일본적 노사관계의 전환과 다원화

Abstract

Since the latter half of 1980s, Japan has maintained foreign exchange rate high according to the Plaza agreement. Japanese firms have adopted management strategy of relocating production facilities to overseas. The mass production facilities have been transferred to foreign countries, on the one hand, so as to reduce the for the purpose of avoiding trade frictions with America and other western countries, on the other hand, so as to utilize the cheap labor of the developing economies such as ASEAN region. The domestic enterprise organizations have tended to emphasize their functions in the area of research, development and management. So, the relative share of production workers in the whole labor force has been reduced. It is the employees provided with high level skills or intellectual abilities that have become the core labor force. The numerical flexibility of labor market has been secured by the increasing number of irregular employees in the subcontract firms or service sectors. In addition, the development of microelectronics technology has made it possible to reduce the size of blue collar workers. Therefore, it is needed to adjust the rules and customs of the industrial relations. The policy makers, managers and labor union activists have agreed to design the flexible system that can deal with the diversified composition of. employees. It can be expected that institutional arrangements outside the firm will take larger responsibility in determining the features of the working life.