ABSTRACT
Since the 1980s, academics and managers have come to admire the efficiency of certain Japanese economic institutions, in particular the employment system (JES), built upon employment stability, on job training and on seniority wage. A famous MIT report argued that employment stability was essential to the deployment of lean production and advocated the adoption of such a device by car industry firms all over the world (Womack et al. 1990). During the 1990s, outside Japan, most labour economists and managers have come to a totally opposite conclusion: life employment is obsolete and decaying under the pressure of numerous and converging factors. The recession that began early in 1991 would be clear evidence for the need for a shift towards a market-led capitalism, inspired by American economic institutions (Dornbusch, 1998). The longer the time taken to decide and implement this reform, the more severe the adjustment costs will be.
