Japanese Workplaces in Transition

Abstract

organizations that regularly survey Japanese corporations and employees the Japanese Institute of Labor Policy and Training can be regarded as the premier institution. As such I regard it as a great honor that I was invited to the Japanese Institute of Labor Policy and Training as a Visiting Researcher in December 2004. My time at the institute was a great experience and proved invaluable in regard to the collection of data for my current research project. Even more valuable was the contact with the dedicated team of researchers and I would like to thank especially Mrs. Junko Hirasawa for her extensive help and advice during my stay at JIL.

Overcoming the ethnocentric firm? – foreign fresh university graduate employment in Japan as a new international human resource development method

“…Recent research has shown some considerable changes to these traditional practices, but also has highlighted important institutional continuities based on complementarities and interdependencies with other parts of the company and its economic system (e.g. Conrad, 2010Conrad, , 2011Inagami & Whittaker, 2005;Meyer-Ohle, 2009). Incorporating a VOC perspective, we set out to investigate the relationship between Japanese companies' characteristics and the nature of the internationalization of their human resource management practices.…”

Transnationalization of a Recruitment Regime: Skilled Migration to Japan

“…Their demand strongly relates to research on Japan, where Breaden (2014) similarly argues that while the recruitment of foreign graduates has often been linked to objectives of companies to increase workforce diversity, the main discourse among stakeholders is about how to prepare international students, to equip them with the "socio-cultural literacy" so that they can adapt to peculiarities in the application and selection process and later work in the company (also Conrad andMeyer-Ohle, 2017, 2018). In terms of the peculiarities of the Japanese employment system and workplace environment that foreign students need to understand, the following features are particularly important: Seniority-oriented remuneration, implicit long-term employment promises for full-time career-track workers, frequent job rotations, team work, generalist career paths, and an emphasis on soft skills, such as the ability to communicate, cooperate and build networks (Robinson, 2003;Rebick, 2005;Meyer-Ohle, 2009;Conrad, 2010;Aoki et al, 2014).…”