Japanese Employment in Transformation: The Growing Number of Non-regular Workers

This article examines the issue of the growing number of non-regular employees in Japan, and its causes and consequences. Various factors have contributed to the increase in non-regular employees in Japanese society since the 1990s, including companies' strategies in shifting to non-regular employees, changes in the industrial structure towards service industries, the government's policy to encourage women to work on a part-time basis, and people's diverse working preferences. However, the increase in non-regular employment has created economic and social gaps between groups of employees. In response to these changes, unions did not support improvements in employment conditions for non-regular employees until recently, while the government has just begun the implementation of several measures to alleviate the situation. Labour reforms have centred on the legal system, and Japanese companies, labour unions, and policy makers are now at a critical turning point in deciding the direction of employment policies aimed at both economic growth and working people's welfare.