Work-life Balance in Japan from the Gender Perspective: A Critical Assessment Nobuko Hara Faculty of Economics, Hosei University, Tokyo nhara@hosei.ac.jp

Introduction（１） ■Some background Deregulation of labour market Declining birthrate in Japan ■Work –life balance policy in Japan based on neo-classical economics ■Feminist economist’s struggle to interface between the family and the labour market

Introduction(2) The paper proceeds as follows: Section Ⅱ：Some basic information on background of work-life balance policy in Japan Section Ⅲ: The logic of the work-life balance in Japan Section Ⅳ：Conclusion

Section Ⅱ：Some background a) Deregulation of labour market Rapid globalization/ long-recession after the collapse of the Japanese bubble economy since the late of 1980s has led to a surprising increase in the number of workers in non-regular employment. Rate of non-regular worker: male female 8.7% 20.6% 15.0% 49.3% 2010.5 18.2% 53.3%

Japanese Management in the New Era by Nikkeiren (1995) ■Nikkeiren: The Japanese Federation of Employer’s Organization ■The report mentioned the destruction of Japanese employment practice and proposed ‘The employment portfolio’ as follows: Long term regular worker who expand their capabilities Fixed-term contract workers or dispatch workers with highly professional abilities Flexible contract employees: casual, part-time, and temporary workers

b)Declining birthrate ■1.57shock: the trend of declining birthrate draws attention (1989) ■Transition in the total fertility rate 1971~74 2.14 1. 8 1.57 1.26 2009 1.32

Measures against declining birthrate ■ Angel Plan(1994, 1999) ■ Next Generation Nurturing Support Measures Promotion Act(2003) ■ Raising Children/Child Assistance Plan(2004) ■ New Countermeasure Against the Declining Birthrate(2006) ■Work-Life Balance Charter(2007.12) *It’s provisional name: Principles to Change Japan, to Change Working styles(2007.7)

Section Ⅲ: The logic of work-life balance policy in Japan Work-life balance policy in terms of deregulation of labour market(Two interpretations) Work-life balance policy as the measure against declining birthrate

a) Work-life balance policy in terms of deregulation of labour market a)-1) The diversity of working style (regular worker or non-regular worker) by free choice of self- sufficient individuals According to this view(Yashiro 2009) - Japanese employment practice as obstacle to barrier against the diversity of work - Because of the strong protection of status of regular worker - Japanese employment practice and labour law should be weakened

a)Work-life balance policy in terms of deregulation of labour market a)-2) Work-life balance as a measure of dissolution of the statistical discrimination According to this view(Yamaguchi 2009), -Strong statistical discrimination in is caused by irrational behaviors of firms. -The cause of the statistical discrimination is mainly Japanese employment practices. - Japanese labour management should be based on the result-oriented pay system as in the American model.

b) work-life balance policy as the measure against declining birthrate ■Logic: Preference Theory(Hakim 2000) and feminist neoclassical economics(Gustaffson 1997) ■The ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare in Japan is based on the preferece theory and feminist neoclassical economics and so for focused on the women’s work/life preference. ■Who has the right of choice on their own preference?

Single mothers’ choice? Enlarge this image

Single mothers who work hard! Enlarge this image

Section Ⅳ: Conclusion Towards a work-family balance policy based on the ‘family-friendly economics’ I think that the methodological individualism of neo classical economics bypassed real-world problem which women face.

From work-first policy to family-first policy Work-family balance is highly gender issue in which the meaning of care, i.e. unpaid work in the household is critical in the social reproduction. It is important for the genuine reconciliation between work and family-life to understand the source of preference and the particular constraints which women face, i.e. ‘gendered concept of rationality’.

From dichotomy of time to trichotomy of time 2) I also hold with emphasis that the genuine way of reconciliation between work and family life is not the work-life balance policy but the work-family policy. ■Work-life policy: time is divided between work and life(leisure) Dichotomy of time ■work-family policy: time is divided into work, care, and life Trichotomy of time