This article analyses the politics of Japanese labour-market deregulation since the 1990s with reference to the cases of the 1999 and 2003 amendments to the Temporary Work Agency Law. It demonstrates that factors such as the loss of political power by labour unions vis-à-vis employers and the resulting significant changes in labour policy-making structures enabled the LDP government to implement 'extensive' labour-market deregulation policies related to 'non-regular' employment. The decline of the left by the 1980s and the economic stagnation after the collapse of the bubble economy against a background of globalisation led to the establishment of the Deregulation Committee, which represented business interests and exerted strong policy influence due to the Cabinet's adoption of its policy proposals. In addition, labour unions lost political power as a result of factors such as their inability to maintain common policy stances towards labour-market deregulation and the reduced influence of 'tripartite' policy-making among labour, employer and public representatives in the advisory councils of the Ministry of Labour. This article contributes to the literature on Japanese political economy by showing an 'exceptional' case of extensive economic reform in Japan and its political reasons.
This article analyses the decline of Japanese labour unions and their struggles for revitalisation from a power resources perspective. It demonstrates first that the power resources of labour unions declined in the neo-liberal political process of labour-market deregulation as a result of lower union density, the intensified conflicts of interest among unions and their reduced access to policy-making. Although this situation induced labour unions to change their interest representation to some extent and organise an increasing number of non-regular and marginalised regular workers, the article claims that they are still concerned about protecting the vested interests of regular workers in large companies and their efforts to organise non-regular and marginalised regular workers have been insufficient. In addition, although community unions have aimed to organise these workers extensively, their human and financial resources are too small to do so and revitalise the labour movement.This article analyses how the power resources of Japanese labour unions declined in the political process of labour-market deregulation in the late 1990s and early 2000s and how labour unions attempted to revitalise the labour movement from a power resources perspective. Although they achieved substantial unification of the labour movement with the establishment of Rengō (Japanese Trade Union Confederation) in 1989, their power resources declined in the process of labour-market deregulation, as it lowered union density by increasing the number of unorganised non-regular workers, exacerbated the conflicts of interest among unions and reduced their access to policy-making. This article claims that, faced with these difficulties, Japanese unions increased efforts to organise and represent the interests of non-regular workers and regular workers in small and medium enterprises (SMEs), if not to a sufficient extent. The achievement of greater power resources by organising these workers was considered essential for the survival and maintenance of social relevance of labour unions. However, many enterprise unions are still reluctant to organise these workers. Although "community" unions organised these workers to solve their labour disputes and improve their working conditions, the human
According to 'varieties of capitalism' (VoC) perspective, coordinated market economies (CMEs) attain comparative advantages by coordinating industrial relations and maintaining regulation to a greater extent than liberal market economies and mixed market economies (MMEs). Yet, Japan, a typical CME in the VoC literature, introduced greater labour market flexibility than Italy, an MME. This article analyses why this is the case and claims that the institutional complementarities that had functioned well previously in Japan have been unraveling since the early 1990s and neoliberal deregulation of the labour market ensued. This comparative study of Japan and Italy shows that economic stagnation and the globalisation of finance and production exerted neoliberal pressures on the state and employers to increase competitiveness by introducing market-oriented policies and business strategies. However, the power resources of labour unions and the partisan composition of the government affected the characteristics of neoliberal changes in labour market policy.
The Japanese labour market has been regarded as 'dualistic' in terms of employment status (regular vs non-regular
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