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Purpose: The paper aims to provide an understanding of how the transfer of progressive human resource management (HRM) practices may or may fail to render multinational enterprises (MNEs) institutional entrepreneurs creating change in job quality and decent work to underprivileged workers in the low-pay retail sector in Japan. Design/methodology/approach: The paper draws on survey questionnaire data and interviews with workers and management in a foreign retailer in Japan. Findings: The findings suggest that even where MNEs may provide some measurable material improvements in job quality, in this case equal pay for equal work, the total outcomes are nevertheless shaped by institutional context and constraints. In this case, the improvement in pay was intertwined with flexibility demands that were possible to meet for some workers but not others. In particular, women with care responsibilities and competing demands on their time were not able to experience "decent work" in the same way as others. Research limitations/implications: The study had a relatively low response rate, due to lack of discretion over time experienced by workers in Japan, as well as limited data on program outcomes, with interviews conducted with a small number of participants. Practical implications: The study suggests that spaces and opportunities exist for MNEs to diverge from dominant practices in given host country locations and exercise a level of agency as emissaries of decent work but successful outcomes require a very thorough understanding of individual worker experiences within the institutional constraints of given environments. Social implications: The study offers insights into the complexities of initiatives by MNEs to contribute to the provision of decent work, particularly for workers in underprivileged positions including women in low-pay sectors such as retail, as firm-level practices lead to variable outcomes when filtered through local institutions. Originality/value: The study brings together a focus on firm-level practices that inform much of the international HRM and international management scholarship with an emphasis on the experiences of workers, which is pursued in the sociology of work, to investigate whether MNEs can be actors in the realising of the Sustainable Development Goals around decent work. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The work style reforms and the coronavirus disease pandemic in Japan have prompted efforts toward teleworking, mainly work from home (WFH). This study aimed to prospectively evaluate the impact of WFH on job stress among Japanese workers. This online survey-based prospective cohort study was conducted from December 2020 (baseline) to December 2021 (1-year follow-up) using self-administered questionnaires. At baseline, 27,036 participants completed the questionnaires, whereas 18,560 (68.7%) participated in the 1-year follow-up. After excluding the 11,604 participants who left or changed workplaces within 1 year or who were physical laborers and hospitality workers, data from 6,956 participants were analyzed. We asked participants about WFH frequency at baseline and conducted a follow-up using the Brief Job Stress Questionnaire (BJSQ). Participants were divided into four groups according to WFH frequency. The odds ratios of poor states of the association of the four subscales (job demand, job control, supervisor support, and coworker support) determined by the BJSQ with WFH frequency were estimated using a multilevel logistic model. In both the gender–age adjusted and multivariate models, compared to the non-WFH group, the medium and low WFH groups were less likely to have poor job control, whereas the high WFH group were likely to have similar levels as the non-WFH group. In both models, compared to non-WFH participants, the high WFH group were more likely to have poor supervisor and coworker support. High-frequency WFH requires further attention, because it may increase job stress by exacerbating deficits of social support in the workplace. Medium- and low-frequency WFH workers were more likely to have satisfactory job control; therefore, limiting WFH to three or fewer days per week may lead to better job stress management. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cultural diversity has gained increased validation as a source of greater performance in the context of globalization. This paper examines whether there is an optimum number of foreign coworkers in order to maximize the perceived benefits and minimize the perceived threats of cultural diversity at work. Using a questionnaire survey of 572 Japanese, we found that for perceived benefits of cultural diversity at work, there is no difference between having zero or a token foreign coworker, while more foreign coworkers are associated with moderately higher perceived benefits. For perceived threats, there is a U-shaped relationship whereby interacting with zero or more than three foreign coworkers is linked to higher perceived threats compared to that of only a few foreign coworkers. Our findings reveal that in the Japanese context, interacting with about three foreign coworkers can maximize the perceived benefits while minimizing the perceived threats of cultural diversity in the workplace. Considering diversity in absolute rather than relative terms is an important contribution and implication for business and policy, as Japan and Japanese firms are increasingly dependent on globalization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In our popular image the Japanese have been grouped into the countries where work is of immense importance, while leisure hardly exists. This essay investigates the national and international discourses about work and leisure in popular writings, academic works and politics, which gained importance both within and outside of Japan. In pre-industrial time, from about 1700 onwards, an ›industrious revolution‹ is postulated to have taken place, but Western travelers to Japan in the late 19th century reported about paradise-like conditions with no work and only leisure. The Japanese government tried to install a spirit of diligence into their population to meet the demands of modern factory work. Schools, factories and the military were very successful in re-educating people into hardworking citizens. After the economic success from 1960 onwards, the metaphor ›working like a Japanese‹ expressed the uneasiness and fears of Western societies in the wake of Japan's economic boom, especially when news about thousands of victims from overwork in Japan became known. In the postindustrial age, the traditional work-centered discourses were replaced by discourses about popular culture in Japan. The phrase ›Cool Japan‹ stands for a country which proves to be attractive to many younger people all over the world because of its culture of play. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The rapid expansion of nonstandard work has altered the nature of women's employment, but previous research on married women's employment trajectories in Japan has paid little attention to the role of nonstandard work. To fill this gap, we examine how patterns of employment in regular and nonstandard positions vary by married women's socioeconomic status using nationally representative longitudinal data. Results from discrete-time competing risks models of labor force transitions indicate that university graduates have the most stable labor force attachment in that they are the least likely to move from standard to nonstandard employment and to exit nonstandard jobs. In contrast, married women with a high school degree or less are more likely to reenter the labor force to take low-quality nonstandard jobs. These results are consistent with a scenario characterized by both continuity and change. Older patterns of labor force exit and reentry, combined with the rise in nonstandard employment, are most relevant for less educated women while the emergence of more career employment opportunities is most relevant for highly educated women. Considering the role of women's income in shaping patterns of inequality, these findings have important implications for stratification in Japan. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines the causes and consequences of the dramatic growth of precarious employment in Japan since the 1990s. In response to heightened competition associated with globalization, Japanese firms adopted cost-cutting policies to remain competitive, especially in terms of reducing wage outlays. As a result, companies hired fewer regular workers and increased the proportion of temporary workers. Based upon the breadwinner model, Japan mandated social insurance benefits only for regular workers, creating a significant incentive to hire more temporary workers. The lack of economic security among a significant portion of the labor force has repercussions for many young people, who are now marginalized as nonregular workers and are delaying or avoiding marriage and family formation. This trend is exacerbating the low fertility rate and also means that government social policies relying on a supportive family are at odds with emerging social realities. With low wages and limited social support, the working poor are becoming entrenched in poverty. Furthermore, a gender bias in social spending and taxation is pronounced in Japan, and that adversely affects women workers, especially single mothers. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This study examines what contribution emotions make to the professional lives of experienced EFL teachers. Interviews with EFL teachers working in Tokyo universities revealed that the teachers had very positive feelings of emotional warmth regarding students, which they expressed through their identity as carers and moral guides. On the other hand, the teachers expressed their relationships with colleagues and institutions in much more negative emotional terms. Two implications for teacher development are suggested: the need for teachers to talk collaboratively about the emotional impact of teaching, and the need to discuss what the moral purpose of EFL teaching is. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Japan is the world''s fastest “graying society.” Numerous experts advocate expanding the non-Japanese workforce to prevent a debilitating labor shortage. To promote positive intercultural relations between Japanese and incoming non-Japanese workers, it is prudent to examine which factors have contributed to creating a smooth acculturation process so far for both groups vs. those which have not. This research aimed to do so by assessing how the acculturation strategy compatibility between Japanese and American coworkers affected their quality of intercultural relations (N =194). Bourhis and colleagues’ Interactive Acculturation Model (“IAM”) was used to predict which acculturation strategy combinations were most likely to produce positive intercultural relationships. With the independent variable of acculturation strategy alignment (i.e., Consensual, Problematic, and Conflictual acculturation strategy combinations, or “IAM types”), five dependent measures of quality of intergroup relations were employed. Statistical analyses revealed that Conflictual IAM types often scored lower on the dependent measures than Consensual or Problematic IAM types—as predicted by the IAM. However, Consensual IAM types did not score significantly higher than Problematic ones on any of the dependent variables, which contradicted one of the IAM''s fundamental premises. Problematic IAM types’ constructive use of stress, as well as their deeper acculturation to their cultural outgroup, likely resulted in them posting comparable scores to Consensual types. Consequently, Consensual and Problematic types were expanded to four subtypes to better explain these findings. Finally, recommendations were made for modifying acculturation expectations among Japanese and Americans to better integrate both groups into their work organizations. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

The article compares German and Japanese companies' procedures in recruiting college graduates for employment. Facets treated include communications such as job advertisements, job applications, and employment interviews, and the ways they are shaped by national culture and communication styles. Changes in social values, communication technology, and economies seem to promise changes in recruiting practices particularly in Japan.

This paper demonstrates how the self-oriented method of job decision making by university graduates became common in prewar Japan. In the Meiji and Taisho eras, informal connections and school exam scores of prospective employees were considered very important by employers. Most studies have overlooked the implication of this phenomenon because they were conducted from the value perspectives of the present society. This paper explains the phenomenon from the standpoint of interpretative sociology and points out that the new self-oriented phenomenon followed it. The discussion is developed as follows. First, from the sociological perspective, the author defines the freedom to choose an occupation in modern Japan as the opportunity to make a career choice. This notion did not exist in the situation surrounding employment in merchant enterprises in the Edo era. Second, the author points out that while employing candidates, companies in the Meiji and Taisho eras depended on informal connections and scores in school examinations; this was considered normal practice. Finally, this paper illustrates the process by which such a trust came to be regarded as abnormal and job interviews focusing on a candidate's personality started being considered normal. This process implies that the distinction between self and others (or between an individual and institutions) was related to the moral distinction between normal and abnormal. The emergence of job interviews suggests the legitimacy of self-oriented method of job decision making. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent years have seen a rapid increase in accountability pressures on particularly large global companies. The increased call for transparency comes from two different angles, which show some (potential) convergence in terms of topics and audiences: accountability requirements in the context of corporate governance, which expand to staff-related, ethical aspects; and sustainability reporting that has broadened from environment only to social and financial issues. This article examines to what extent and how current sustainability reporting of Fortune Global 250 companies incorporates corporate governance aspects. Many multinationals, particularly in Europe and Japan, have started to pay attention to board supervision and structuring of sustainability responsibilities, to compliance, ethics and external verification. While detailed disclosures are not yet common, some notable practices can be found. Underlying dilemmas and complexities for managers in dealing with accountability to shareholders and stakeholders, and the role of auditors, are indicated. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 1989, the Japanese carmaker Toyota established in Burnaston (UK) their first European transplant. Expected to become one of the most efficient auto factories in Europe and to be as successful as the American transplants set up by the company during the 1980s, Toyota Motor Manufacturing UK (TMUK) has failed to fulfil these expectations, cumulating in 10 years of production losses of more than £600 million and since 1999 falling into a serious crisis, which has put into question the internal compromise between the actors of the firm. The article traces back the trajectory of TMUK from its foundation up to the present crisis. It shows how the crisis emerged progressively from the initial short- comings of the hybridized employment relationship of the transplant, and how it deepened under the difficult economic conditions faced by the company on the European market. The article also introduces an alternative theoretical approach based on the notion of the `productive model' developed by the GERPISA international research network, which aims to deconstruct the functionalist idea of a unique and superior Japanese model transferable everywhere and by everybody, and to re-establish the Japanese transplants as full historical objects and as social and political organizations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract This paper joins central concerns in the sociology of work and the sociology of aging. Age differences in work commitment and work values are examined, as well as their work and nonwork determinants, using data from 4,567 American and 3,735 Japanese employees. Our results show that older men are more committed to work than younger men in both Japan and the United States. This pattern also holds for American women, but there are no age differences in work commitment among Japanese women. Moreover, there are greater age differences among the Japanese in the importance placed on good pay. This is consistent with the view that there has been greater cultural change in recent years in Japan than in the United States. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the White Book of the Japan Productivity Center (JPC) for 1972, which offers a conception of society based on the twin ideas of welfare and cooperation. The latter concept broadly includes citizen participation in political matters, worker participation in the enterprise, and the stronger participation of Japan at the international level. "Mitbestimmung" ("worker participation") realities in the West and in Japan are summarized and compared.

Invited for the cover of this issue is Hisahiro Sasabe, Junji Kido, and co‐workers at Yamagata University in Japan. The image depicts that highly efficient and stable deep red illumination significantly facilitates plant growth. Read the full text of the article at 10.1002/chem.201805907. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]