ABSTRACT
As an 'outsider' who has been viewing industrial relations in Japan close-up for more than thirty years, I feel that the great attention given to a few features of the Japanese industrial relations system has resulted in an oversimplification of the system which has evolved since the end of World War II. Most of the emphasis has been upon such elements as 'life-time employment', 'length-ofservice' wages and salaries, company-provided welfare benefits, enterprise level union organization, and worker 'loyalty' to - and hard work in - his company. While there is some truth to these characteristics, they tend to be seen as the only ones that are considered in most descriptions of Japan's industrial relations. A number of others which are just as prominent - indeed, probably more important - are overlooked. This misperception arises not only from stereotypes of Japanese society as a whole, but also from a failure to analyze systems of industrial relations with an adequate frame of reference. The problem is as much one of
systematizinganalysisasitisthelackofcorrectfactsabout contemporaryJapan.
