As Japanese companies establish overseas production facilities at an ever more repid pace, it is increasingly important for people in the host countries to understand the preconceptions upon which the Japanese approach to industrial relations is based. This book traces the development of Japanese labour law and shows how labour law has been related to the prevailing social, economic and political circumstances.
As Japanese companies establish overseas production facilities at an ever more repid pace, it is increasingly important for people in the host countries to understand the preconceptions upon which the Japanese approach to industrial relations is based. This book traces the development of Japanese labour law and shows how labour law has been related to the prevailing social, economic and political circumstances.
Many people believe that conflict in the well-disciplined Japanese society is so rare that the Japanese legal system is of minor importance. Frank Upham shows conclusively that this view is mistaken and demonstrates that the law is extensively used, on the one hand, by aggrieved groups to articulate their troubles and mobilize political support and, on the other, by the government to channel and manage conflict after it has arisen. This is the first Western book to take law seriously as an integral part of the dynamics of Japanese business and society, and to show how an informal legal system can work in a complex industrial democracy. Upham does this by focusing on four recent controversies with broad social implications: first, how Japan dealt with the world's worst industrial pollution and eventually became a model for Western environmental reforms; second, how the police and courts have allowed one Japanese outcast group to use carefully orchestrated physical coercion to achieve wide-ranging affirmative action programs; third, how Japanese working women used the courts to force employers to eliminate many forms of discrimination and eventually convinced the government to pass an equal employment opportunity act; and, finally, how the Ministry of International Trade and Industry and various sectors of Japanese industry have used legal doctrine to cope with the dramatic changes in Japan's economy over the last twenty-five years. Readers interested in the interaction of law and society generally; those interested in contemporary Japanese sociology, politics, and anthropology; and American lawyers, businessmen, and government officials who want to understand how law works in Japan will all need this unusual new book.
Monograph on labour relations in Japan - covers effect of cultural factors on employment practices, human relations, trade union rights, collective agreements, labour disputes and dispute settlement, strikes and lockouts, violence, etc. Bibliography pp. 241 to 248, references and statistical tables.
'This book is recommendable not only to students of Japanese political or labour history, but also to those interested in studying comparative industrial relations. It is an excellent example of how a historical account sheds much light on what might easily be swept aside under the umbrella of culture to explain a nation's industrial relations systems.' - Mari Sako, Work, Employment & Society.
Conference report commenting on Japanese legislation. Historical development of law. The problem of the shortage of jurists. Legal apprenticeship, higher education and vocational training of university graduates. Treatment of offenders. Family law. Labour legislation in regard to labour relations. Laws concerning private enterprise. Computation of taxation on income. Conference held in harvard 1961 September 5 to 9.
This is a detailed study of the extent to which an increased influx of foreign workers is a threat to law and order in the context of the data-generating process of police statistics and the media coverage of "crimes" committed by foreigners. It shows that a general mood in which foreign workers are viewed as potential danger to Japanese society "protects" the criminalization of foreign "illegal" migrant workers. The work begins by tracing the upsurge of "illegal" foreign workers in Japan. It builds a social profile of these "illegals" showing that because of fear of expulsion, lack of knowledge of the law and over-dependence on employer and workplace, their ability to avail themselves off the protection of the law is neglible, and they are always at risk of becoming victims to multiple exploitation.
This is a wide-ranging selection of 130 readings in Japanese law. The essays, extracted from previously published books and articles, cover subjects including historical context, the civil law tradition, the legal services industry, dispute resolution, constitutional law, contracts, torts, criminal law, family law, employment law, corporate law, and economic regulation. This unique collection of readings is accompanied by the texts of the Japanese constitution and other basic laws.
