By Suvendrini Kakuchi
TOKYO, Apr 18 1999 (IPS)

Hiroshi Mita thinks his being a specialised technology engineer has spared him from being laid off, a fate suffered by many of his middle management colleagues. But he is not taking any chances.

In a country where overtime is but the regular office routine, the balding 50-year-old is putting in more hours than ever at the big electronics firm where he has spent more than half his life.

And he is not about to complain even if he is not getting extra compensation for much of his overtime toil. At least, Mita reasons, “I seem to be surviving the drastic restructuring efforts in the company.”

Mita is not the only Japanese employee to resort to such job- saving tactics. As corporations across the country downsize, workers are agreeing to even longer hours and minimal raises — sometimes even pay cuts — just so they can remain employed.

Indeed, during the annual labour contract bargaining period in March, unions representing more than three million Japanese workers settled for the lowest wage increases in two years — 2.16 percent, down from the initial demand of three percent.

According to Tadashisa Oyanagi, representative of the 300,000- strong metal workers union, labour understands the severe business conditions stemming from the country’s worst postwar recession yet.

“The situation is so bad,” he says. “We cannot expect more. We therefore did not press too hard for wage hikes, but rather negotiated on the basis of working together toward building up the company.”

Labour experts say the non-confrontational relationship between labour and management in Japan can be traced partly to the relatively egalitarian way in which companies in this country are run.

For example, they note, there is less of a gap in wages between company chiefs and workers here than elsewhere. It is also not uncommon to see managers sitting beside younger staff.

“Many managers actually spent time in their company unions when they were younger, so the negotiation climate is very different from other countries,” says analyst Yasuo Ishida of the Japan Labour Institute. “You will not see too many Japanese workers resorting to violent demonstrations to get what they want.”

Thus, even as more and more companies are laying off workers by the thousands in order to remain competitive, protests from labour groups are almost non-existent.

Rather, the emphasis has been on negotiations for more secure employment, as well as better conditions accompanying lay-offs.

In truth, there is marked reluctance among the companies themselves to let go of their workers, even if conditions have made it imperative for them to do so.

Corporate Japan, after all, has a tradition of lifetime employment, and managers would much rather look for other ways to cut costs aside from trimming their workforces.

Says Ishida: “Japan is different from the United States. Restructuring here is based on the Japanese emphasis on protecting peace and harmony in society.”

For many firms, though, slashing salaries have proved inadequate to keep their operations going.

Official statistics show that Japan’s number of unemployed rose to a record 2.98 million people in January this year, or a rate of 4.4 percent. That marks a slight increase from the 4.3 percent unemployment rate posted just in December.

Labour analysts expect the situation to worsen next year as Japanese companies struggle to balance their books in the midst of the economic crisis and escalating market competition.

This is why when labour leaders speak of “better labour conditions” these days, they are often referring to post- employment conditions for laid-off workers. This includes improved severance packages as well as a system of sharing information with employers that will allow workers to find new jobs.

“While the negotiations are not easy, we must aim to develop an employment guarantee system with the cooperation of companies,” says one union leader. “This is the best way to ease the severity of the current crisis.”

At the same time, the union representative reckons that perhaps now is the time for Japanese workers to become less dependent on companies to keep them “safe” and their families worry-free.

“Workers have to be more independent,” he argues, “and we must force politicians to build a society that helps to nurture this fundamental change as well as provide support when there are problems.”

Such a transformation will not happen overnight. But there are already subtle changes taking place, albeit forced by circumstances.

Hiroshi Mita’s wife, Kyoko, for instance, says their family is setting aside even more money nowadays despite the lack of a significant increase in Mita’s salary in the past six years.

And while salarymen’s wives are supposed to stay at home, Kyoko says she has taken a part-time job as a waitress to add to the family income. Even their eldest daughter worked last winter to pay her own way for a school ski trip.

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