Lifetime Employment in Japan: Concepts and Measurements

Hiroshi Ono ()

No 624, SSE/EFI Working Paper Series in Economics and Finance from Stockholm School of Economics

Abstract: This paper poses three fundamental questions about lifetime employment in Japan: How big is it? How unique is it? And, how is it changing? I examine different concepts and methods for estimating lifetime employment and conclude that it covers roughly 20 percent of the Japanese labor force. Job mobility remains considerably lower in Japan than in other economies (particularly the U.S.). Evidence regarding changes in lifetime employment is mixed. The share of workers in the core, an ex-ante measure of lifetime employment, is declining. But the probability of job separations has remained stable for those who are already in the system. I also find evidence that the incentives among workers, managers and executives are aligned to preserve the lifetime employment system.

Keywords: Lifetime employment; job mobility (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: J24 J42 J62 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 59 pages
Date: 2006-03-28, Revised 2007-04-06
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-lab and nep-sea
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (18)

Published in Journal of the Japanese and International Economies, 2010, pages 1-27.

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Journal Article: Lifetime employment in Japan: Concepts and measurements (2010)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:hhs:hastef:0624

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