Perspectives on work in Japan

Scholars researching the organization of work in Japan can be characterized in terms of their interaction with eight scholarly traditions. Each grouping has had its own traditions, professional associations, and publishing outlets. Many scholars have worked across several of these traditions in their efforts to understand how work is organized in Japan and what the resultant processes have meant for Japan, for the Japanese firm, and for the individual Japanese worker. Although one can delineate a number of coherent intellectual approaches as distinct streams of scholarship, one must also recognize that they overlap.

This chapter has three aims. One is to introduce eight streams of research on work in Japan and to indicate how the insights of each bear on our understanding of how work is organized in Japan. The second is to trace some of the main arguments that have emerged in the attempt to grasp how individual workers have come to develop a work ethic. These overviews are presented as a means of encouraging readers to develop multiple perspectives when formulating their views on the work ethic in Japan.

The third aim is to have readers think about the methodology of studying work. Compared with the approach taken to studying work by many scholars in North America and Europe, Japanese intellectuals have been reluctant to engage in participant observation or extended participation. Rather, they have conducted in-depth interviews with broad cross-sections of workers.