A
tkinson’s flexible firm model analyses the segmentation of the workforce utilising
the concepts of core and periphery. This model offers a starting point for examining the segmentation of Japan’s labour market but provides little direction in the exploration of why women are predominant in the part-time workforce. The disparity in
employment conditions between female and male workers in the periphery is fostering
the development of a gender hierarchy in Japan’s non-full-time workforce resembling
that existing in ‘lifetime’ employment practices. This raises questions which challenge
the applicability of a model for analysing part-time work in Japan, which ignores a
consideration of the gender contract.
Employment relations in Japan have generated intense analysis in recent decades.
Despite this attention, few studies document the diversity of employment conditions, work practices and life experiences of workers in the growing service
sector industries. As in other industrialised countries, the number of jobs constructed as part-time is increasing and women are predominant in these jobs. How
can we understand the explosion in part-time jobs and the predominance of
women employed part-time in Japan? Are employers simply responding to
increasing competitive pressures by instituting more flexible work practices? Are
women demanding jobs which require them to work fewer hours?–– and does
the increase in part-time work represent positive trends in employment for women
in Japan?
Flexibility has gained currency for its analyses of changes in workplace organisation, in particular for analysing labour utilisation. Atkinson’s flexible firm model
(1984) is one example of how flexible theorists have characterised these changes.
Atkinson’s model focuses on the ways the implementation and utilisation of new
technology, less rigid work practices and the greater use of an adjustable periphery contribute to a firm’s profitability and competitiveness. He observes that
employers have created a large periphery to bear the burden of restructuring.
The periphery will be comprised mainly of women ‘more of whom will find themselves relegated to dead-end, insecure and low paid jobs.’ (Atkinson 1984: 31)
The periphery bears the burden of restructuring in two ways. First, despite both
* Lecturer, School of Industrial Relations, Griffith University, Nathan, Qld 4111.
Email: k.broadbent@mailbox.gu.edu.au
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core and periphery work forces being governed by production demands,
employment for the periphery is less secure. Second, the periphery subsidises
the pay, security and career opportunities of the core workforce. Japan’s highly
segmented labour market certainly supports Atkinson’s observations. Women are
predominant in the periphery and the lower pay and inferior conditions of the
periphery subsidise the practices of ‘lifetime’ employment. Atkinson’s model however, provides little insight into why women are overrepresented in part-time
work. This paper draws on intensive analysis of one large national supermarket
chain in Japan, Daiichi (a pseudonym). Through an analysis of part-time work
in Japan this paper addresses the questions raised earlier and examines the explanatory power of Atkinson’s flexible firm model.
WOMEN
AND WORK IN JAPAN
Early studies of work in Japan conflated ‘lifetime’ employment to represent all
constructions of work in Japan. ‘Lifetime’ employment, once characterised by
continuous employment with a single employer until retirement, is now understood as employment until retirement, applying only to full-time male workers
in large companies. Women’s work experiences do not conform to this ‘standard’
male pattern and consequently have been, and are, valued negatively in terms of
both status and conditions. The proportion of women in the Japanese workforce
has not changed dramatically in the postwar period (approximately 39–40 per
cent) (Rôdôshô 2001: Appendix 5) but there has been a significant shift in
the composition of the female workforce. Figures indicate that the proportion
of married women has increased over time to 56.9 per cent of the female population in paid work compared with single women who represent 33.1 per cent
(Rôdôshô 2001: Appendix 31).
Employment patterns for women in Japan have developed through the connection between age and the sexual division of labour resulting in an ‘M-shaped’
curve. In recent decades the shape of the ‘M’ has changed, reflecting shifts in
female lifecycles. The M-shaped employment pattern is characterised by lower
numbers of women in paid employment between the ages 24 to 34 years. In recent
years the decrease at ages 24 to 34 years is neither as sharp nor as steep. This
reflects greater variety in lifestyle choices for women––to remain single, to marry
later, to have fewer children. Consequently there is less compulsion to quit the
workforce and fewer years out of the workforce. A further recent change in the
pattern of women’s employment is that the second peak of the M is not as sharp.
This indicates women are re-entering the workforce earlier combined with the
desire of more women to remain in the workforce longer (Rôdôshô 2001: 3).
PART-TIME
WORKERS IN JAPAN
Short-time workers, the literal translation of the generic Japanese term, comprise 20 per cent of Japan’s non-agricultural paid workforce. (Rôdôshô 2001: 35).
Women have always been a presence in the part-time workforce, but the past
decade has seen an explosion in the numbers of women working part-time. In
the past thirty years the increase in part-time jobs reflects employer resistance
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to hiring women full-time. As in other countries, married women (51.2 per cent
of part-time workers, Rôdôshô 2001: 35) and women over the age of 35 years
predominate in part-time work. The 2000 Labour Force Survey reports that
women in the age group 35–64 years represented 79 per cent of the part-time
workforce (Rôdôshô 2001: 37). Despite inconsistencies in definitions in government surveys,1 72 per cent of part-time workers are women (Rôdôshô 2001: 35)
and approximately 72 per cent of these are concentrated in tertiary sector industries such as retail and wholesale, finance and health (Rôdôshô 2001: 37). In 1995
the wholesale, retail and hospitality industries category was the second largest
employer of women (29.1 per cent, Rôdôshô 1997: 58).
Definitions of part-time workers in Japan
The Part-time Workers’ Law (1993) defines part-time workers as those working less than 35 hours per week (Rôdôshô 1996: 1). According to the Labour
Force Survey (2000), the number of part-time workers working less than 35 hours
per week had declined, despite the growth of part-time jobs (Rôdôshô 2001: 36).
The trend is for part-time workers to be employed for longer than 35 hours per
week. Those workers working longer than 35 hours per week are not defined as
part-time. Statistics are difficult to obtain, but estimates suggest that in 1993
approximately 30 per cent of part-time workers in manufacturing worked the
same hours as full-time workers (Ôwaki 1993: 14). Yamada’s (1997) study of parttime workers employed by a car parts manufacturer indicated that not only did
all part-time workers work the same hours as full-time workers, but they performed the same job. As these workers are not categorised as part-time, they are
not covered by the Part-time Workers’ Law but theoretically are covered by existing labour legislation, although this has not been tested. Evidence from Daiichi
and other studies (see Roberts 1994; Yamada 1997) also suggests male short-time
workers are not categorised as part-time workers. They are employed under different conditions from women who are categorised as part-time workers. Male
short-time workers are employed for longer hours, are paid higher hourly wages
and have access to greater benefits. In 1995, part-time workers earned 80 per
cent of a male short-time worker’s hourly rate (Rôdôshô 1997: 35).
SUPERMARKETS
Japanese supermarkets are divided into two main categories. The General
Merchandising Stores (GMS) which sell a range of goods: household items,
electrical products, food and clothing, including their own brand of these products, as well as services including ticket sales and travel. The second category,
supermarkets (SM), sell mainly grocery items. Both first appeared in the early
1950s. Supermarkets, unlike department stores, were not regulated, and both
GMS and SM chains were able to expand both the number of stores and the size
of each store, to enlarge their share of the market (Orihashi 1991: 24–30).
In 1995 approximately two-thirds (67 per cent) of women in the Japanese workforce were employed in the tertiary sector. In 2000 the retail, wholesale and
hospitality industries together employed 48.6 per cent of all part-time workers.
(Rôdôshô 2001: Appendix 75). In 1995 supermarkets were the largest single
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sector employing part-time workers, representing 27.7 per cent of the total
(Rôdôshô 1997: 15).
Daiichi
Daiichi is Japan’s largest retail company and largest supermarket chain with
365 stores throughout Japan and branches overseas. The number of its stores is
double that of its closest competitor. The Daiichi company includes department,
specialist and convenience stores, and services such as restaurants and hotel and
leisure facilities as well as financial institutions and real estate development.
Defined as GMS, supermarket chains such as Daiichi verge on superstore status
because of size, the volume of goods sold and their control over their own manufacturing, wholesale, distribution and retail process. Daiichi’s supermarkets sell
a range of goods including grocery and electrical products developed in collaboration with major manufacturers and retailing under its own private label
(Kunitomo 1997: 91; Daiichi 1993, company document).
Daiichi is representative of large supermarket chains nationwide in the proportion of women workers employed in its full-time and part-time workforce.
Of Daiichi’s 46 000 employees, more than half (27 000) are part-time or casual.
My earlier research at five Daiichi stores and two additional national supermarket
chains indicates all workers categorised as ‘part-time’ are women. Daiichi defines
a part-time worker as ‘a woman casual who has fulfilled the promotion criteria’
(1985: 217). Daiichi does not categorise its male short-time workers as part-time.
METHODOLOGY
With very little published in English on Japanese supermarkets, to generate sufficient data to analyse the construction and definition of part-time work in Daiichi,
I combined a number of methodologies including participant observation, a questionnaire survey and interviews. In 1992 I worked as a casual for 10 months in
one of Daiichi’s Tokyo stores. I conducted a questionnaire in 5 other Daiichi
stores. Follow-up interviews were conducted with 14 part-time workers2 and
casuals in 1993 and subsequently. In combining these discussions with a questionnaire, I have been able to get beyond a simple statistical profile of part-time
workers and to create a picture of part-time work in a supermarket. My sample
wasn’t random. To gain the depth of data I wanted, I interviewed people with
whom I was familiar and had developed a close relationship. The average age of
those interviewed was 50 years, all were married, and their average length of
service was 15 years.
HOW
CAN WE UNDERSTAND PART-TIME WORK?
Part-time workers, in particular the large numbers of women part-time workers
are explained in a number of ways. Barron and Norris (1976) examine the
gender dimensions of a segmented labour market and argue that women are
primarily located in the secondary labour market because of employers’ assumptions about women’s roles. Employers consider women good secondary workers
because they are ‘dispensable . . . [have] little interest in receiving training . . . and
lack solidarity’ (Barron & Norris 1976: 53). Breugel (1979) argues that women
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function as a form of industrial reserve army of labour because they are cheap
to employ and, not being the ‘main income earner’, are easily disposable. Shiozawa
and Hiroki (1988) argue that, in Japan, female labour functions as a ‘safety valve’
allowing employers to adjust their workforce in response to business cycles. Parttime workers therefore bear the brunt of economic downturns, and make it possible to adjust to economic cycles. Employers utilised women in this way in the
seventies and early eighties but, since the late eighties, part-time workers have
become a skilled, professional workforce central to the enterprise. (Takenaka 1991:
30). The focus of these discussions relies on the labour market as the sole determinant of the form of paid work performed. This argument is attractive as it
addresses the issue of women in the periphery, but focusing on the cheaper cost
of women’s labour or dispensability means they are unable to explain why women
are the first to be retrenched.
Hakim proposes a sociological perspective, arguing that part-time work is taken
up voluntarily by women who are giving priority to a non-market activity
(1997:31). Hakim (1997) is critical of what she identifies as the ‘feminist and trade
union perspectives’ for inaccurately portraying part-time work as being forced
on women because of childcare responsibilities. Hakim’s argument that working
part-time is a voluntary choice exercised by women giving priority to a nonmarket activity is difficult to sustain given the age restrictions placed on full-time
jobs in Japan which limit the choice women have in paid work to part-time jobs.
Beechey and Perkins (1987) form part of the literature that Hakim is criticising when referring to the ‘feminist and trade union perspectives’ of part-time
work which are ‘gloomy’ (Hakim 1997: 31). Hakim’s emphasis however is misplaced. It is not the feminist and trade union perspectives which are gloomy, as
they contribute signficantly to our understanding of part-time work in Japan, but
the picture of part-time work in Japan which is inescapably gloomy. Beechey and
Perkins, in examining conditions in Britain, argue that jobs are constructed as
part-time precisely because they are defined as ‘women’s jobs’ (1987: 37).
In order to understand part-time work in Japan it is necessary to analyse it as
part of ‘lifetime’ employment. For women in particular, it is one element of the
discriminatory employment conditions which exist within ‘lifetime’ employment
practices. Japan is a ‘corporate-centred society’ organised and structured around
large private companies. The role of women in this corporate-centred society is
to maintain the family: ‘while men work heart and soul for the company, women
must do the same to ensure men can continue to do so’ (Ôsawa 1995: 249).
Involvement in public life including full-time paid work is perceived as conflicting with the appropriate and effective conduct of this role. In this way, part-time
work is seen as ‘fitting in’ with a woman’s domestic responsibilities.
FLEXIBILITY
‘Flexibility’ explains employer motivations for the current restructuring of workforces and provides the terminology for describing these practices. It describes
the trend for increasing casualisation of work and forecasts continuity in the
composition of the peripheral workforce; that is, women will continue to be
marginalised in low-paying, low-status positions.
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According to Atkinson the periphery is divided into two categories. The first
is regular employees who, employed in clerical or supervisory positions, have less
job security and no career opportunities compared with the core. This group provides numerical and functional flexibility because their skills are readily available
in the external labour market, and so they can be hired and fired as the business
cycles demand. As the jobs involved are defined as less skilled than those in the
core, these workers receive little training. The second group comprises part-time,
casual and other temporary workers, providing the company with additional
numerical and financial flexibility. The employment of these workers matches
the company’s business needs. Atkinson describes their role as ‘maximising flexibility while minimising the organisation’s commitment to the worker’s job
security and career development’ (Atkinson 1984:29).
Part-time work at Daiichi
Atkinson’s model broadly applies to the segmentation of Daiichi’s workforce and
the division within the periphery. Earlier research from Daiichi and two additional national supermarket chains indicates that the part-time workforce is
divided into ‘permanent’ and ‘casual’3 type part-time workers (Broadbent 2002).
In agreement with Atkinson’s analysis, some full-time workers are included in
the periphery. What his analysis doesn’t illuminate is that, in large companies,
these full-time workers are largely female and employed in less secure positions
and with inferior conditions and fewer benefits than their male colleagues
(Ogasawara 1998: 36). Atkinson’s analysis is accurate in describing the status
attached to core and periphery. In Japan, employment in the core workforce does
imply higher value or status placed on workers. Those in the periphery are treated
as marginal, receiving lower wages and conditions and access to few benefits or
career opportunities. Part-time work in Japan, unlike part-time work in Sweden
isn’t a transitional phase to full-time work. Atkinson’s analysis however, doesn’t
highlight the utilisation of part-time workers’ labour. In terms of the hours
worked, length of service and the tasks performed, application of the term periphery doesn’t adequately reflect the benefits employers gain.
Job content
The jobs performed by part-time workers do not differ markedly from those of
full-time workers. Managers in interviews stressed that there was no discrimination between part-time and full-time workers. The jobs of full-time workers
are defined as involving ‘decision-making’, as are the jobs of permanent parttime workers, and prior to 1992, some associate part-time worker’s jobs were also
described in this way. Essentially, ‘decision-making’ involves responsibility for
sales plans, organising staff and reducing costs in their department. Survey
responses indicate that part-time workers and full-time workers perform roughly
similar tasks (Daiichi 1991: 2). As one would expect in retail, customer sales is
a major aspect of the job. Forty-four per cent of permanent part-time workers
work in customer sales compared to 53 per cent of former associate part-time
workers, 60 per cent of female full-time workers and 71 per cent of male fulltime workers.
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Apart from the organisation of staff, permanent part-time workers perform
identical tasks to female full-time workers. A casual in the household goods
section commented to her manager, at an informal drinking session on the 1993
company trip, that she had both the length of service and the job knowledge
to become a manager. His response was that the content of the job and the
status of the worker were important criteria. As many of the permanent parttime workers and associate part-time workers I spoke to are aware of how their
jobs compare to those of full-time workers, few are persuaded by company arguments that their jobs are different (Broadbent 2002).
Yoshizumi-san from haberdashery joined Daiichi in 1975. She was ineligible
to become a permanent part-time worker as she was six months over the age limit
by the time she had satisfied the two years as an associate part-time worker. She
describes an average day:
As my department [on the third floor] is separate from the centre of the ‘hard’
section [seventh floor], the manager and assistant manager only come to my sales
area in the morning to check I’ve arrived and then again in the evening to pick up
the register tape. I work from 10 AM until the store closes [7.30 PM] and I am responsible for closing and totalling the register. I am the only casual to do this and feel
trusted. Sometimes the responsibility is too heavy. Due to the lack of interference
from the manager it is easier to do my job but I don’t earn the same wages or conditions as a full-time worker for running a section.
In highlighting further the extent to which the jobs of permanent part-time
workers and full-time workers overlap, Takashima-san, a permanent part-time
worker in manchester (bed linen) comments:
I am consulted by a lot of the young full-time workers on work-related issues. Many
of them ask me about displays, sales techniques, how to organise seasonal sales which
gives me a feeling of satisfaction. I’ve been told that the full-time workers who have
been transferred from this section to other stores do not have a good reputation.
The reason is they are not knowledgeable about all aspects of the section because
we part-time workers are too competent. We have been told we have to let the fulltime workers do more.
The restructuring of the part-time workforce at Daiichi in 1992 was in response
to the deepening recession and the difficulty for retail outlets, particularly supermarkets, to attract male full-time workers while decreasing the number of fulltime female workers. Numerically, Daiichi’s workforce is dependent on part-time
workers. Since the introduction of the permanent part-time worker system (1981),
Daiichi has restructured its workforce, relying to a greater extent on permanent
part-time workers as a substitute workforce for women full-time workers. Daiichi
management has broadened the job content of permanent part-time workers to
involve greater decision-making, leaving those tasks defined as auxilliary to
casuals. Restructuring has seen all workers, including permanent part-time
workers performing a wider range of tasks (Daiichi 1991: 2).
In 1998 Daiichi did not have part-time workers in managerial positions, but
a personnel manager of a regional store commented in an interview that the
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practice is under consideration (Broadbent 2002). The system may not have been
introduced formally, but through the permanent part-time worker system,
Daiichi has a source of labour that performs a range of tasks similar to those performed by full-time workers but who are considerably cheaper for Daiichi to
employ.
Hours worked
Over time Daiichi’s construction of part-time working hours has changed, coinciding with general trends to lengthen part-time hours. In the seventies, part-time
hours coincided with school hours as many part-time workers had school-aged
children. The women were able to combine paid work and child care while
juggling schedules with their partners. The hours of many part-time workers have
doubled during their years at Daiichi, and not necessarily in response to their
own needs. When Miyake-san started in the stationery section twenty years
ago (1980–2000), her working hours allowed her to drop off and pick up her
daughter from kindergarten:
I now work from 10 AM until 6 PM When my daughter was in kindergarten and lower
primary school my hours were shorter. I worked from 11 AM until 2 PM. I didn’t
want to increase my hours, but it was made clear the choice was to work longer hours
or not have my contract renewed.
Child care is no longer an issue for the majority of part-time workers interviewed
and surveyed, but the responsibilities of aged/dependent parent/spouse care is
presenting challenges for their ability to continue paid work. Ono-san was able
to negotiate finishing her shift one hour earlier during the nine months she cared
for her hospitalised husband.4 The hours worked by part-time workers at Daiichi
had shifted from those accommodating employees desire to ‘fit’ their working
hours to children’s school hours in the seventies to the present demand
of having part-time workers working a similar number of hours to full-time
workers. The working hours of part-time workers are now set at the convenience
of the employer, a trend noted by Walsh in his study of retailers and hoteliers in
England (1990: 521).
Compared with full-time workers, part-time workers in Japan receive lower
wages and poor employment conditions which are justified on the grounds that,
because the majority of part-time workers are married women, they are not self
supporting. Women and part-time workers are treated by employers as secondary
or marginal workers who do not require benefits, training or career paths because
they are perceived as uncommitted to their jobs, an attitude Probert also notes
in her study of Australian part-time workers (1995: 15).
Atkinson’s model is useful as it describes the composition of Daiichi’s periphery,
but there is nothing new in the analysis of flexibility proponents such as Atkinson.
Employers have always demanded flexibility of workers and, in a number of industrialised countries, women are concentrated in low paying, low status jobs. The
terms Atkinson uses, ‘core’ and ‘periphery’, don’t extend our understanding of
the use of the periphery as a core workforce which is treated as a periphery, and
disguise the gendering of these workforces. As also found by the Junor et al. study
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of banking in Australia (1993: 178), part-time workers at Daiichi were employed
on six-month contracts for up to 20 years. Their length of service was not reflected
in their pay, benefits or access to training and promotion. The implications of
this are that women are locked into the secondary labour market and are not
recompensed for the skills and experience they acquire.
The flexible firm model assumes the ‘core’ of full-time workers is central to
the enterprise. This understanding is inappropriate and inaccurate for service
sector industries in Japan, particularly supermarkets. Part-time workers at Daiichi
are numerically the core workforce in some sections during store opening hours;
their pay, however, doesn’t reflect this responsibility. Part-time workers such as
Yoshizumi-san and Takashima-san are not remunerated for the responsibilities
they undertake. The focus on the full-time ‘core’ ignores the majority of the workforce whose presence is essential to the functioning of the company but whose
positions are marginalised through different employment conditions and benefits. As Lever-Tracy argues, most part-time workers serve functions other than
that of providing flexibility, instead fulfilling regular needs in continuing jobs
irrespective of their formal, company-defined status (1988: 235).
Atkinson’s flexible firm model assists in understanding the existence of employer
initiated strategies of flexibility, but it doesn’t deepen our understanding of why
women comprise the majority of the periphery. How can we understand that there
is a gender hierarchy developing not just in ‘lifetime’ employment with its dual
track path but in non-full-time employment? While female and male workers
both comprise the periphery, male short-time workers receive better pay and conditions than women part-time workers.
THE
IMPACT OF OTHER FACTORS
The significance of the labour market in determining forms of paid work is
undeniable, but to explore the work lives of part-time workers in Japan it is necessary to examine other impacts on the paid work options available to women. In
Japan it is necessary to understand the division of labour by sex and the role of
the state and legislation and the attitude of mainstream unions in legitimising
and institutionalising this division of labour as ‘natural’.
THE
ROLE OF THE STATE AND LEGISLATION
The introduction of the Part-time Workers’ Law in June 1993 ended the legal
limbo for part-time workers, but only covers part-time workers working 35 hours
or less per week. Using this definition, part-time workers at Daiichi are not
covered. Of the 14 part-time workers I interviewed, all but one worked more
than 35 hours per week, in excess of the number of hours used to define parttime workers in the Part-time Workers’ Law.
Equity legislation
With reduced spending on welfare services, as well as social pressure, women
must leave their jobs to raise children and care for elderly dependents. The introduction of the Equal Employment Opportunity Law (EEOL) 1986, has done
little to alleviate this necessity for women. It does not apply to part-time
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workers, so is of little value in improving their employment conditions. By not
guaranteeing income, legislation introducing Childcare leave and Dependent care
leave means women, the lowest paid, are the majority of applicants. For most
families it would not be economically viable for the higher paid male earner to
apply for leave and also jeopardise his progress up the corporate ladder. Despite
the active participation and commitment of feminists, the range of equity legislation has had the effect of institutionalising workplace inequalities. The Equal
Employment Opportunity Law (EEOL) (1986), Childcare Leave Law (1991) and
Dependent Care Leave Law (1996) do not cover part-time workers.
Prior to the introduction of the EEOL in 1986, ‘maternal protection’ policies
were part of the Labour Standards Law (LSL), the dominant legislation related
to employment conditions for working women until the 1970s. These clauses
focused on women’s reproductive functions and, while intended to protect women
from exploitation, delineated a woman’s capacity to participate in the workforce
through limits on overtime and bans on night work. In effect employers used
these measures to exclude women from certain occupations. The introduction
of the EEOL resulted in the revision of the LSL, and women in management
and specified occupational categories were to be employed equally with
men. Shinotsuka calculated that this applied to less than 5 per cent of women
workers (1994: 106). As Shinotsuka points out, the provisions in the LSL which
construed women as ‘different’ from men are still in existence despite the introduction of the EEOL (Shinotsuka 1994: 107).
Tax policies which construe women as dependent on a male income earner,
rather than as independent workers, encourage women to ‘choose’ part-time work.
The salary for a male white-collar professional includes a dependent spouse
allowance whereby a dependent wife can earn up to 1.03 million yen. The level
at which this threshold is set is too low for a woman to support herself independently, let alone include children. The incomes of the part-time workers I
interviewed exceeded this limit. This imposed an extra burden as they had to
finance their own employment insurance, health and pension contributions. By
remaining within the non-taxable threshold, a dependent wife is included in the
health cover and pension scheme of her husband. The ‘choice’ a woman can make
about paid work occurs within a framework of inequality, and is determined by
state and employment policies. Revision of the National Pension Law in 1986
and the tax code in 1987 put working wives in an inferior position to unemployed
wives.
The government’s desire to strengthen the foundation of the family means that
women bear the burden of welfare provision. A tension exists between governments that want women as carers of children and aged relatives in the wake of
further cuts in social welfare, and employers who want women as cheap labour.
Part-time work has been created as a way of resolving this tension. Part-time
work in Japan needs to be examined in relation to the gender contract which is
defined as:
the sociocultural consensus on sexual relations in the dominant societal model of
the family, which also entails a model for the integration of women and men into
society (Pfau-Effinger 1993: 389).
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The ‘breadwinner’ norm exists within Japan’s gender contract. A woman’s role
is indispensable to complement male full-time workers who form the backbone
of Japan’s corporate society, the ‘corporate warriors’.
UNIONS
AND AN INCREASINGLY PART-TIME WORKFORCE
The flexible firm model ignores union responses to the increasing use of a flexible workforce, assuming workplace relations are controlled by management.
Flexibility is not considered from the perspective of the workers, what it means
for them and how they have registered their dissatisfaction with being made flexible. There is no analysis of the nature and gender composition of unions which,
given the ideological reorientation of the Japanese union movement and the continued decline in union membership, are important issues.
Enterprise unions contribute to, and benefit from, the gendered construction
of paid and unpaid work and of the segregation of women into part-time work.
The enterprise union at Daiichi has given tacit support to these classifications,
and has adopted them as the basis for their own categorisation of part-time
workers. Permanent part-time workers at Daiichi differ from casuals in that they
are eligible for membership in the enterprise union.
Women employed as full-time workers are hired under different employment
conditions from men and do not receive wages, annual payments, promotion
opportunities and other fringe benefits equivalent to men. Men are protected
from competition from women for these scarce positions through their representation in enterprise unions and because of the scope of employer-enterprise
union bargaining. Enterprise unions benefit because there is no conflict in the
maintenance and protection of the working conditions and interests of their core
membership––full-time male workers.
Similarly, Cynthia Cockburn (1983) argued that male workers’ greater
participation than female workers in union–employer negotiations allows male
workers to maintain a privileged position with higher status as workers and higher
wages than women workers. For Japan, it is necessary to examine the scope of
issues on which unions are able to bargain.
There is no analysis of the nature and gender composition of unions nor the
impact of unionisation on the employment conditions of part-time workers. Parttime workers at Daiichi are unionised into the existing enterprise union, due
largely to affiliation with the industrial union, Zensen Domei,5 the Japanese
Federation of Textile, Garment, Chemical, Distributive and Allied Industry
Workers’ Unions which pursues a closed shop policy.
Of the unions surveyed, the organising of part-time workers is restricted to
permanent part-time workers. The unionising of part-time workers is significant
particularly as the Japanese union movement continues to experience decline. In
1999 union membership stood at 22.2 per cent of the workforce ( Japan Institute
of Labour 2000). However, Daiichi is one of only a few unions to unionise parttime workers. Accurate figures are difficult to locate but estimates indicate only
4 per cent of part-time workers are unionised (Rôdôshô 1996: 81).
According to the Rodo Kumiai Jittai Chosa (Survey on Trade Unions) 70 per
cent of enterprise unions surveyed replied that they had part-time workers at their
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workplace, but only 9 per cent of these unions included part-time workers in
their union (Furugôri 1997: 117). The 1997 Pâtotaimâ no Jittai reports that of
the 95.7 per cent of part-time workers who are not unionised, 91.1 per cent are
employed in companies where the enterprise union does not include part-time
workers (Rôdôshô 1997: 42). A 1980 survey of chain store workers conducted
by the textile workers union found 40 per cent of members replied, when asked
about unions, that ‘the union does not consider part-time workers so I can’t feel
it has any connection with me’ (Furugôri 1997: 119). A study by Rengo ( Japan
Council of Trade Unions) in 1991 supports these findings. Thirty per cent of
part-time workers responded that they wanted to join a union for non-regular
workers only, followed by 26 per cent who responded that they wanted to
join the same union as regular workers (Furugôri 1997: 120). Interestingly
Rengo’s Action Policy Plan for 1992–3 does not include any mention of part-time
workers (Japan Labour Bulletin 1992: 3). Nor are part-time workers listed in the
current actions on its website.
Daiichi’s enterprise union includes permanent part-time workers as members,
but they are unable to hold executive positions within the union. The union’s
explanation for this exclusion is similar to the explanation for low rates of unionisation among women; their working hours are short and they have family commitments, so can’t be around for the union meetings. It was one of the complaints
voiced by permanent part-time workers in my survey that union meetings were
held at times when they could not attend. At Daiichi, the main motivation for
including permanent part-time workers as union members was in response to
reductions in the employment of full-time workers. With numbers of full-time
employees declining, the union was losing not only its membership but its source
of finance, as well as facing a decline in its presence on the shopfloor. This raised
the possibility of part-time workers affiliating with an outside union and
forming a rival union within Daiichi, a situation that both management and the
enterprise union wanted to avoid. Both therefore had reason to agree to selective unionisation of part-time workers from the early eighties (Interview with
Zensen Domei union organiser in Tokyo, July 1989). Union and Daiichi management came to an agreement to restrict union membership to permanent parttime workers.
An attempt was made by part-time workers in the Hachiban store to organise their own union in 1980. This predates the unionisation of part-time
workers by the present Daiichi union. Some of the part-time workers involved
in the attempt are still with the store but have not attempted to organise a union
a second time. Their grievances which included few rewards for service and lack
of a career path compared to full-time workers, were resolved (not necessarily
to everyone’s satisfaction) by the store manager of the time who was both liked
and respected by many of the part-time workers. His actions were sufficient to
deter further discussion of union organisation. A year later the Daiichi enterprise union began unionising some part-time workers.
In general, the policies and practices of enterprise unions do not assist women
workers. Instead they legitimise the division of labour based on sex where women
are construed as wives and mothers. Women, despite their strong presence in
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Japanese workplaces, are not well represented in union committees, enterprise
and national, or in executive positions. Linked to this is the belief held by male
union officials that women are not interested in union issues. My fieldwork reveals,
however, that not only do part-time workers feel neglected by the enterprise
union, the union’s core membership of full-time workers also reported that they
would like to have an avenue for complaints that the union does not now offer
them. Kawanishi’s argument that enterprise unions are an ‘auxiliary instrument’
of management gains credence in this light (1986: 151).
In the views of the part-time workers I surveyed, unions need to focus on abolishing discriminatory employment conditions between part-time and full-time
workers and between female and male workers. Part-time workers stressed that
they wanted unions to address disparities with full-time workers in pay and annual
payments. As Takenaka and Kuba explained, ‘answers to the problems of parttime workers don’t lie in raising the income threshold’ (1994: 167).
CONCLUSIONS
Atkinson’s flexible firm model discusses in passing the presence of women in the
‘periphery’ and low paid dead-end jobs, but makes no attempt to incorporate an
analysis of gender into the conceptual framework. In analysing part-time work
in Japan, I examine the following areas of Atkinson’s model: the distinction
between core and periphery, the role of the state and legislation, and the impact
of the union on an increasing part-time workforce.
The increasing size of Japan’s ‘peripheral’ workforce has serious implications
for all workers but particularly women workers. Flexibility conceals a number of
important issues, such as those relating to gender, and ignores the point that labour
is losing significant employment conditions in order to revive the profitability
of the firm. Not all segments of the workforce will suffer however. Those defined
or represented as unskilled are most vulnerable and in this respect women are at
greater risk.
Central to understanding the relationship between women and paid work
in Japan is an understanding of the sexual division of labour. It is important to
examine ‘lifetime employment’ practices which have a direct impact on women
through the application of restrictive age limits. An examination of how
women workers are constituted by the policies and practices of governments,
employers and enterprise unions is also necessary.
The superficiality of the flexible firm model, which assumes a natural division
between the ‘core’ and ‘periphery’ based on gender, and thus concludes that
women will be relegated to the ‘low-paying, insecure, dead-end jobs’ in the
‘periphery’, does not begin to describe the complexity of employment relations
in Japanese supermarkets.
My study indicates the growth in the ‘periphery’ of the Japanese work force
has serious implications for workers, particularly women workers. The analysis
of the nature of flexibility using the flexible firm model conceals a number of
important issues, such as those mentioned relating to gender or age. Primarily,
labour is losing significant employment conditions, namely job security, in order
to revive the profitability of the company. Not all segments of the work force
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are suffering in the same way, only those deemed unskilled, and in this respect
women are at greater risk.
An analytical framework cognisant of the interplay of a number of variables
is necessary for a fuller understanding of the implications of part-time work
and its effects on Japan’s paid work force. A framework which examines the
impact of public policy on women’s employment options including employment
strategies, social policies such as tax and health insurance, and enterprise union
policies and practices which constitute women on the basis that they are dependent on a male income is also important. It is clear that women, especially women
with spouses, are the majority of part-time workers but the equating of women,
and women as ‘housewives’ in a quasi-naturalistic way with part-time workers
has negative implications for employment conditions and social policies for all
women.
The construction of women used by employers, governments and enterprise
union officials is a one dimensional representation of ‘women’. On the basis of
this representation, employers have ‘appropriated’ the working lives of women
further, by making assumptions about the type of paid work appropriate for
women. In Japan part-time work has been created based on the perception not
only of the kind of work that is appropriate for married women or women
with dependents, but what women demand. Put differently, employers are preempting women’s choices.
In Japan it is assumed all women exceeding company-imposed age limits are
‘mothers’ and so are employed as part-time workers, irrespective of their actual
family status. By utilising women in part-time work, employers are able to hire
workers cheaply. Despite classifying and employing workers on a part-time basis,
employers in Japan have constructed part-time work in such a way that it differs
little from full-time employment. Part-time workers work a similar number of
hours, and in similar and sometimes identical jobs, to full-time workers but are
not given the same status, or paid the same benefits, as full-time employees.
The attraction of Japan’s ‘economic miracle’, though fading, needs to be tempered with studies which examine the impact of gendered and discriminatory
employment policies on which the ‘economic miracle’ was predicated. As the
Japanese economy remains in recession and revelations of bribery and dubious
financial dealings foster disenchantment, the employment conditions of part-time
workers may appear trivial. On the contrary, the issue of discriminatory employment practices is of enormous significance, particularly for the many Japanese
women who work part-time. An analytical framework which examines part-time
work within the context of Japan’s gender contract will broaden our understanding
of the complex relationship between women and work.
NOTES
1. Most surveys use 35 hours per week or less to define part-time work, and this is the definition
used in the Part-time Workers’ Law (1993). The use of this definition has become more consistent since the introduction of the Law. It is not a definition however consistently used among
companies.
2. These workers had been classified as junshain (associate part-time worker) which was the classification prior to becoming a teiji shain or permanent part-time worker. An associate part-time
worker had to have at least 2 years’ experience, be under 45 years of age and pass a written
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exam and interview before being eligible for promotion. In 1992 Daiichi reorganised its
employee classification structure and eliminated the associate part-time worker step. All
associate part-time workers were then classified as patona (casual). There are many terms referring to non-full-time workers, depending on the company and the sex/gender of the worker.
These terms are my approximations for the English.
3. Distinctions still exist between casuals who work few hours, students working casually, and
permanent casuals.
4. In Japanese hospitals, while nursing staff are available, many family members (usually women)
prefer to feed, clean and generally care for patient.
5. Originally Zensen Domei unionised only workers in the textile industry, but gradually expanded
to include numerous other industries. To reflect the industrial diversity of its membership this
union adopted the abbreviated Zensen Domei as its preferred Japanese title, abandoning
the former title (Zenkoku Seni Sangyo Rodo Kumiai Domei) which referred only to the textile
industry.
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