| What are the characteristics of Japan's social protection system and how has it changed? The dissertation claims that the postwar model of Japan's social protection system can be characterized as "welfare through work" in which the employment maintenance system functionally substituted for income maintenance programs. Over the last decade, this system of "welfare through work" has come under tremendous stress due to economic stagnation, a rapidly aging population, intensified price competition, and the declining job creation capacity of the manufacturing sector.;My dissertation reveals that Japan's social protection system has changed in the direction of a "lean work" system over the last decade. On the one hand, job security for insiders (i.e., male regular workers) has been preserved. Japan did not experience changes in the realms of employers' commitment to lifetime employment, dismissal rules, unemployment insurance, and policies promoting active employment maintenance. The policy of the activation of elderly workers was even reinforced. On the other hand, the quality of jobs for insiders deteriorated. Wages were reduced through changes in firm-level wage determination systems as well as national-level working hour rules. Thus, a system that was once known as "lean welfare but rich employment" became lean on the employment front as well.;At the same time, Japan underwent labor market reforms that introduced partial flexibility in the temporary labor market and strengthened workers' rights for outsiders (i.e., part-timers, temps, contract workers). Thus, the gap between insiders and outsiders has been narrowed to some extent as the privileges of insiders were reduced and protective measures for outsiders were introduced.;The transformation of Japanese labor markets over the past decade poses a puzzle for some of the leading theories of comparative politics and political economy. The insider-outsider theory fails to explain the wage deterioration of insiders or improved protection for outsiders. The conventional view that Japan never changes fails to acknowledge important changes in labor markets. My explanation, emphasizing preference formation, political institutions, and negotiation processes, offers a better approach to solving the puzzle. |
