Temporary workers, women and labour policy-making in Japan.

This case study of the making of the Revised Temporary Worker Law (1999) seeks to update our understanding of the labour policy-making process. The analysis indicates that government officials continue to play an effective role in guiding new labour legislation to enactment, but that the policy-making process is better suited to deregulation (liberalization) of employment practices than to reform of fundamental problems, such as the low status of non-regular and women workers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]