Abstract
Lifelong employment in Japan is more trope than literal fact. As a synecdoche, it encapsulates Japan's system of industrial relations. As a metonym, it epitomises the employee-oriented communitarian firm (Abe and Shimizutani, 2007, p.347). As a metaphor, it represents Japan's distinctive form of stakeholder capitalism (Dore, 1993). Yet none of these tropes holds as a truth. Lifelong employment does not signify the dominant form of employment in Japan. It does not privilege employees' interests over business concerns. And it does not constitute a benign, kinder form of capitalism compared with the market-based model.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Title of host publication | Corporate Governance in the 21st Century: Japan's Gradual Transformation |
| Editors | Luke Nottage, Leon Wolff, Kent Anderson |
| Publisher | Edward Elgar Publishing |
| Pages | 53-80 |
| Number of pages | 28 |
| ISBN (Print) | 9781847209238 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - 2008 |
| Externally published | Yes |