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Japan’s labor market is tight, and higher wages may be needed to retain workers

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Re: Japan’s labor market is tight, and higher wages may be needed to retain workers

#41

Post by patio11 »

fenomas wrote: post #37
sho wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> my boss assumed that it would be sourcing the bride Are you sure you understood him correctly? That would be highly irregular, to say the least. More likely it was an offer to pay for a matching agency. Arranged marriages between specific people are pretty rare these days, and unheard of outside of family. Unless your boss literally adopted you, he would never take on that responsibility!

I think people are reading rather too much into the phrase "sourcing". Read it as "assumed he'd probably wind up marrying a coworker" and the boss in question is just observing the obvious - workplace marriages are quite common in Japan, especially considering that company employees around that age tend to socialize a lot within the company. One can think of such things as non-pecuniary benefits of a job but I think…

especially considering that company employees around that age tend to socialize a lot within the company.

Yes. This is by design. You're not just joining a company, you're getting social belonging and a built-in set of drinking buddies. That is such a critical part of the deal, and such a universally acknowledged part of the deal, that it is not routinely described as part of the deal.

Re: Japan’s labor market is tight, and higher wages may be needed to retain workers

#42

Post by akg_67 »

patio11 wrote: post #2

Partly this is a recognition that Japan Inc. has historically awarded a blended compensation package which includes salary, benefits similar to most first-world countries, and a host of non-pecuniary terms which are not broadly enjoyed across all W-2 employees in the US. ("Expectation of lifetime employment" is a biggie; there are substantially more subtle terms, too, like "We're going to take care of you , and we si…

I actually know several instances of how company expects employees to sacrifice everything for the wellbeing of company and how company takes care of employees for life.

One example, during 2008 crisis, the company my friend was working for 20+ years already, was in trouble and didn't pay employees for almost a year. My friend continued to work for the company despite it being bankrupt and him not getting paid for so long.

Once company turnaround completed and came out of bankruptcy, owners not only made unpaid employees whole but has done much more for the employees that stuck around during bad times.

The loyalty runs both ways.

Re: Japan’s labor market is tight, and higher wages may be needed to retain workers

#43

Post by SamReidHughes »

toomuchtodo wrote: post #32
mikekchar wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Though to be fair, arranged marriages are pretty common in Japan. Several of my friends have arranged marriages and are as happy as any other couple I know. I suppose you can think of it like online dating, where there is also an expectation that both parties are looking to get married. It would not surprise me at all that a company would pay the fees for a match maker if being single was causing a valued employee em…

I can appreciate that having work intervene is weird, but that's the culture apparently. Studies have shown having a partner increases wages and helps you live longer. And the Japanese live the longest. Strange coincidence.

They are outlived by Japanese-Americans though.

Re: Japan’s labor market is tight, and higher wages may be needed to retain workers

#44

Post by fenomas »

patio11 wrote: post #41
fenomas wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think people are reading rather too much into the phrase "sourcing". Read it as "assumed he'd probably wind up marrying a coworker" and the boss in question is just observing the obvious - workplace marriages are quite common in Japan, especially considering that company employees around that age tend to socialize a lot within the company. One can think of such things as non-pecuniary benefits of a job but I think…

especially considering that company employees around that age tend to socialize a lot within the company. Yes. This is by design. You're not just joining a company, you're getting social belonging and a built-in set of drinking buddies. That is such a critical part of the deal, and such a universally acknowledged part of the deal, that it is not routinely described as part of the deal .

Sure, but to some extent this is Japan in a nutshell - joining anything from a university circle to the neighborhood adult volleyball team does tend to come with new drinking buddies, albeit at varying scales.

(And having said that, if you're single you can of course expect the volleyball coach to paternally try and set you up with that nice 24 year-old on the team...)

Re: Japan’s labor market is tight, and higher wages may be needed to retain workers

#45

Post by vkou »

Qub3d wrote: post #29
yequalsx wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

America did try to punish the Germans. Millions starved as a result of deliberate Allied policy. It wasn't until the schism with the USSR that policies shifted. Eisenhower in particular wanted Germany to be an agrarian society.

Wait, i'm confused. I've always been told America poured tons of money into Germany via the Marshall Plan [0], which resulted in the "Wirtschaftswunder"[+] of the 50s and 60s. Former president Hoover went over and surveyed Germany almost directly after the war, in 1947. [0]: https://web.archive.org/web/20090419195002/http://www.un.org... [+]: Literally "economic miracle"

The initial plan (Carried out between 1945 and 1947) was starving Germany - economically, and literally.

Once communism became the big boogieman, the US did a 180 on its occupation policy, and instead started dumping money and American goods into Germany via the Marshall plan.

Re: Japan’s labor market is tight, and higher wages may be needed to retain workers

#46

Post by eric_khun »

fenomas wrote: post #44
patio11 wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

especially considering that company employees around that age tend to socialize a lot within the company. Yes. This is by design. You're not just joining a company, you're getting social belonging and a built-in set of drinking buddies. That is such a critical part of the deal, and such a universally acknowledged part of the deal, that it is not routinely described as part of the deal .

Sure, but to some extent this is Japan in a nutshell - joining anything from a university circle to the neighborhood adult volleyball team does tend to come with new drinking buddies, albeit at varying scales. (And having said that, if you're single you can of course expect the volleyball coach to paternally try and set you up with that nice 24 year-old on the team...)

kinda related, how easy for a foreigners to play in the local volleyball team in Japan? I'm considering to move in Tokyo for a year or more, and would love to find some vball buddies

Re: Japan’s labor market is tight, and higher wages may be needed to retain workers

#47

Post by sgift »

Qub3d wrote: post #29
yequalsx wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

America did try to punish the Germans. Millions starved as a result of deliberate Allied policy. It wasn't until the schism with the USSR that policies shifted. Eisenhower in particular wanted Germany to be an agrarian society.

Wait, i'm confused. I've always been told America poured tons of money into Germany via the Marshall Plan [0], which resulted in the "Wirtschaftswunder"[+] of the 50s and 60s. Former president Hoover went over and surveyed Germany almost directly after the war, in 1947. [0]: https://web.archive.org/web/20090419195002/http://www.un.org... [+]: Literally "economic miracle"

Long story short: This wasn't the original plan. The original plan, which was in effect for a while, was a variant of the "Morgenthau plan" ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morgenthau_Plan#JCS_1067 ). It took two years for them to realize that not only would they be starving Germans (intention), but also the rest of Europe (unintended), and more or less block any economic growth in Europe (+risk Europe falling under the sway of the Soviet Union). So, they reversed their plans and the rest is history (that history includes the Marshall plan).

Re: Japan’s labor market is tight, and higher wages may be needed to retain workers

#48

Post by klaasn »

Qub3d wrote: post #29
yequalsx wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

America did try to punish the Germans. Millions starved as a result of deliberate Allied policy. It wasn't until the schism with the USSR that policies shifted. Eisenhower in particular wanted Germany to be an agrarian society.

Wait, i'm confused. I've always been told America poured tons of money into Germany via the Marshall Plan [0], which resulted in the "Wirtschaftswunder"[+] of the 50s and 60s. Former president Hoover went over and surveyed Germany almost directly after the war, in 1947. [0]: https://web.archive.org/web/20090419195002/http://www.un.org... [+]: Literally "economic miracle"

There was a lot of punishment as well.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Forced_labor_of_Germans_after_...

Re: Japan’s labor market is tight, and higher wages may be needed to retain workers

#49

Post by ekianjo »

Running out of people? Most large corporations in Japan have WAY too much staff doing about nothing productive all day long. This is due to the long standing tradition that started in the 70s to keep hiring most university graduates well before they graduate in April every single year, even though there is no such need for hiring (kind of social contract between the Japanese government and the large corporations). If anything less workforce will be a blessing, they will have to finally focus on what REALLY matters.

Re: Japan’s labor market is tight, and higher wages may be needed to retain workers

#50

Post by ekianjo »

dcw303 wrote: post #38

The problem is Japan has been in a deflationary environment for so long that they've forgotten how to bump up a price and turned into a nation of misers. I've witnessed first hand the collective hysteria when an ice cream company raised their prices by 10 yen[0] and also had to put up with coworkers banging on in excitement whenever 7-11 has an Onigiri sale dropping from 110 to 100 yen. Not to mention the queues stre…

> the problem is young people are too smart to take them up on their pitiful 700 yen per hour offers,

There's a large population of chinese students in Japan who are very happy to work at such rates.

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