Professor Yashiro will discuss “Labor Market Reform in Abenomics.” PM Abe recently declared that equal pay for equal work should be the rule to narrow the wage gap between regular and non-regular workers. Preventing persistently long working hours has also been a major policy target for encouraging the labor force participation of women and the elderly. However, these reforms would impact the traditional employment practices of long-term job security and seniority-based wages. The increasing number of non-regular employees who are not granted job security are used as a shock absorber for protecting regular employees in recessions. Also, long working hours reflect an implicit division of labor within a family, which is a source of the “bamboo ceiling” affecting highly-educated women.

Professor Yashiro will review the Japanese employment practices which used to work efficiently in the period of rapid economic growth, but have not performed well in the economic stagnation since the early 1990s and with a rapidly aging of the population. Strong policy leadership is required for reform, as both the company managers and labor unions are victims of their impression that the old employment practices worked well. He will summarize the policy agenda on restructuring of Japan’s labor laws which is now under discussion in government committees.