Discussion
In the process of investigating the current state of labor in Japan, we decided to have a discussion about the pros and cons of the lifetime employment system (seniority system) through discussions because many companies in Japan have lifetime employment systems as a precondition for working conditions. In addition, we would like to reconsider whether the "Reform of working styles" which is covered on this site and is currently being introduced is really effective, and we made the reform of working styles a theme of the discussion.
T"The positive and negative effects of Japan's traditional system (seniority system and lifetime employment)"T"The good influence is the stability, as the teacher said."
W"I don't feel stable. It seems easy to train human resources."
S"Lifetime employment is stable in the sense of securing workers' income, but I can't think of the merit of the seniority system ..."
W"If you have lifetime employment, the turnover rate will go down."
W"I think the seniority system will lead to a decrease in turnover."
T"If you continue, your salary will be raised, so it is a big advantage to continue."
S"Because you can keep a job even if you get old."
W"It's so easy!"
W"The problem is that most of the benefits are bigger for management."
S"The management thought it would cost too much."
W"It will be easier to do the personnel evaluation. I can't get rid of the staff, so I have to do the work."
T"Personnel evaluation is easy. But I think the personnel department will look at the ability seriously if I quit the lifetime employment."
S"The point is that there is a theory that a person who is actually incompetent is considered capable only because he has been around for a long time."
D"You want to quit lifetime employment, but you can't."
S"Well, it's going to be hard to make a fundamental change now."
D"How many people are opposed to changing the system? It's not about merits and demerits, but it's hard to stop. That's all."
T"It's a fact that you can't quit, but once it's a lifetime employment (is that institutional change), the benefits are too small for those in higher positions with power."
D"What should be discussed is not only the merits and demerits, but also how to change the better one after comparing lifetime employment and the Western ability evaluation formula."
D"If a person who is in a higher position is promoted as a result of lifetime employment, but if we adopt a merit system, his or her position will be in danger, and he or she will not be in danger."
T"The merit of meritocracy = the demerit of lifetime employment, the merit of lifetime employment = the demerit of meritocracy."
D"That's not true, meritocracy is not without stability."
W"If you fail to achieve the result, you will be fired immediately. (foreign capital)"
T"I won't say no, but isn't it low? I think the risk of being laid off is high."
S"There is an image that if you are incompetent, you will be fired immediately, but if you are excellent, you will be treated well."
D"If you're capable, you're stable."
W"Even if you are capable, you may fail in an unpredictable situation in a new business or something like that. It is said that your motivation to take on challenges is declining."
T"The desire to challenge will certainly drop"
D"Isn't lifetime employment lower? I hate to say it, but as you get older, your salary gets higher."
S"Decreased willingness to take on challenges → It may be difficult to create innovative projects."
W"Either way, it can go down."
T"It would be nice if they would evaluate me properly when the cause of failure was unavoidable."
D"If it's meritocracy, it doesn't mean that those who don't do anything will be laid off, but companies with strong managers can easily retain good bosses."
T"I won't be able to do it unless the top evaluates it properly ..."
W"Either way, it's possible."
D"American companies that aren't lifetime employment are willing to take on acquisitions and challenges, and Silicon Valley doesn't care about failure."
W"Because they have a good job market."
S"It's easy to change jobs because mid-career hiring is popular, and mid-career hiring is popular because layoffs are common, so parents come first or eggs come first ..."
T"Is it true that Confucian countries tend to be seniority-based? Is it causal?"
D"It seems to be true, the national mentality can not say to the elder"
W"I teach you to respect your elders, so you're right."
D"I don't know South Korea, but because Japan is fading, it can change."
T"You have a weak view of religion in Japan."
S"So Japan has room to change."
S"Yes, but considering the merits and demerits and the balance of power, it is said that it is low, but I think the existing one is hard to change."
D"There will be some changes in the way of working, so it is not absolutely necessary to work in a higher position. More people will be able to change jobs, and then there will be a need to change their superiors."
D"If you have 100 employees and 30 of them are like that, you could fire them because they were a minority in the past, but if they increased that much, you couldn't fire them all."
W"Is it correct to say that everyone thinks that changing the way people work is going to be effective?"
T"I think it's pretty good that they're doing the same work, the same wages, trying to work."
D"I think that equal pay for the same work cannot be compatible with the solution of the low birth rate, although there is nothing wrong with equal pay for the same work"
W"Why? There will be more people who can get money. Especially part-time housewives."
S"I thought that if non-regular workers could earn a decent income, the amount of money they could spend on raising children would increase, so the number of people who thought they could raise children would increase."
D"The number of children of married couples is almost the same as it was 30 years ago. Everyone has a good working environment, but I think it will lead to a decline in the marriage rate."
D"I think you can only do it as a stay-at-home mom, saying that there were a lot of children in the postwar period."
W"Even a family with one child has a double income family. It may be hard to have a double income family with one more child."
S"It is said that the recent low birth rate is due to the high rate of unmarried women, so it is true."
D"What is better than changing the Japanese constitution should be restricted at this stage."
T"It seems difficult to be bound by law."
S"Regular audits? There are still people like that ..."
S"What? It's like a way to prevent power harassment from spreading because the boss is too strong."
N"I can't do it like the Diet."
S"Impeachment?" N"Something like that."
S"It will be powerful if it is realized."
W"I wonder if there should be a place where I can report the bad influence of my boss and investigate it properly. There is a place where I can report such harassment."
The discussion concluded that the lifetime employment system (seniority system) should be improved.
However, since it is expected to be difficult to carry out reforms immediately, we thought it would be a good idea to consider introducing a performance-based system for some types of work, for example, by emphasizing results rather than years of service in personnel evaluations.
In addition, although the reform of working styles is expected to have a certain effect in eliminating the disparities among workers, it is not expected to lead to the suppression of the declining birthrate, which is one of the aims of the reform of working styles.