ABSTRACT
EDITORIAL INTRODUCTION Recent discussions of the organization of Japanese employment relations have moved away from a simple emphasis on the ‘three pillars’ of life-time employment, nenko wages and enterprise unionism enjoyed by the core workers in large enterprises. On the one hand they have given increasing attention to the tensions and changes which have characterized these institutions, with debates about the limits of enterprise unionism, the growth of ability-based wages and the direct recruitment of specialists (Whittaker 1990; Tokunaga 1984). On the other hand they have underlined that around two-thirds of the workforce, in the hierarchies of medium and small subcontracting enterprises, remain outside these arrangements, often in insecure, low-paid and unorganized work (Chalmers 1989; Tokunaga 1984).
