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This study investigated the causes of stagnant employee pay in Japanese firms. By analyzing agency theory and Japanese governance structure, we argue that pay levels are affected by profit creation, employee productivity, and employee share. Dysfunctional processes in these areas can result in pay stagnation. Our findings demonstrate that employee productivity and profit creation have equally significant impacts on pay levels, whereas employee share affects pay only with high employee productivity. These results suggest that the main reason for stagnant employee pay in Japan is not a failure of profit sharing but rather a failure to link corporate and employee capabilities to a firm's earning power. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Profit Sharing (PS), a reinforcement learning method that strongly reinforces successful experiences, has been shown to contribute to the improvement of learning speed when combined with a deep Q‐network (DQN). We expect a further improvement in learning speed by integrating PS‐based learning and Ape‐X DQN that has state‐of‐the‐art learning speed instead of the DQN. However, PS‐based learning does not use replay memory. In contrast, the Ape‐X DQN requires the use of replay memory because the exploration of the environment for collecting experiences and network training are performed asynchronously. In this study, we propose Learning‐accelerated Ape‐X, which integrates the Ape‐X DQN and PS‐based learning with some improvements including the use of replay memory. We show through numerical experiments that the proposed method improves the scores in Atari 2600 video games in a shorter time than the Ape‐X DQN. © 2020 Institute of Electrical Engineers of Japan. Published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, the Rationally Oriented Forgettable Profit Sharing method (RFPS) for reinforcement learning is proposed. Although profit sharing (PS) provides good performances in real environments, its learning is often slow in long-term tasks because it is difficult to determine the appropriate discount rate which satisfies the Miyazaki rational theorem. There are several rationality-relaxed PS methods which work well for such tasks. However, these PS methods may result in many irrational loops. The proposed method fulfills rationality by forgetting the reinforced irrational loops. This method can be easily combined with ordinary PS methods and performs well in long-term tasks. Simulation results show that the proposed method can learn more efficiently than conventional PS methods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper we document in a variety of ways the nature, evolution and significance of Japanese profit-sharing plans (PSPs), using our new survey data. We also combine the survey data with corporate proxy statement data and produce firm-level micro-data for nearly 100 Japanese firms with PSPs containing detailed information on the characteristics of their PSPs. The resulting micro-data are then used to estimate the effects on enterprise performance of varying attributes of Japanese PSPs. Key findings include: (1) contrary to a popular notion of near-universal diffusion of PSPs among Japanese firms, about one in four publicly traded firms in Japan uses a PSP; (2) consistent with the free-rider problem of PSPs, PSPs are shown to be more popular among smaller firms, firms without unions, firms with employee participation at the grass roots; (3) over 70 per cent of firms with PSPs reported separate plans for officers and non-officers; (4) Japanese PSPs do not normally distinguish between union and non-union members; (5) Japanese PSPs are mostly company-wide; (6) nearly all Japanese PSPs are cash plans; (7) about a half of Japanese PSPs do not have a set formula for how the contribution should be tied to profits; (8) there is a statistically significant gain in firm performance from using an explicit formula; and (9) including certain targets in the formula appears to improve firm performance the most. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Profit sharing bonuses can be thought of as a buffer to protect a firm's uncertain future cash flow. When positive cash flows are threatened, firms can reduce the cost of doing business by reducing the size of bonuses paid to employees. Such an action increases the likelihood that firms will he able to pay fixed debt obligations without the secondary negative consequences of other cost-saving activities, including laying off personnel. Such profit sharing bonus compensation plans shift risk from debt holders to employees. in an efficient capital marker, this shift will be reflected in a lower cost of debt. Implications of this argument are tested using a sample of Japanese electronics firms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper considers whether Japanese labor market data are consistent with the intertemporal substitution hypothesis. The Japanese labor market data are first tested for broad conformity with the hypothesis using the methodology of Ashenfelter and Card (1982). The results from this analysis are encouraging. Next, the hypothesis is tested using the methodology of Altonji (1982). The results from this analysis are not generally favorable to the hypothesis. Finally, an ad hoc test of whether the bonus should be considered a form of wage payment is nested in the test of the intertemporal substitution hypothesis, with the result that the bonus does not appear to elicit the same labor supply behavior as the base wage. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]