ABSTRACT
This introduction presents an overview of key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book analyses the deregulation of non-regular employment such as temporary agency work and fixed-term contracts, as it was the main target of labour market deregulation in both Japan and Italy. It shows that the different distribution of power resources between labour unions and employers and the resulting changes in labour policy-making structures contributed to the differences in labour market deregulation between these countries despite the common neoliberal pressure of globalisation. The book analyses limited reform measures introduced by the Japanese and Italian governments in the 1980s and points out that labour market deregulation was not a major political or economic issue in either country before the 1990s. It identifies the conditions under which the partisan effects of the government on labour market deregulation are likely to be identified.
