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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

#71

Post by FussyZeus »

timr wrote: post #56
delhanty wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>coworkers banging on in excitement whenever 7-11 has an Onigiri sale dropping from 110 to 100 yen Usually it's an up to 150 yen onigiri for 100 yen, so of course they're going to get excited. Edit: It looks like it is/was an up to 160 yen onigiri for 100 yen! That's a 37.5% discount! [1] [1] http://seven-eleven-mania-blog.jp/gohankei/5617/

It's still pretty silly, considering the absolute value of the savings. My personal favorite along these lines is the way that a single building might have 2-3 floors of the same kind of restaurant (say, yakitori), but the one place that is 5 yen cheaper per item will have a line out the door, while the others are half-empty.

Is this a cultural thing? I've never been to Japan so I'm kind of flying blind here but I'd assign that 5 yen as a convenience cost and happily pay that price to avoid the long line. I have a hard time thinking the Japanese people place no value on their time whatsoever...

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

#72

Post by sharemywin »

FussyZeus wrote: post #71
timr wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's still pretty silly, considering the absolute value of the savings. My personal favorite along these lines is the way that a single building might have 2-3 floors of the same kind of restaurant (say, yakitori), but the one place that is 5 yen cheaper per item will have a line out the door, while the others are half-empty.

Is this a cultural thing? I've never been to Japan so I'm kind of flying blind here but I'd assign that 5 yen as a convenience cost and happily pay that price to avoid the long line. I have a hard time thinking the Japanese people place no value on their time whatsoever...

walmart(lines to get in line) vs. Kroger(generally pretty fast) vs. giant eagle(empty walk right up and pay).

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

#73

Post by dugditches »

akg_67 wrote: post #42
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…

I knew people with 25+ years just gone after 2008 dip.

Most people can't afford to be 'loyal'(especially for a year~) and have bills to pay/children to feed.

I've been to several factories/shops, and that 'loyalty' is quickly eroding. As worker wages stagnate while Management's increase. Management being under the squeeze of following Gov't Regulations and Outsourcing. So both sides are under this toxic stress.

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

#74

Post by maxxxxx »

yequalsx wrote: post #13
TazeTSchnitzel wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The Allied Powers had seemingly learned the lessons of Versailles and didn't try to punish the losers (well, not as much), instead letting them grow. Thus why them not being victorious didn't matter, I guess.

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.

As a German. I have never heard about these starved millions. The agrarian society plan was the Morgenthau plan which didn't get implemented from what I know.

My parents are WW2 generation. I have never heard any complaints from them or relatives about the American behavior after WW2.

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

#75

Post by SirLJ »

Just remember in the end of the 80s and the begging of the 90s, Japan was on the verge to become the world most powerful economy and market crash after that... 25+ years later the market is still almost in half - so many retirement money lost and a great example why buy and hold for a long time is actually not a good retirement strategy...

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

#76

Post by FRex »

sho wrote: post #15
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…

> 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!

There is this high quality[1] article/blog post I've seen before on HN in relation to software and Japan and it mentions it too: http://www.kalzumeus.com/2014/11/07/doing-business-in-japan/

The paragraph starting with the sentence "Don’t have a wife?" and the next one after it mention that practice, it's too much to copy paste in here.

[1] as in - lengthy, detailed and well written, but I can't judge the content itself.

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

#77

Post by richardknop »

wolfgke wrote: post #58
0xbear wrote: post #54

Yeah, I do get contacted by Japanese recruiters, and their comp in my field is pretty laughable by US standards. That said, the same applies to all of Europe as well. People literally seem to be making one third of what they'd be making in the US if they were any good.

The metric that you have to consider is salary - taxes - costs of living [including health insurance] + expected future revenues [in particular pensions] Can you provide me evidence that, say, Germany, is so much worse than the USA with respect to this metric?

Germany is much worse in this metric compared to UK. I am specifically talking about London.

I get contacted by recruiters from Germany (and other EU countries) quite often and they could never match London contractor pay even remotely.

Germany also has higher taxes and health care coverage is comparable in UK and Germany (both have national healthcare).

I think that's a microcosm of US vs EU salary situation in software engineering. IT job market in London is very different from any place in Europe, I'm not sure why that is.

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

#78

Post by hawkice »

FRex wrote: post #76
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!

There is this high quality[1] article/blog post I've seen before on HN in relation to software and Japan and it mentions it too: http://www.kalzumeus.com/2014/11/07/doing-business-in-japan/ The paragraph starting with the sentence "Don’t have a wife?" and the next one after it mention that practice, it's too much to copy paste in here. [1] as in - lengthy, detailed and well written, but I can't judge the content itse…

That's written by patio11, who wrote the comment above.

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

#79

Post by ramphastidae »

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…

Reminds me of the bizarre behavior of many co-workers who wait over an hour in line when Dunkin Donuts has free iced coffee day.

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

#80

Post by toomuchtodo »

onion2k wrote: post #68
mathattack wrote: post #67

Japan has one of the lowest birthrates in the world. This is inevitable as demand from the elderly outpaces young people to fulfill it.

Presumably though, as tax revenue falls due to citizens retiring, that will lead to more privatization of services as the government won't have the money to buy them, and a consequential push towards automation as service providers try to lower costs. If automation happens quickly enough it's not outside the realms of possibility that Japan's aging population could lead to fewer jobs in some sectors.

> that will lead to more privatization of services as the government won't have the money to buy them,

Governments can be funded by their central banks printing money.

> and a consequential push towards automation as service providers try to lower costs.

Governments can put that same automation in place to provide services with no profit motive.

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