Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of figures
- List of tables
- Preface
- Introduction
- Part I Features of Japan's internal labor markets
- 1 Internal labor markets in search equilibrium
- 2 Demand and supply of skills in a corporate hierarchy
- 3 Measuring occupational and internal labor markets
- 4 Earnings and seniority in internal labor markets
- 5 Recruitment and promotion in Japanese firms
- 6 Product market competition and internal labor markets
- Part II Recent changes in wage and employment structures
- Epilog
- References
- Index
5 - Recruitment and promotion in Japanese firms
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 22 September 2009
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of figures
- List of tables
- Preface
- Introduction
- Part I Features of Japan's internal labor markets
- 1 Internal labor markets in search equilibrium
- 2 Demand and supply of skills in a corporate hierarchy
- 3 Measuring occupational and internal labor markets
- 4 Earnings and seniority in internal labor markets
- 5 Recruitment and promotion in Japanese firms
- 6 Product market competition and internal labor markets
- Part II Recent changes in wage and employment structures
- Epilog
- References
- Index
Summary
Overview
In this chapter, we study recruitment and promotion patterns in Japanese internal labor markets. We do this in two ways. First, we use personnel data to look at entry, exit, and promotion in large Japanese companies. In spite of the revival in the interest on internal labor markets, empirical research in these areas has been relatively scarce, both in Japan and elsewhere. The reason is that personnel data, the main source of information, are not usually available to the applied researcher. Second, we review in detail other empirical studies, both in Japan and elsewhere, and place our own research in a wider perspective.
The common view on recruitment and promotion in large Japanese firms can be summarized as follows: (1) promotion is seniority-based and a late selection approach prevails; (2) the allocation of workers to jobs is centralized; (3) there is extensive job rotation, with internal transfers; (4) there are well defined ports of entry, and a strong preference for recruitment of school graduates.
Relevant evidence in support of the common view comes from the pioneering work by Ronald Dore (1973) on Hitachi Corporation, a company also studied by Aoki (1988) in his economic treatise on the Japanese firm. Important additional Japanese evidence is provided by the well known fieldwork carried out by Kazuo Koike (1981). In the United States, relevant empirical research is reviewed by Baker, Gibbs and Holmstrom (1994a) in their influential work based on the personnel data file of a large American firm.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Internal Labour Markets in Japan , pp. 121 - 168Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2000