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The Care for the Elderly |
Background The Basic Difference of the Two Countries |
Both Sweden and Japan "were" famous for
their low unemployment rate (about 2%) until 1991. But since last year
the economic situation of both countries have become worse and worse.
In Sweden unemployment rate has risen to 7.7% on April in 1993.
On the other hand, the unemployment rate in Japan has risen only
slightly to 2.8% on April in 1993. In Japan government does not have big influence to the labor market. In Japan official labor market policy is not so strong. There are three main reasons of the low unemployment rate in Japan. The first reason is that the most of all the Japanese
private companies have the custom of the "life-long employment
system". This is a very unique system in Japan. In Japan once man
begins to work at one company, they usually continue to work at the same
company until the retirement (about 60 years old). Nowadays more and
more young people change jobs, but it is still minority. So when the economic
condition is bad, the company provides the education for the labor or
find another job within at the same company or at the brother companies.
In other words, we can say that the Japanese private companies have
their own labor market policy and have the responsibility for the jobs
of the labor. It is like a "Welfare Company" instead of
"Welfare State". And if man continues to work at the same
company, the salary rises up automatically according to the labor's
age. So it is profitable for the workers to continue to work at the
same company. The merit of this
"life-long employment system" is that the companies seldom lay
off their workers. So the workers do not need to worry about
unemployment, if once they get the jobs. The demerit of this system
is that the workers depend to much on the companies. They must be very
loyal to their companies. So the power of the labor union is very weak.
And for example, it is very common in Japan that the white color workers
work ten or eleven hours a day and have very few holidays. If the
workers quit job, it is rather difficult to find new good job and the
salary usually falls down.
The second reason
of the low unemployment rate is that the there are so many housewives
in Japan. About half of the adult women in Japan are housewives. Many
men want their wives to stay at home and to be a housewife is a kind of
status symbol in Japan. When the economic condition becomes bad, companies lay off the part-time women workers and the women go back to housewives. So the unemployment rate does not rise so much. And in Japan housewives can also get the pension as much as their husbands.
In Japan the average retirement age of the public sector and the big companies is about 60 years old and man can get the pension from 60 years old. But most of the pensioners find another jobs and continue to work till 65 years old. Because they need more money or they have nothing to do at home. The
expenditure of the pension is supposed to increase so rapidly in Japan,
so the government plans to put off it till 65 years old.
The women's roles in the labor market in Sweden and in Japan are very different. Concerning the idea that "men should go to work and women stay home", the 1987 survey in Japan found 36.6% of females respondents answered, " Agree" 31.9%, "Disagree" and 29.3%, "Cannot say either way". On the other hand, 51.7% of male respondents, a significantly higher percentage than that recorded by women, answered "Agree".
But the survey i n 1990 , the ratio of " Agree " decreased dramatically -29.3%(Agree), 29.4%(Cannot say which) , and 39.1%(Disagree) -. So the mentality of the Japanese women has been changing rapidly. And the female labor force participation ratios by age group is as follows.
One of the reasons are their companies do not need them any more. The
companies want to lay off the married women and recruit younger women.
Another reason is that in Japan there are not enough number of day-care
center for the children. One of the big difference between two countries is
that the ratio of the female public workers. In Sweden about 70% of the
female workers work at the public sector, but in Japan only 2% female
workers work at the public sector (in 1988). But among the young generation's opinion research. Japanese young people are more similar to the Swedish people. The following statistic is from the 1,000 young people (18 years old -24 years old) in Japan and in Sweden.
So it
is expected that in near future more and more Japanese women will work
outside. |