Several Aspects on Non-regular Employees in Recent Japan

Ryo Kambayashi

March 2010

Abstract

By using microdata of Employment Status Survey between 1982 and 2007, this article describes several aspects on the non-regular employees in the Japanese labor markets. The main findings are as follows: (1) the increased non-regular employees are ‘regular’ in terms of contractual length but ‘non-regular’ in terms of their title in workplaces. (2) Typical attributes of non-regular workers with open-ended contract are young, over mandatory retirement age, and female. (3) Expansion of such workers since 1980s has not been punctually corresponded with the change of regular workers, for which the change of non-regular workers with fixed-term contract should be responsible. (4) The difference of contractual length does not affect the wage rate, labor hours, and training incentives than the difference of title does. These findings imply, in the Japanese labor markets, the actual title in workplaces may divide the workers' career much more than the contractual length would differentiate it.

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