Gender and part-time work in Japan

Abstract

Part-time work in Japan, as in other countries, is increasing as a form of paid work. There are, however, significant differences developing out of Japan's gender contract. Employers have created a gendered employment strategy which has been supported by governments, through social welfare policies and legislation, and the mainstream enterprise union movement which has supported categorisations of part-time workers as “auxilliary” despite their importance at the workplace. An analysis of one national supermarket chain indicates that part-time work as it is constructed in Japan does not challenge the gendered division of labour but seeks to lock women into the secondary labour market. Yes Yes

Full text

Gender and Part-Time Work in Japan
Kaye Broadbent
Griffith University
Abstract
Part-time work in Japan, as in other countries, is increasing as a form of paid work.
There are however significant differences developing out of Japan’s gender
contract. Employers have created a gendered employment strategy which has been
supported by governments, through social welfare policies and legislation, and the
mainstream enterprise union movement which has supported categorisations of
part-time workers as ‘auxilliary’ despite their importance at the workplace. An
analysis of one national supermarket chain indicates that part-time work as it is
constructed in Japan does not challenge the gendered division of labour but seeks
to lock women into the secondary labour market.
Part-time work is increasing in
significance as a form of paid work in
Japan. This affects women particularly,
who according to official statistics
represent 72 per cent of the part-time
workforce. Historically part-time work in
Japan has been a paid work option utilising
the labour of women. While this is still the
case, the continuing recession has
contributed to the growth in the number of
male short-time workers.1
In Japan part-time work is constructed as
an inferior form of employment.
Legislation introduced to protect part-time
workers does not cover all part-time
workers and the mainstream enterprise
union movement is unwilling and unable to
address discriminatory employment
conditions. Dressed up in the guise of
‘choice’ (after all it allows women the
opportunity to combine domestic work and
paid work!), part-time work is a
compromise between governments and
employers to utilise women’s labour
without disturbing the gender division of
labour. Surveys indicate some women
would prefer to work shorter hours than
they do as part-time workers, but I argue
that part-time work in Japan as it is
presently constructed does not provide
women with this choice.
Part-time work is a marginalised form of
employment for women in terms of wages,
conditions and benefits compared to male
short-time workers. My research, and that
of others, indicates male short-time
workers are receiving higher wages and
superior employment conditions compared
to part-time workers (Osawa 1995;
Broadbent 2002) suggesting the
development of a gender hierarchy within
the non-full-time work force replicating
the gendered hierarchy which exists in
‘lifetime’ employment. The ‘breadwinner’
norm within Japan’s gender contract
means working part-time does not allow a
woman to independently support herself
and/or dependents. Part-time work as it is
presently exists and is constructed in Japan
does not challenge or disrupt the existing
division of labour by sex, a situation with
significant implications for all workers.
To explore why women are
overrepresented in part-time work in Japan
I conducted intensive analysis in one of
Japan’s national supermarket chains,
Daiichi.2 Research at Daiichi indicates
part-time work in Japan differs from part-
time work in other countries in the detail
(see Fagan, O’Reilly & Rubery 2000) but
the overall outcome resembles that found
in other countries. The overall impact of
part-time work in Japan is that it reinforces
gender divisions.

Kaye Broadbent
The constant retrenchment and
reorganisation within the labour market
dispels any residual belief in Japan’s
employment practices being for life, which
privileged male full-time workers’ patterns
of paid work, particularly continuity of
employment.
Part-time Workers in Japan
The Japanese equivalent of the term part-
time refers to work performed only by
women. In 2000, non full-time workers
comprise 20 per cent of Japan’s non-
agricultural paid workforce working less
than 35 hours per week. (Rodosho
2001:36) Sixty-seven per cent are
concentrated in tertiary sector industries
such as retail and wholesale, finance and
health. (Rodosho 1997:18) Retail employs
44 per cent of part-time workers, with
supermarkets employing the largest
percentage of this with almost 28 percent.
(Rodosho 1997:55) Of the female part-
time workforce in 1995 over three-quarters
were married (Rodosho 1997:55) and in
1990 55 per cent had children of school
age. (Rodosho 1991:94) The largest
proportion, 38 per cent, of female part-time
workers are between the ages of 40 and 49
years. (Rodosho 1997:16)
In 1995 statistics indicate males comprised
approximately 26 per cent of the part-time
workforce. The majority of male short time
workers fall between the ages of 20-24
years and post-retirement (60-64 years).
Rodosho 1997:16) Male short-time
workers have various labels, but are never
referred to as part-time. Male short-time
workers, particularly post-retirement short-
time workers, often work longer hours and
are paid at higher rates with access to a
range of benefits compared to part-time
workers. (Osawa 1995)
Based on representations of work in early
English language studies3, researchers
would be forgiven for thinking all workers
were continuously employed with one
employer until retirement thus receiving
the benefits of ‘lifetime’ employment.4
Understandings of ‘lifetime’ employment
have shifted post-1991 with the collapse of
Japan’s ‘bubble’ economy. The continuing
recession has meant ‘lifetime’ employment
exists for a shrinking number of male
workers. (Nitta 1998: 279; Kyotani 1999:
183)
The definition and construction of ‘work’
as paid, regular and until retirement is of
course incongruent with the experiences of
an increasing majority of the workforce.
Sensitivity to gender in analysing
‘lifetime’ employment has meant that
recent studies on the employment
conditions and work experiences of
women in paid and unpaid work are
challenging and broadening the perception
of employment in Japan.5
In Japan the representation and
construction of women as wives and
mothers restricts the employment
opportunities of all women irrespective of
age, class or stage in the lifecycle.
Constituting women as an homogenous
and unitary category is problematic as it
does not recognise diversity in material
conditions or life experiences.
Part-time workers, when compared with
full-time workers, are employed on
contracts with no employment security (let
alone until retirement), are paid lower
wages with limited career paths, and
receive few or no benefits including annual
payments or social welfare benefits and are
excluded from union membership.6 These
employment conditions are justified by
employers and supported, or at least not
opposed, by enterprise unions based on
assumptions that the majority of women
are married and thus are not self
supporting. Women are regarded by
employers as secondary or marginal
workers who do not require training
because they will marry and leave, or if
they are married, they are not the main
income earner.

Kaye Broadbent
The Feminisation of Part-time Work
How can an examination of the
overrepresentation of women in part-time
work in Japan be approached? The
composition of the ‘peripheral’7 workforce,
including part-time workers, has been
explained through labour market analyses.
Barron and Norris (1976) argue that
women are primarily located in the
secondary labour market based on
employer assumptions that women are
good secondary workers because they are
“dispensable . . . [and have] little interest
in receiving training . . . and lack
solidarity”. (Barron and Norris 1976:53)
Breugel (1979) argues women function as
a form of industrial reserve army of labour
because they are cheap and, not being the
‘main income earner’, are easily
disposable.
Flexibility theorists such as John Atkinson
(1984) suggest that women, as ‘peripheral’
workers, provide employers with
flexibility in controlling the size and cost
of the workforce. The focus of these
discussions relies on the labour market as
the sole determinant of the form of paid
work performed. The significance of the
labour market in determining forms of paid
work is undeniable, but to explore the
work lives of part-time workers in Japan it
is necessary to examine the gendered
division of labour in the household.
Hakim argues part-time work is taken up
voluntarily by women who are giving
priority to a non-market activity. (1997:31)
and not because childcare responsibilities
force them to make this choice. In Japan it
is not just childcare responsibility or lack
of childcare facilities which influences
part-time workers in their ‘choice’ of paid
work, and the choice is by no means
voluntary. Part-time workers in Japan, due
to age restrictions, have little choice but to
work part-time.
Beechey and Perkins (1987) in researching
part-time work in Britain identify the
assumption that employers and union
officials hold about gender and that their
attitudes and actions contribute to the
naturalisation and institutionalisation of a
gendered division of labour. Similarly,
Cockburn (1983) argued that male
workers’ greater participation than female
workers in union-employer negotia tions
allows male workers to maintain a
privileged position with higher status as
workers and higher wages than women
workers. Certainly male workers, their
unions and their resulting bargaining
power are important as a means of
restricting the jobs and conditions which
women workers can receive. In the case of
Japan, it is necessary to examine the scope
of issues on which unions are able to
bargain.
Part-time work in Japan needs to be
examined in relation to the gender contract
which is defined as:
the sociocultural consensus on sexual
relations in the dominant societal model of
the family, . . . also entails a model for the
integration of women and men into society.
(Pfau-Effinger 1993:389)
Osawa describes Japan as a ‘corporate-
centred society’ organised and structured
around large private companies. The role
of women in the corporate-centred society
is to maintain the family “while men work
heart and soul for the company, women
must do the same to ensure men can
continue to do so”. (Osawa 1995: 249)
Osawa’s (1995) argues governments
desires of strengthening the family means
that women bear the burden of welfare
provision. A tension exists between
governments that want women as carers of
children and aged relatives in the wake of
further cuts in social welfare, and
employers who want women as cheap
labour. Part-time work has been created as
a way of resolving this tension.
In Japan’s gender contract a woman’s role
is indispensable to complement male full-
time workers who form the backbone of
Japan’s corporate society.

Kaye Broadbent
Daiichi
Daiichi is one of Japan’s largest
supermarket chains. It has 365 stores
throughout Japan, with branches overseas.
The Daiichi group comprises department,
specialist and convenience stores, and
services such as restaurants, hotel and
leisure facilities as well as financial
institutions and real estate development.
Daiichi supermarkets also sell a range of
goods including grocery and electrical
products developed in collaboration with
major manufacturers retailing under its
own private brand label. (Kunitomo
1997:91; Daiichi 1993)
Daiichi is representative of large
supermarket chains nationwide in their
employment practices in both the
proportion of women workers in its full-
time work force and in its part-time work
force. Women comprise thirty-four percent
of Daiichi’s full-time work force. Despite
government surveys suggesting twenty-six
percent of part-time workers are male, at
Daiichi women comprise 100 percent of
the part-time work force. Daiichi’s part-
time workers occupy an ‘elite’ position in
the supermarket industry in terms of
employment conditions. Given the paucity
of research on part-time workers, Daiichi
however, is suitable for study because it
employs a high proportion of part-time
workers, particularly women part-time
workers. The hours of part-time workers
and other part-time workers at Daiichi
approximate the working hours of full-time
workers without receiving the equivalent
employment conditions and security,
benefits and status full-time workers
receive.
Differences between large and small
companies in Japan include the hourly
wage rate and conditions as well as the
presence of an enterprise union. The
presence of an enterprise union at Daiichi
was important because it allowed me to
explore the relationship between enterprise
unions and peripheral workers. Enterprise
unions in most companies are restricted to
full-time workers but at Daiichi8 part-time
workers are included.
Methodology
Working in one of Daiichi’s Tokyo stores,
I gained a ‘behind the scenes’ shopfloor
perspective of a Japanese supermarket and
some understanding of the range of daily
work routines and relationships between
workers. I also benefited from the
opportunity to interact with part-time
workers on a regular basis in a ‘work’
context. With very little published in
English on Japanese supermarkets, my
experience at Daiichi, together with survey
and interview data I collected contributes
to an understanding of the work lives of
the many women who work in Japanese
supermarkets. I gained an insight into the
impact of Japanese management practices
on those whose labour well serves Daiichi
and the Japanese economy generally.
“With What I Know I Should be a
Manager . . . ”
In 1992 Daiichi reorganised its part-time
work force, moving from 2 categories of
part-time worker to one. At Daiichi part-
time workers work a similar number of
hours and in similar jobs to full-time
workers but without equivalent financial
and non-financial benefits. This prompted
Otsu-san who had worked with Daiichi for
16 years (retired in 1994), to comment that
“With what I know I should be a
manager!”.
Part-time work in Japan is not a transitory
paid work option available to
accommodate Japanese women’s life
cycles. Few companies in Japan offer part-
time workers the option of transferring to
full-time work. As a result non-full-time
work is the only paid work option for
women re-entering the work force. At
Daiichi for example the majority of women
part-time workers are in age groups where
childcare is not an important issue.

Kaye Broadbent
Wages
The part-time workers interviewed were
aware that despite performing the same
tasks as full-time workers they would
never receive the same employment,
training and promotion opportunities. The
impact of which would be felt on the level
of their wages, annual payments and
benefits. Kawashima-san has worked at
Daiichi’s Hachiban store for 19 years
(2000) and like other part-time workers
has had sole responsibility for a section. In
remarking on her working conditions and
wages she comments:
I do a lot of unpaid overtime [1992],
sometimes three hours a night . . . I work
more overtime than most full-time workers. .
. . I feel badly treated in terms of wages by
comparison with full-time workers.
Dissatisfaction with wages centred on the
incompatibility of wages compared with
content of the job and with the employee’s
length of service compared to full-time
workers. Twenty-five percent of part-time
workers surveyed responded that
irrespective of their length of service, their
wages would only increase slightly. Unlike
full-time workers, part-time workers are
not eligible to receive seniority-based
wages. Wages for part-time workers were
calculated individually based on skills
gained within the company such as
checkout operator skills, however the base
rate for all part-time workers was the same.
To give an example of the disparity
Takashima-san has worked in the
household goods section of Daiichi for 25
years, fourteen years as a part-time worker.
In her 1992 winter annual payment she
received slightly less than one month’s
salary. In contrast a 20-year old high
school leaver with two years full-time
experience received 2 months salary.9
Wage rates are also gendered as Osawa
found that despite women part-time
workers working similar hours to male
short-time workers, the earnings of male
workers are higher. (1994:40)
Working Hours
Part-time workers are treated as
‘periphery’, but comprise the core work
force during store trading hours, and
worked regular shifts with minor
variation.10 More than half the part-time
workers I spoke to had been on six-month
contracts for more than ten years, some as
long as 20 years. Daiichi’s construction of
part-time work however, has changed over
this time. In the 1970s, part-time hours at
Daiichi coincided with school hours as
many part-time workers had primary
school-aged children. As their children
started high school the pressure to work
longer hours increased backed up with
threats of dismissal. The hours of many
part-time workers have doubled during
their years at Daiichi, and not necessarily
in response to their own needs. When
Miyake-san started in the stationery
section twenty years ago (2000), her
working hours allowed her to drop off and
pick up her daughter from kindergarten.
Child care is no longer an issue for the
majority of part-time workers interviewed
and surveyed, but the responsibilities of
aged/dependent parent/spouse care is
presenting challenges for their ability to
continue paid work. Ono-san was able to
negotiate finishing her shift one-hour
earlier during the nine months she cared
for her hospitalised husband. She
acknowledges it was not a major
concession but it did allow her to provide a
small amount of care rather than leave the
entirety of his care to the nursing staff.11
In exploring the notion of choice in their
paid work, I asked part-time workers if
they were satisfied with the shift times
they worked, a question which does not
appear in any existing Japanese language
surveys. About half were satisfied with the
span of hours but in interviews many part-
time workers expressed the desire to have
more flexibility in both the number of
hours they worked and the span of days
they worked. As part-time workers in my
study were in the upper age groups (45-

Kaye Broadbent
60), economic imperatives such as
repaying housing loans and financing
children’s education were less important
than the demands of aged care, the state of
their health or spending time with partners.
Job Content
Survey responses indicate that part-time
workers and full-time workers perform
similar tasks. Customer sales is the most
frequently performed task, followed by
operating the cash register however, part-
time workers do not organise staff which
management considers differentiates them
from full-time workers. In 1998 Daiichi
did not have part-time workers in
management positions but one personnel
manager mentioned that this was under
consideration.12 This may not have been
formally introduced but an increasing
number of part-time workers have fulfilled
managerial-type responsibilities regularly
including control over the budget and
ordering of merchandise for a small
section.
Describing these workers as part-time
obscures their productive contribution.
(Walsh 1990:256) By treating these
workers as ‘peripheral’, the company is
utilising part-time workers’ vital skills
without adequate recognition or
recompense. (see Junor et al 1993) The
role of paid worker is but one aspect of the
lives of the women who work part-time. It
is important to consider the domestic role
and the impact of government policy in
naturalising the division of labour that
undergirds and justifies part-time work as a
legitimate form of employment for women
and around which their role as paid worker
must fit.
“When I Get Home I Have to be a
Mother . . .”
A conversation with Okabe-san provided
the title for this section. About six weeks
after beginning fieldwork at Daiichi I
asked Okabe-san about her shift times. She
responded to my question and then added
‘when I get home I have to be a mother . .
.’. Okabe-san’s comments about her other
‘shift’ succinctly describe the impact of
working part-time on women in Japan, and
on the gendered division of labour in the
household. The impact of a woman’s
employment status affects the amount of
time she spends on domestic work but not
her role as primary domestic worker.
Irrespective of their status as either a full-
time housewife, a part-time worker or full-
time worker, women perform more hours
of domestic work than men, 3-4 hours per
week day compared with 12 minutes for
men.(Sorifu 1993:20) Working part-time
does not challenge the division of labour
by sex in the household.
Of the part-time workers I surveyed and
spoke with ninety-four percent were the
primary domestic worker irrespective of
the number of their working hours or the
employment status of their husbands. As
expected there was a slight decrease in
their domestic duties since beginning paid
work, but the sex of the person performing
the housework remains unchanged.
Kurashiki-san, has worked part-time at
Daiichi for 25 years (2000). Her comments
are representative:
I have always done most of the housework
before I left for work. . . . If I thought I
would be home late, I partially prepared
dinner too. . . . On my days off I would do
the other chores. . . . I never expected my
children to do housework but my sons
sometimes brought in the washing.
Economic restrictions prevented
employing paid domestic assistance.
Although technology is available to
shorten the time spent on domestic work
this does not mean that other members of
the family perform household duties.
Technology has entrenched the gendered
division of labour “Because . . . [they]
have been used to privatize work, they
have cumulatively hindered a reallocation
of household labour.” (Wajcman 1991:87)
The State and Part-time Work
Despite the active participation and
commitment of feminists in Japan, the

Kaye Broadbent
state continues to reinforce and legitimise
the gendered division of labour in the
household. As Pringle and Watson argue:
In response to conflict and resistance . . . the
state is flexible in its responses to feminist
demands and is able to reformulate them and
shift the locus of meaning. (1990:231)
The Part-time Workers’ Law (1993)
In Japan the Part-time Workers’ Law
defines part-time work as less than 35
hours per week. The Law brought part-
time workers into existence ‘legally’ for
the first time. The difficulty with the Law
is that it ignores workers defined as part-
time, by their employer, but who work
longer than 35 hours per week.
Kojima traces the Law’s development and
notes that due to opposition from business
groups and employer federations earlier
proposals focusing on improving
employment conditions and welfare
policies for part-time workers, were
replaced by an emphasis on improving the
control and regulation of the part-time
work force. (1993:41) The legislation has
been rendered ineffective in representing
the workers it was designed to cover.
(Kojima 1993; Owaki 1992)
Evidence from Daiichi and elsewhere
suggests the Law’s definition of part-time
workers is not reflected in company
definitions of part-time workers. A study
of a car parts plant indicates part-time
workers worked on the same line doing the
same jobs as full-time workers, but did not
receive equivalent pay and conditions. The
only difference between the part-time and
full-time workers was that part-time
workers worked 15 minutes less per day.
The extra 15 minutes was used as
‘compulsory’ overtime, thus negating any
difference. (Yamada 1997)
Other Legislation
As the Equal Employment Opportunity
Law (EEOL) 1986 enters its second decade
it is clear that the law has encouraged
employer creativity in legally
circumventing its recommendations. As
the Law does not include punitive
measures for contravention, there are few
avenues for action. The pre-EEOL
philosophy of ‘protecting’ women workers
has been replaced with ‘equality’, which
means women must work ‘like a man’ if
they are to receive equal treatment. Legal
regulations prohibiting night work by
women have been lifted so that women are
now expected to work nights equally with
men. (Kyotani 1999:194) These regulatory
changes indicate that rather than improving
conditions of employment for all workers,
a male ‘standard’ has been adopted so that
the conditions of all workers remain
equally poor. Neither the EEOL, the
Childcare Leave Law (1991) and
Dependent Care Leave Law (1996) include
part-time workers in their coverage.
In 1999 the Basic Law on Gender Equality
was introduced to promote the “formation
of a gender-equal society”.
(www.gender.go.jp/index2.html) A new
Bureau for Gender Equality was
established within the Japanese Cabinet.
Both developments offer possibilities for
addressing the gender based discriminatory
nature of employment.
Japan’s welfare system resembles that
identified by Fagan et al in Germany. The
welfare system encompasses a
‘breadwinner’ presumption. This
presumption
reinforces women’s unequal social and
economic position, and its effectiveness is
contingent on female part-time workers
being in stable marriages rather than directly
accommodating part-time workers within
the social protection system on an
independent basis. (Fagan et al 2000: 181)
Tax and pension schemes are predicated on
the notion that women are dependent
financially on a male income earner. This
privileges spouses/families, with women
who remain financially dependent on their
spouse. Tax regulations that have
established a low tax threshold ensure that
a woman is unable to earn an income to
adequately support herself, and/or her

Kaye Broadbent
dependents. This stance reflects the
Japanese government’s version of the
welfare system and the role of women in it
reflects the female equivalent of the
‘company man’. The wife performs the
domestic work, including child and
dependent care, to allow the ‘company
man’ to continue his punishing work
routine. For women, particularly married
women, the job envisioned by
governments, unions and employers is as a
part-time worker with its (assumed) shorter
working hours. According to successive
governments, part-time work articulates
well with the role of women in the
Japanese style of welfare state.
Power in the Union?
Is there a role for unions in addressing
discriminatory employment conditions
faced by part-time workers? Unions and
their policies and practices are pertinent to
this discussion on the construction of part-
time work. Historically unions have acted
to protect the employment conditions of
their predominantly male membership
from the impact of women, a work force
constituted as ‘cheap’. Enterprise unions in
Japan are unable to bargain on issues
related to job definition. In manufacturing
male workers and their unions traded away
the right to bargain on these issues in
return for a greater share of profit. The
mainstream enterprise-based union
movement is not just unwilling but unable
due, to limitations on the scope of
bargaining, to address the discriminatory
employment conditions faced by part-time
workers compared with full-time workers.
Given the growth in part-time jobs and the
rapid increase in the number of part-time
workers over the past fifteen years, the rate
of unionisation for part-time workers has
not risen at the same pace. Estimates
indicate only 4 percent of part-time
workers are unionised. (Rodosho 1996: 81)
Low rates of unionisation for part-time
workers are often explained by union
officials in terms of lack of interest on
behalf of women and part-time workers.
This explanation is paralleled in the early
history of unions when it is argued that
women lacked ‘worker’ consciousness and
so were not interested in unions. (Sievers
1983)
In Australia there is the view that:
part-time workers are not as committed to
workplace issues as full-time workers, are
more likely to be intimidated by employers
and are less likely to be committed to the
goals of trade unionism as well as being
difficult to organise. (Lever-Tracy 1991:76)
This could almost have been written about
what is said of Japanese women, including
part-time workers, despite women factory
workers conducting Japan’s first strike in
1886. (Sievers 1983) Enterprise unions in
Japan are organised within single
enterprises which mitigates against
opportunities for workers to form
organisations or unions with other workers
based on industry or occupation. The
limited bargaining scope set by the
organisational structure of the enterprise
union is compounded by its androcentric
character. The ‘core’ male full-time work
force dominates both official positions and
general membership, with limited if any
access for women and part-time workers to
voice their concerns. Enterprise unions in
Japan in the mid sixties give away
opportunities to bargain on issues of
gender discrimination to protect the
employment conditions of their ‘core’
male work force. In Japan, issues of gender
discrimination are generally resolved by
the aggrieved individual with management
or through the courts.
Are part-time workers conditions improved
by membership in a union? The Daiichi
enterprise union is among a small number
of unions which have attempted to
unionise part-time workers. My survey
data supports the claim that part-time
workers are not interested in the enterprise
union and the union’s activities.
Because I earn so little money I don't like
having some taken out for union dues and

Kaye Broadbent
then being told little (her emphasis) about
the union. I don't like unions.
Their lack of interest stems not from a lack
of awareness about the disparity in
employment conditions, but from genuine
grievances that the enterprise union does
not represent their interests. An attempt
was made by part-time workers in the
Hachiban store to organise their own union
in 1980. This predates the unionisation of
part-time workers by the present Daiichi
union. Some of the part-time workers
involved in the attempt are still with the
store but have not attempted to organise a
union a second time. Their grievances
including few rewards for service and lack
of a career path compared with full-time
workers was resolved (not necessarily to
everyone’s satisfaction) by the store
manager of the time, who was both liked
and respected by many of the part-time
workers. His actions were sufficient to
deter further discussion of union
organisation. A year later the Daiichi
enterprise union began unionising some
part-time workers.
Enterprise unions are seen by part-time
workers as pursuing issues on behalf of
permanent full-time workers. At the
enterprise level the sources of disaffection
cited by part-time workers includes
scheduling meetings at times when part-
time workers can’t attend and ignoring
their concerns. The enterprise union
response of ignoring part-time workers’
concerns is an outcome of the broader
problem of lack of interest in part-time
workers and the restricted bargaining
scope of enterprise unions. At the national
level the lack of interest continues as
Rengo concentrates on tax reform rather
than addressing the issue of discriminatory
employment conditions between full-time
and part-time workers. (Rengo 1997)
Despite their activity on a range of
industrial issues, the union movement in
Japan can be described in the same way
Franzway describes the Australian union
movement as dominated “hierarchically,
culturally and numerically by men.”
(Franzway 1997: 129)
What Can be Said About Part-time
Work in Japan?
Part-time work as it is constructed and
operating in Daiichi is not unique to
Daiichi. ‘Full-time’ and ‘part-time’ in
Japan refer to status and define and
determine employment conditions and
benefits. Part-time workers are denied
opportunities for training, promotion and
consequently access to better employment
conditions and benefits. The policies of
enterprise unions (and other levels of union
organisation) are instrumental in
institutionalising and systematising the
gendered division of labour which assumes
part-time work is ‘women’s work’.
The gendered and ageist construction of
part-time work in Japan has serious
implications for those employed as part-
time workers. Legislation has not been an
avenue of assistance acting instead to
further segregate ‘women’s’ and ‘men’s’
work. By not being represented in
enterprise or national union bodies, the
majority of part-time workers are denied
access to power in negotiating and
decision-making structures within the
company, and the union movement. As a
result, women’s voices and needs are
rarely heard, and are not reflected in
company or government policies.
The prospects for significant change in the
employment conditions of part-time
workers at Daiichi are far from
encouraging. Of part-time workers, only
part-time workers are eligible for
unionisation but as the enterprise union
concentrates on negotiating wage increases
there is little possibility for effecting
change. A possibility I’m currently
researching is alternative organisations
which include community-based and
women-only unions which theoretically
non-unionised part-time workers at Daiichi
can join. The growth in part-time work in

Kaye Broadbent
Japan has serious implications for workers,
particularly women workers. Unlike
countries such as Australia where unions
recognise part-time work as a growing
form of employment and so are actively
working to improve employment
conditions for part-time workers, analysis
of part-time work in Japan indicates
Japanese governments, employers and
unions do not want to disrupt the social
status quo. With Japan’s economy still
affected by recession, indications are that
growth in part-time jobs is continuing,
particularly for middle aged male workers.
The impact of continued growth in the
number of male short-time workers on
both the employment conditions of part-
time work and the gender contract is of
significant interest.
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1 The terms differ depending on the company.
Daiichi used the terms teiji shain which I have
represented as part-time and junshain which I
represent as quasi part-time, when I started in late
1991. By mid 1992 it had only 2 classifications –
teiji shain and arubaito (casual). Empirical
evidence suggests male non full-time workers are
not referred to as part-time workers. To prevent
confusion I refer to male non full-time workers as
short-time workers.
2 Pseudonyms have been used throughout this paper
for both the company name and the names of the
people I spoke with. As is the practice in East Asia,
people are referred to by their surnames.
3 J. Abegglen The Japanese Factory, (Illinois: The
Free Press, 1958); R. Clarke, The Japanese
Company, (New Haven: Yale University Press,
1979); R. Cole, Japanese Blue Collar, (Berkeley:
University of California Press, 1973); R. Dore,
British Factory-Japanese Factory, (Berkeley:
University of California Press, 1973); have been the
most influential.
4 Based on membership rates of the peak union
organisation Rengo, only 18 per cent of the paid
workforce benefits from ‘lifetime’ employment
practices.
5 Some examples include Dorinne Kondo (1990)
Crafting Selves, University of Chicago Press,
Chicago; Alice Lam (1992) Women and Japanese
Management, Routledge, London; Jeannie Lo
(1990) Office Ladies, Factory Workers, M.E.Sharpe
Inc., New York; Glenda Roberts (1994) Staying on
the Line, University of Hawaii Press, Honolulu;
Shiozawa Miyoko and Hiroki Michiko (1988)
Discrimination Against Women Workers in Japan,
Asian Women Workers’ Center, Tokyo.
6 As will be seen later, some categories of part-time
workers at Daiichi are included in the union.
7 I question the use of the terms ‘periphery’ and
‘core’, especially in relation to explaining the role
of part-time workers in Japan. Part-time workers at
Daiichi are numerically greater than full-time
workers but are treated as ‘peripheral’ in terms of
employment conditions.
8 Enterprise unions in other chains also organise
elements of their part-time work force. The
industrial federation, Zensen Domei (Japanese
Federation of Textile, Garment, Chemical,
Distributive and Allied Industry Workers’ Unions),
to which Daiichi is an affiliate, has been
instrumental in encouraging the unionisation of
part-time workers in supermarkets, as has
Shogyororen (Japan Federation of Commercial
Workers’ Unions).
9 In comparison male full-time workers at Daiichi
earned on average six months salary. Mori argues
that new personnel policies in major trading
companies have increased the gender wage gap and
led to a decline in wages for women. (Mori 1997)
10 Revision of the Labour Standards Law (LSL) in
1988 included the introduction of the Henkei Rôdô
Jikan Sei (Flexible Working Hours System) where
working hours can be varied. Under this system
working hours for full-time workers can be
calculated on a weekly, monthly or three monthly
basis.
11 In Japanese hospitals while nursing staff are
available many family members (usually women)
prefer to feed, clean and generally care for patient.
12 A personnel manager at a regional store indicated
in an interview that the company was considering
appointing/promoting part-time workers, essentially
part-time, to managerial positions. According to
some of the part-time workers interviewed this was
the case in all but name only.