ABSTRACT

The starting point for this chapter is a peculiar contradiction in the current debate on the Japanese model. On the one hand, widespread fears exist that the Japanization of the labour process entails a dramatic worsening in working conditions: intensified work rhythms, increased working hours, a tamed or annihilated trade union and a climate of subtle and insidious pressures aimed at obtaining the employees’ total acceptance of company demands. Some research on Japanese transplants in the American automotive industry, on the Mazda plant at Flat Rock and on the NUMMI joint venture in California, seem to reinforce these pessimistic expectations (Fucini and Fucini 1990; Greiner 1988; Parker and Slaughter 1988; Klein 1989,1991; Rehder 1990; Berggren et al. 1991).