ABSTRACT
This chapter introduces key concepts of work and employment in Japan. Apart from lifetime employment and its main characteristics (including seniority-based wages, enterprise unionism and long job tenures), this includes the division between regular and non-regular employees (also standard and non-standard employees) and between workers working at large and small firms. It provides an overview of the main structural changes in the Japanese labour market in the postwar period, discusses the labour market participation of women and the gender consequences of traditional employment practices, and looks at how recent developments, such as labour shortages and structural reform, impact work and employment.
