Lifetime employment system - shuushinkoyousei (English spelling) lifetime commitment

Japanese: 終身雇用制 - しゅうしんこようせい（英語表記）lifetime commitment

A system whereby a company employs an employee for a long period of time, from the time of joining the company until retirement. It is more appropriate to call it a long-term (tenure) employment practice. Lifetime employment can be said to be a practice that is established on the tacit understanding between employers and employees and the expectation that it will be maintained. Long-term, stable employment in this sense is not a system unique to Japan. It is also found in advanced Western countries, and can be said to be the basic organizational principle of the internal labor market. Since the first oil crisis, and especially after the collapse of the bubble economy, the foundations of long-term employment have been considerably eroded and transformed, but this system itself will not disappear or collapse. A characteristic of today's society is that companies are trying to reduce wage costs and create a flexible employment system by streamlining the core labor class, which has high wage costs, as much as possible, while replacing them with labor classes that are easier to adjust, such as part-time workers and temporary workers.

(Yasuo Kuwahara, Professor Emeritus, Dokkyo University / 2007)

Source : "Chiezo" published by Asahi Shimbun Publications Co., Ltd. About Chiezo

Japanese:

企業が従業員の入社から定年までの長期間について雇用する制度。長期(勤続)雇用慣行という表現の方が妥当。終身雇用は使用者と従業員間の暗黙の了解と、それを維持したいという期待の上に成立している慣行といえる。この意味の長期・安定雇用は日本に限った制度ではない。西欧先進諸国にも見いだされ、内部労働市場の基本的編成原理であるともいえる。第一次石油危機以降、とりわけバブル崩壊後、長期雇用の基盤はかなり侵食され変容しているが、この制度自体が消滅、崩壊するわけではない。企業が賃金コストの高い基幹労働者層の部分をできる限りスリム化する一方で、パートタイム労働者や派遣労働者などの調整が容易な労働者層で入れ替え、賃金コスト引き下げと柔軟な雇用体系を目指す方向が、今日の特徴といえる。

(桑原靖夫獨協大学名誉教授／ 2007年)

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