abstract

This paper examines how 'lifetime employment'has evolved in Japan in the 'lost decade'and after. It finds that, despite large scale redundancies after the financial crises in 1997-1998, the mutual commitment or a social contract between employees (and their representatives) and their employer concerning dismissal avoidance did not disappear. Two kinds of subsystems that are useful for reducing the possibility of dismissals; 'Employment Adjustment Systems'and 'Employment Portfolio Systems'were reworked to cope with the critical economic conditions.