ABSTRACT
The motor vehicle industry is one of the most important industries in Japan. Automobile manufacturers employed 785,000 workers in 2013 (Statistical Bureau, Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications 2013), accounting for 8.7 percent of the total labor force (Japan Automobile Manufacturers Association [JAMA] 2014a). The total value of vehicle shipments from automobile manufacturers was 52 trillion yen ($418 billion) in 2012, 1 which was 17.4 percent of the total shipment value of the entire manufacturing sector (Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry [METI] 2012).
