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Shortchanged? Part-timeWorkers in JapanKaye BroadbentPublished online: 04 Aug 2010.

To cite this article: Kaye Broadbent (2001) Shortchanged? Part-time Workers inJapan, Japanese Studies, 21:3, 293-304, DOI: 10.1080/10371390120101470

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Japanese Studies, Vol. 21, No. 3, 2001

Shortchanged? Part-time Workers in Japan

KAYE BROADBENT, School of Industrial Relations, Grif� th University

Irrashaimase! (welcome). This greeting echoes throughout a range of retail establish-ments in Japan, frequently in a woman’s voice. Historically, retail has long providedemployment for women workers, but as many were unpaid labour in family businesses,their presence has not been re� ected accurately in statistics. Supermarkets aresigni� cant as they employ large numbers of women and part-time workers. Japan’slargest supermarket chain, Daiichi (a pseudonym), is representative of large nationalsupermarket chains as its workforce composition re� ects the trends of feminisation andcasualisation.

Part-time work is an employer strategy to create a segregated employment pathwithin existing ‘lifetime’ employment practices. ‘Lifetime’ employment, in privilegingthe paid work patterns of male regular workers, utilises the labour of women who havefew alternative employment options. Segregating women into part-time work, whichdoesn’t have the employment conditions, bene� ts, access to training and promotions ofthe regular ‘core’ male workforce, is essential to sustaining the superior conditions ofthe male workforce. Encouraging married women and retirees into the workforce hasnot ful� lled Japan’s labour needs. During the labour shortage from the late 1980s,overseas workers were ‘encouraged’ to � nd employment in Japan, but as yet demandfor migrant labour in supermarkets is negligible. Government policies in relation tomigrant labour impact on the demand for women’s labour.

The Patotaima no Jittai survey (1997) has two classi� cations for part-time workers:(a) part-time workers and (b) sono ta (others). The survey found that sono ta workersstill worked approximately the same hours as regular workers. In 1995, 76% ofpart-time workers and 95.4% of sono ta worked 35 hours per week. Sixty-seven percentof part-time workers work between � ve and eight hours per day compared to 92.1% ofsono ta working seven hours or more per day.1 The de� nitions and classi� cations ofpart-time work in Japan are not consistent between surveys, government departmentsor across workplaces. What does remain consistent is that patotaima is synonymouswith married women workers in their mid-40s to 50s, who are paid low wages, havepoor employment conditions, few non-� nancial bene� ts and work long hours with noemployment security.2

1 Rodosho, Patotaima no Jittai (Tokyo, 1997), pp. 221, 224.2 Depending on the company, male short-time workers have various labels, shokutaku being the most well

known. Short-time male workers are often classi� ed as sono ta. Sono ta work longer hours, are paid at higherrates and have access to a greater range of bene� ts than part-time workers.

ISSN 1037-1397 print/ISSN 1469-9338 online/01/030293-12 Ó 2001 Japanese Studies Association of AustraliaDOI: 10.1080/10371390120101470

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Daiichi

Daiichi is Japan’s largest retail company and largest supermarket chain. It has 365stores throughout Japan and branches overseas. The Daiichi group comprises depart-ment, specialist and convenience stores, as well as services such as restaurants, hoteland leisure facilities, � nancial institutions and real estate development. Supermarketchains such as Daiichi verge on superstore status because of size, the volume of goodssold and their control over their own manufacturing, wholesale, distribution and retailprocess. The Daiichi supermarkets sell a range of goods including grocery and electricalproducts developed in collaboration with major manufacturers retailing under its ownprivate brand label.3

Daiichi is representative of large supermarket chains nationwide in their employmentpractices in both the proportion of women workers in its regular workforce and in itspart-time workforce. Of Daiichi’s full-time workforce, 34% are women. Despitegovernment surveys suggesting 27% of part-time workers are male, at Daiichi womencomprise 100% of the part-time workforce. Daiichi’s part-time workers occupy an‘elite’ position in the supermarket industry in terms of employment conditions. It is asuitable � eld for study because it employs a high proportion of part-time workers,particularly women part-time workers. As such it allows for an examination of theoverrepresentation of women in part-time work. The teiji shain4 and other part-timeworkers at Daiichi work approximately the same hours as regular workers but they donot receive the equivalent employment conditions, security, bene� ts and status. Wagesand the range of bene� ts received are an obvious difference between large and smallcompanies in Japan. One further difference is the presence of an enterprise union. Thiswas an important factor in� uencing my selection of a large supermarket chain becauseit allowed for the exploration of the impact of enterprise unions in a highly casualisedworkplace. Enterprise unions in most companies are restricted to regular workers butat Daiichi teiji shain are included.5

Methodology

I worked in the Hachiban store (Tokyo) of the Daiichi chain for ten months in 1992and 1993. While there I gained a ‘behind the scenes’ shop� oor perspective of aJapanese supermarket as well as some understanding of the range of daily work routinesand of relationships between workers. I also bene� ted from the opportunity to interactwith part-time workers on a regular basis in a ‘work’ context. Familiarity with myco-workers allowed me insights into their attitudes to the job and some understandingof their personal lives. Since I viewed their workplace experiences at � rst hand, Ideveloped a deeper appreciation of both work in a supermarket and the personal livesof my co-workers. Though my work experience was clearly not the same as that of

3 Kunitomo Ryuichi, Yoku Wakaru Supa Gyokai (Tokyo: Nihon Jitsugyo Shuppansha, 1997), p. 91;Daiichi, For the Women, in-house policy document, 1993.4 Although translating the terminology is problematic, teiji shain can be thought of as the equivalent of

permanent part-time workers in the Australian context.5 Enterprise unions in other chains also organise elements of their part-time workforce. The industrial

federation, Zensen Domei (Japanese Federation of Textile, Garment, Chemical, Distributive and AlliedIndustry Workers’ Unions), to which Daiichi is an af� liate, has been instrumental in encouraging theunionisation of part-time workers in supermarkets, as has Shogyororen (Japan Federation of CommercialWorkers’ Unions).

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Japanese women working part-time in supermarkets, it does offer insights that areimpossible to gain by other means. With very little published in English on Japanesesupermarkets, my experience at Daiichi, together with other data I collected then andsubsequently, contributes to an understanding of the work lives of the many womenwho work in Japanese supermarkets. I gained an insight into the impact of Japanesemanagement practices on those whose labour well serves Daiichi and the Japaneseeconomy in general. Intensive analysis of supermarkets and the workers employed inthis sector allowed for detailed exploration of employment and household issues.

Women in the Japanese Workforce

In Japan ‘lifetime’ employment is characterised by continuous employment with oneemployer until retirement. This is an employment practice restricted to a small ‘core’of male workers employed in large companies and applies to a minority (approximately20%) in the paid workforce. Workers bene� ting from ‘lifetime employment’ receive payand bene� ts which ‘peripheral’ workers do not. Employment conditions for regularworkers are guaranteed by a collective agreement between management and theenterprise union, and membership in the union is compulsory for all regular workersupon employment.

Recent studies sensitive to issues of gender and class have demythologised ‘lifetime’employment practices revealing that the construct excludes almost all women, maleworkers employed in small and medium-sized companies, or part-time, casual, tempo-rary, seasonal and outworkers.6 Nevertheless, in the recession-affected 1990s, ‘restruc-turing’ of the labour market means that sections of the regular male workforce in largecompanies are being excluded from the future of ‘lifetime’ employment practices.

The de� nition and construction of work as paid, regular and continuing untilretirement is incongruent with the experiences of the majority of women. Employersregard women as secondary or marginal workers whose work experiences do notconform to the ‘standard’ male pattern and consequently are valued negatively in termsof both status and conditions. Compared with regular workers, the low wages paid topart-time workers and the poor employment conditions they experience are justi� ed bythe argument that, because the majority of women are married, they are not self-sup-porting.

The proportion of women in the Japanese workforce has not changed dramatically inthe postwar period. There has however been a signi� cant shift in the composition of thefemale workforce. In 1993 married women comprised 57.6% of the female paid workpopulation.7 Women have always been a presence in the part-time workforce, but the

6 See, for example, Norma Chalmers, Industrial Relations in Japan: The Peripheral Workforce (London:Routledge, 1989); Millie Creighton, ‘Marriage, Motherhood and Career Management in a Japanese“Counter Culture”’, in Anne Imamura (Ed.), Re-imaging Japanese Women (Berkeley: University ofCalifornia Press, 1996); Edward Fowler, Sanya Blues: Laboring Life in Contemporary Tokyo (Ithaca: CornellUniversity Press, 1996); Kamata Satoshi, Japan in the Passing Lane (New York: Pantheon Books, 1982);Komai Hiroshi, Migrant Workers in Japan (London: Kegan Paul International, 1995); Dorinne Kondo,Crafting Selves (Chicago: University of Chicago Press,1995); Alice Lam, Women and Japanese Management(London: Routledge, 1992); Jeannie Lo, Of� ce Ladies, Factory Workers (New York: M.E. Sharpe, 1990);(Ministry of Labour, Women’s Bureau), Glenda Roberts, Staying on the Line (Honolulu: University ofHawai’i Press, 1994); Miyoko Shiozawa and Michiko Hiroki, Discrimination Against Women Workers inJapan (Tokyo: Asian Women Workers’ Center, 1988).7 Rodosho, Fujinkyoku Hataraku Josei no Jitsujo (Tokyo, 1996), Appendix 29.

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past decade has seen an explosion in the numbers of women working part-time,particularly in the service sector industries.

Conceptualising the Feminisation of Part-time Work in Japan

How can the issue of overrepresentation of women in part-time work in Japan beapproached? Most of the theories which attempt to explain the composition of the‘periphery’ locate their discussion solely in the context of the availability of labour,arguing that employers need a workforce that can be easily hired or � red, depending onbusiness needs.8 In analysing the ‘periphery’ of the workforce, dual labour markettheorists such as Piore9 have argued that uneven economic development has created asegmented labour market. Internal labour markets are said to exist in many � rms, andare characterised by a set of rules governing the pricing and allocation of labour.Internal labour markets are particularly noticeable where workers are not widelyavailable, and thus are in greater demand. Barron and Norris extend this analysis bylooking at the sexual dimensions of a segmented labour market and argue that womenare primarily located in the secondary labour market because of employers’ assump-tions about women’s roles.10

Edwards, Gordon and Reich argue that the labour market is segmented on the basisof sex, age, race and ethnic origin.11 Segmentation is an economic and politicalnecessity, expedient to the functioning of capitalist institutions because of capital’sdrive to control workers. The employment of some workers on lower wages is also seenas a means of increasing productivity. The limitation of an analysis which focuses onthe labour market exclusively is that it excludes other important in� uences on the formof employment, such as the worker’s domestic sphere and relations within the house-hold.

Flexibility theorists such as Atkinson argue that as � rms in industrialised economiesface increasing competition from industrialising economies, employers need greater� exibility in the workforce.12 Atkinson argues that � rms are relying on a small multi-skilled ‘core’ workforce supplemented by a growing periphery. The larger ‘periphery’provides employers with � exibility in controlling the size and cost of the workforce.However, many of these � exibility studies depend extensively on data concerningregular male workers in the manufacturing sector and as such are inappropriate for anexamination of feminised industries such as supermarkets. The focus of these discus-sions relies on the labour market as the sole determinant of the form of paid workperformed. The signi� cance of the labour market in determining forms of paid work isundeniable, but for exploring the work lives of part-time workers in Japan, it is alsonecessary to examine the gender division of labour in the household which also

8 I question the use of the term ‘periphery’ to describe part-time workers in Japan, but it does connotetheir marginalised treatment.9 Michael Piore, ‘Notes for a Theory of Labour Market Strati� cation’, Richard Edwards, Michael Reich

and David Gordon (Eds), Labour Market Segmentation (Massachusetts: Lexington Books, 1975).10 Richard D. Barron, and Geoffrey M. Norris, ‘Sexual Divisions and the Dual Labour Market’, in DianaBaker and Sheila Allen (Eds), Dependence and Exploitation in Work and Marriage (London: Longman,1976).11 Richard Edwards, MichaelReich and David Gordon (Eds) Labour Market Segmentation (MA: LexingtonBooks, 1975).12 John Atkinson, ‘Manpower Strategies for Flexible Organisations’, Personnel Management, August 1984,pp. 28–32.

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in� uences their ‘choice’ of paid work. The above theories are unable to explainadequately why women are overrepresented in part-time work because their analyticalframeworks barely address the issue of women in the ‘periphery’ or variables such asgender or age.

The few studies in Japanese which examine part-time workers focus attention on the‘public’ sphere of work.13 Work in the ‘private’ or domestic sphere is not considered toin� uence the decision-making over paid work options that women pursue. The dom-estic sphere needs to be taken into account because it is the site of power relationswithin the family that govern decisions such as the ‘choice’ of part-time work—or anypaid work—and adds to the understanding of why women are overrepresented inpart-time work.

The allocation of roles on the basis of sex in Japan proscribes paid employmentopportunities for women with all women subsumed into the single category of wivesand mothers. To deny that women perceive themselves as wives and mothers, or thatthese roles are not important, is to inaccurately portray women in Japan. It is a separateissue, however, when employers, governments and unions through their policies andpractices institutionalise a sexual division of labour constituting all women this way.

For women, part-time work is seen to be an ‘appropriate’ employment optionbecause it allows women to combine paid work with their ‘natural’ roles of wife, motherand carer. For employers, employing women as part-time workers is the means forchannelling women into areas where they are not threatening the male dominance ofthe labour market. A tension exists between governments that want women as carers ofchildren and aged relatives in the wake of further cuts in social welfare, and employerswho want women as cheap labour. Additionally, tension also exists between govern-ment policies over women’s roles. Part-time work has been created as a way of resolvingthis tension.

Hakim, in analysing part-time work in Britain and Europe, argued that a feminist‘myth’ has developed around women and work.14 She argues that the myth statesincorrectly that part-time work is forced on women because they have childcareresponsibilities. Part-time work, according to Hakim, is constructed by employers whotake into account the work orientations of women who she argues are essentially anunreliable workforce. Her point is relevant for examining circumstances in Japan in thatmost women working part-time are in age groups where childcare is not likely to be animportant issue. While recognising part-time work is a strategy constructed by employ-ers, she incorrectly places the responsibility of being overrepresented in part-time workon the shoulders of women. In arguing women are an unreliable workforce she fails toacknowledge the policies and practices of employers and governments which contributeto women’s withdrawal from and re-entry into the workforce.

Walby argued that as women’s involvement in, and access to, the political arenaincreases, their impact will be to reduce gender bias in legislation and political

13 For example, see: Mitsuyama Masako ‘Patotaima senryokuka to kigyonai kyoiku’, Nihon Rodo KenkyuZasshi, 377 (1991); Furugori Tomoko, Hiseiki rodo no Keizai Bunseki (Tokyo: Toyo Keizai Shinposha,1997); Mizumachi Yuichiro, Patotaimu Rodo no Horitsu Seisaku (Tokyo: Yuhikaku, 1997); Osawa Mari‘Nihon no (patotaimu rodo) to wa nani ka’, Kisetsu Rodo Ho, 170 (1994); Sakai Mitsuru, Patotaima KoyoKanri no Tebiki (Tokyo: Nihon Rodo Kyokai, 1988); Yamaoka Hiroko and Tsutsui Kiyoko, ‘Joshipatotaima no rodo jittai to sono ishiki’, Nihon Rodo Kyokai Zasshi, 24:11 (1982).14 Catherine Hakim, ‘Five Feminist Myths about Women’s Employment’, British Journal of Sociology, 46:3(1995), pp. 429–455.

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processes. In the case of Japan this view needs modi� cation.15 Despite the efforts offeminist activists, legislation such as the Equal Employment Opportunity Law, Part-time Workers’ Law, Childcare Leave Law and Dependent Care Leave Law appears tohave done little to reduce inequalities in employment opportunities and workingconditions for women.

Beechey and Perkins, in examining conditions in Britain, argued that employers andtrade union of� cials hold de� nite conceptions about gender, and as in� uential membersof society, their attitudes and actions contribute to the naturalisation and institutional-isation of a sexual division of labour.16 Similarly, Cockburn argued that the greaterparticipation of male workers in union–employer negotiations allows them to maintaina privileged position with higher status as workers and higher wages.17 While maleworkers, their unions and their resulting bargaining power are certainly important as ameans of restricting the jobs and conditions which women workers can receive, forJapan, we also need to examine the scope of issues on which unions are able to bargain.Enterprise unions in Japan are unable, for example, to bargain on issues related to jobde� nition, a situation which developed in manufacturing where male workers and theirunions traded away the right to bargain on these issues in return for a greater share ofpro� t.

The Part-time Workers’ Law (1993)

Though initially intended to redress inequity in employment practices, the EqualEmployment Opportunity Law, the Part-time Workers’ Law, the Childcare Leave Lawand the Dependent Care Leave Law have had the opposite effect, to the point ofinstitutionalising workplace inequality. Results of an unidenti� ed survey indicate lessthan 0.1% of men who were eligible to take parental leave actually did so in thesurveyed year.18 The Equal Employment Opportunity Law does not speci� cally addressissues concerning part-time workers. The introduction of the Part-time Workers’ Lawin June 1993 ended the legal limbo for part-time workers, but only covers part-timeworkers working 35 hours or less per week. In its � nal incarnation the law focuses onimproving the control and regulation of the part-time workforce. Earlier proposalsfocused on improving employment conditions and welfare policies for part-time work-ers, bringing them into line with those of full-time workers.19 Opposition to these lawsby business groups and employer federations has not only rendered the legislationineffective, but has entrenched the existing sexual division of labour in the householdas well as the workplace and contributed to the deterioration of employment conditionsfor women.

‘With What I Know I Should Be a Manager …’

In Japan, employment opportunities for women seeking to return to regular paid work

15 Sylvia Walby, Theorising Patriarchy (Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 1990).16 Veronica Beechey and Tessa Perkins, A Matter of Hours (Cambridge: Polity Press, 1987).17 Cynthia Cockburn, Brothers: Male Dominance and Technological Change (London: Pluto Press, 1983).18 Look Japan, April 1995, p. 16.19 Kojima Noriaki, ‘Patotaima rodo to rippo seisaku’, Jurisuto, April 1993, p. 41.

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are limited. Part-time work appears ideal for women wanting to combine paid workwith childcare or aged care, domestic work or other activities in their lives. In 1992,Daiichi reorganised its part-time workforce, moving from a dual part-time to a singlepart-time classi� cation. Part-time workers were to carry out jobs approximating thoseof permanent regular workers with some decision-making responsibility. This differedfrom those workers classi� ed as casual (but who still worked similar hours) whoperformed largely repetitive, auxiliary tasks with no decision-making responsibility.Irrespective of the task the part-time workers perform, because they are classi� ed aspart-time, the perception is that they do not perform the same tasks as regular workers.

Daiichi recruits its regular employees from the ranks of high school, junior collegeand university graduates. Regular employees perform the same jobs as part-timeemployees, prompting Otsu-san,20 who had worked with Daiichi for 16 years when sheretired in 1994, to comment that ‘With what I know I should be a manager!’ Thepart-time workers interviewed were aware that although they were performing the samejobs as permanent full-time workers they would never receive the same employment,training and promotion opportunities. This would also impact on the level of theirwages, annual payments and bene� ts which would never be comparable to those ofregular workers. Kawashima-san has worked at Daiichi’s Hachiban store for 19 years(2000) and like other teiji shain has had sole responsibility for a section. In remarkingon her working conditions and wages she comments:

I do a lot of unpaid overtime [1992], sometimes three hours a night … I workmore overtime than most regular workers. Whereas I would have been paid forthis when the economy was doing well, because of the recession I now don’tget paid for it. The reason I do this is because I am responsible for an entiresection … I feel badly treated in terms of wages by comparison with regularworkers. To say money is not important would be a lie, because it is the reasonI started working in the � rst place. I feel angry about working long hours andhave even been asked if I am a regular worker because I am there so much!

Dissatisfaction about wages centred on the incompatibility of the wage with job contentand with the employee’s length of service. Of the part-time workers interviewed, 25%responded that irrespective of their length of service, their wages would only increaseslightly. Part-time workers are not eligible for seniority based wages. The base rate forall part-time workers was the same with some individual calculation for job related skillssuch as checkout operation. To give an example of the disparity between part-timeworkers’ and regular workers’ annual payments, Takashima-san has worked in thehousehold goods section of Daiichi for 25 years, 14 years as a teiji shain. In her 1992winter annual bonus payment she received slightly less than one month’s salary. Incontrast a high school leaver with two years’ experience in a full-time position receivedtwo months’ salary. Takashima-san comments:

I am bitter about the great differences in wages and annual payments, andbonus season would be the most bitter time for me. It is hard when regular

20 The names of the part-time workers in this paper are pseudonyms.

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workers with considerably less work experience are talking about bonuseswhich are two to three times higher than mine.

One difference between regular workers and part-time workers is the difference in shifttimes. At Daiichi part-time workers comprise the core workforce during store tradinghours between 10 AM and 7:30 PM and generally they worked shifts with littlevariation.21 Daiichi’s construction of part-time working hours in the 1970s coincidedwith school hours as many of the present day part-time workers had school-agedchildren. This enabled the women to combine paid work and childcare, juggling thedemand for Sunday work with their partners. As their children started high school thepressure to work longer hours increased, backed up by threats of dismissal. The hoursof many part-time workers have doubled during their 10–17 years of work experienceat Daiichi and not necessarily in response to their own needs. Miyake-san has workedin the stationery section for 11 years. Her working hours when she started allowed herto take her daughter to kindergarten and pick her up.

I now work from 10 AM until 6 PM. When my daughter was in kindergartenand lower primary school my hours were shorter. I worked from 11 AM until2 PM. I didn’t want to increase my hours, but it was made clear the choicewas to work longer hours or not have my contract renewed.

While childcare is no longer an issue, the necessity of performing aged/dependentspouse care responsibilities is presenting challenges for their ability to continue paidwork. Ono-san was able to negotiate � nishing her shift one hour earlier during the ninemonths she cared for her hospitalised husband. She acknowledges it was not a majorconcession but it did allow her to provide a small amount of care rather than leave itentirely to the nursing staff.22

In exploring the notion of choice in their paid work, I asked part-time workers if theywere satis� ed with the shift times. While about half were satis� ed, many part-timeworkers expressed the desire to have more � exibility in the number of hours theyworked and when they worked. Many wanted to work fewer hours per day and fewerdays per week than they currently did.23 As part-time workers in my study were in theupper age groups (45–60 years), economic imperatives such as repaying housing loansand � nancing children’s education were less important than the demands of aged care,the state of their health or spending time with partners. Okabe-san commented:

… my husband wants to spend more time with me so I have asked for at leasttwo Sundays off per month, but because we are busy I don’t get them. I needtime off to maintain contact with my husband and I would like to have moretime off to allow my mind to relax which is dif� cult when work is busy.

Survey responses indicate that part-time workers and regular workers perform similartasks. Customer sales is the most frequently performed task, followed by operating thecash register; however, part-time workers do not organise staff which management

21 Revision of the Labour Standards Law (LSL) in 1988 included the introduction of the Henkei Rodo JikanSei (Flexible Working Hours System) where working hours can be varied. Under this system, workinghours for regular workers can be calculated on a weekly, monthly or three monthly basis.22 While nursing staff are available in Japanese hospitals, many family members (usually women), preferto feed, clean and generally care for the patient.23 A similar situation exists in Australia where research suggests employers demand � exibility fromemployees with little reciprocity. ACIRRT, Australia at Work (Sydney: Prentice Hall, 1999).

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considers differentiates them from regular workers. In 1998 Daiichi did not havepart-time workers in management positions but one personnel manager mentioned thatthis was under consideration.24 This may not have been formally introduced but anincreasing number of part-time workers have ful� lled managerial-type responsibilitiesregularly including control over the budget and ordering of merchandise for a smallsection. Okabe-san previously worked in the luggage and handbag section:

I have my own department and feel good when I can achieve my sales� gures … In my previous section the manager gave me a budget which I hadto work within. I now don’t have the same responsibility and feel some of thechallenge has gone.

‘When I Get Home I Have to Be a Mother …’

In Japan the representation and construction of women as wives and mothers restrictsthe employment opportunities of all women irrespective of age, class or stage in thelifecycle. Women are constituted as an homogenous and unitary category which isproblematic as it does not recognise diversity in material conditions or life experiences.The role of paid worker is but one aspect of the lives of these women who workpart-time. It is important to consider the domestic role and the impact of governmentpolicy in naturalising the division of labour that undergirds and justi� es part-time workas a legitimate form of employment for women and around which their role as paidworker must � t.

Tax and pension schemes are predicated on the notion that women are dependent� nancially on a male income earner. This privileges spouses/families, with women whoremain � nancially dependent on their spouse. Tax regulations that have established alow tax free threshold ensure that a woman is unable to earn an income adequate forsupporting herself, and/or her dependants. This stance re� ects the Japanese govern-ment’s version of the welfare system and represents the female version of the ‘companyman’ (kaisha ningen). The company man devotes his entire being to the company’sneeds, while his wife performs the household tasks which allow him to continue hispunishing work routine. The wife is responsible for domestic work as well as providingcare for children and dependants. Thus these welfare and social policies formulated onthe basis of role allocation based on sex is encompassed in the familiar expression, otokowa shigoto, onna wa katei25 (men have a job and women have the household). Shifts inthe discourse on the sexual division of labour and the content of ‘women’s work’ areevident in the modi� cation of this expression to otoko wa shigoto, onna wa katei to shigoto(women have the household and a job). For women, particularly married women, thejob envisioned by governments, unions and employers is as a part-time worker with its(assumed) shorter working hours. According to successive governments, part-timework articulates well with the role of women in the Japanese style of welfare state.

When I asked Okabe-san about her shift times I meant her paid work shift times. Sheresponded to my question and then added ‘when I get home I have to be a mother …’Okabe-san’s comments about her other ‘shift’ succinctly describe the impact of working

24 A personnel manager at a regional store indicated in an interview that the company was consideringappointing/promoting part-time workers, essentially teiji shain, to managerial positions. According to someof the part-time workers interviewed, this was already the case in all but name.25 Katei includes housework as well as care of children and dependents.

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part-time on women in Japan, and on the sexual division of labour in the household.The impact of a woman’s employment status affects the amount of time she spends ondomestic work but not her role as primary domestic worker. Irrespective of whetherthey are a full-time housewife or a part-time or regular worker, women perform morehours of domestic work than men, three to four hours per week day compared with 12minutes.26 Working part-time does not challenge the division of labour in the house-hold.

The part-time workers I surveyed were all primarily responsible for household dutiesirrespective of the number of their working hours or whether their husbands were inpaid employment, unemployed or retired. A total of 94% of part-timers responded thatthey were primarily responsible for housework but that the amount had decreasedslightly since beginning paid work. Part of this was because children had grown up andso involved less care, but the responsibility for performing the housework had notchanged. The comments of Kurashiki-san, who has worked part-time at Daiichi for 25years (2000), are representative:

I have always done most of the housework before I left for work. I often gotup at 5 AM to wash, cook breakfast, make lunches and clean. If I thought Iwould be home late, I partially prepared dinner too. I often did the ironing inthe evenings … I never expected my sons to do much housework, but theyoften brought in the washing. On my days off I would do other chores … Myhusband and sons have never complained about my working. As my husbandalso wanted us to own our own home and to educate our children he realisedit was necessary for me to work. No-one ever complained about housework.

Paid domestic assistance was prohibited by economic considerations. Although thetechnology is available to shorten the time spent on domestic work, this does notnecessarily mean that the devices are used or that they are used by members of thefamily other than the wife or mother. The impact of technology has been to entrenchthe sexual division of labour. ‘Because technologies have been used to privatize work,they have cumulatively hindered a reallocation of household labour’.27

Power in the Union?

Are part-time workers conditions improved by membership in a union? Historicallyunions have acted to protect the employment conditions of their predominantly malemembership from the impact of women, a workforce constituted as ‘cheap’. It is justthis stance which saw enterprise unions in Japan in the mid-1960s give away opportu-nities to bargain on issues of gender discrimination to protect the employment condi-tions of their ‘core’ male workforce. Enterprise unions in Japan are organised withinsingle enterprises which mitigates against opportunities for workers to form organisa-tions or unions with other workers based on industry or occupation. The limitedbargaining scope set by the organisational structure of the enterprise union is com-pounded by its androcentric character. The ‘core’ male regular workforce dominatesboth of� cial positions and general membership, with limited if any access for womenand part-time workers to voice their concerns. In Japan, issues of gender discrimination

26 Sorifu (Prime Minister’s Of� ce), Josei no Genjo to Shisaku (Tokyo: 1993), p. 20.27 Judy Wajcman, Feminism Confronts Technology (Cambridge: Polity Press, 1991), p. 87.

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Shortchanged? 303

are generally resolved by the aggrieved individual with management or through thecourts.

The rate of unionisation for part-time workers has not risen at the same pace as thegrowth in part-time jobs and the rapid increase in the number of part-time workers overthe past 15 years. Estimates indicate only 4% of part-time workers are unionised.28 Lowrates of unionisation for part-time workers are often explained by union of� cials interms of disinterest on behalf of women and part-time workers. This explanation isparalleled in the early history of unions when it is argued that women lacked ‘worker’consciousness and so were not interested in unions.29 The Daiichi enterprise union isamong a small number of unions which have attempted to unionise part-time workers.My survey data support the claim that part-time workers are disinterested in theenterprise union and the union’s activities.

Because I earn so little money I don’t like having some taken out for uniondues and then being told little [her emphasis] about the union. I don’t likeunions.

The disinterest stems not from a lack of consciousness, but from genuine grievancesthat the enterprise union does not represent their interests. Enterprise unions are seenby part-time workers to be pursuing issues on behalf of permanent full-time workers. Atthe enterprise level the sources of disaffection cited by part-time workers includesscheduling meetings at times when part-time workers couldn’t attend and ignoring theirconcerns. The enterprise union response of ignoring part-time workers’ concerns is anoutcome of the broader problem of disinterest in part-time workers and the restrictedbargaining scope of enterprise unions. At the national level the disinterest continues asRengo concentrates on tax reform rather than addressing the issue of discriminatoryemployment conditions between full-time and part-time workers.30 Despite their ac-tivity on a range of industrial issues, the union movement in Japan, like the Australianunion movement, is dominated hierarchically, culturally and numerically by men.31

What Can Be Said about Part-time Work in Japan?

Part-time work as it is constructed and operating in Daiichi is not unique to thiscompany. The categories of ‘regular’ and ‘part-time’ in Japan are statuses which de� neand determine employment conditions and bene� ts. Part-time workers are deniedopportunities for training, promotion and consequently access to better employmentconditions and bene� ts. The policies of enterprise unions (and other levels of unionorganisation) are instrumental in institutionalising and systematising the sexual divisionof labour which assumes part-time work is ‘women’s work’.

The gendered and ageist construction of part-time work in Japan has seriousimplications for those employed as part-time workers. Legislation has not been anavenue of assistance, but acts instead to further segregate ‘women’s and men’s work’.By not being represented in enterprise or national union bodies, the majority of

28 Rodosho, Fujinkyoku, Hataraku Josei no Jitsujo (Tokyo: 1996), p. 81.29 Sharon Sievers, Flowers in Salt: The Beginnings of Feminist Consciousness in Modern Japan (Stanford:Stanford University Press, 1983).30 Rengo, Patotaimu Rodo Ho no Kyoka ni yoru Patotaima no Koyo no Kaizen no Kenkyu (Tokyo: Rengo,1997).31 Suzanne Franzway, ‘Sexual Politics in Trade Unions’, in Barbara Pocock (Ed.), Strife: Sex and Politicsin Labour Unions (Sydney: Allen & Unwin, 1997), p. 129.

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304 Kaye Broadbent

part-time workers are denied access to power in negotiating and decision-makingstructures within the company, and the union movement. As a result, women’s voicesand needs are rarely heard and are not re� ected in company or government policies.

The prospects for signi� cant change in the employment conditions of part-timeworkers at Daiichi are far from encouraging. Of part-time workers, only teiji shain areeligible for unionisation but as the enterprise union concentrates on negotiating wageincreases there is little possibility for delivering change. Alternative unions exist inJapan, including community, general and women-only unions, and there is an activewomen’s movement which, theoretically at least, non-unionised part-time workers atDaiichi can join. The growth in part-time work in Japan has serious implications forworkers, particularly women workers, but whether or not this phenomenon is‘Japanese’ requires comparison. With Japan’s economy still affected by recession,indications are that growth in part-time jobs is continuing, particularly for middle-agedmale workers. Anecdotal evidence suggests there is a strengthening of the genderhierarchy in part-time employment, resembling that which exists in ‘lifetime employ-ment’. The impact and implications of continued recession on part-time employmentrequire further analysis.

Acknowledgements

Special thanks to the part-time workers who allowed me to share their lives. Thematerial for this article is drawn from sections of my PhD dissertation of the same title(School of Asian and International Studies, Grif� th University, 1998). Thank you alsoto Judith Snodgrass and the anonymous referees for their valuable comments on anearlier version of this paper.

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