Change and Continuity in Japanese Compensation Practices

Asia research Centre invites you to a guest lecture by

Dr. Harald Conrad

School of East Asian Studies, University of Sheffield

on

"Change and Continuity in Japanese Compensation Practices: The Case of Occupational Pensions since the Early 2000s"

A large body of literature has highlighted the special nature and embeddedness of Japan's business and employment practices ('The Japanese Model'), characterizing the country as a coordinated market economy as opposed to liberal market economies such as the US and UK . However, recent research has established that Japanese firms have changed rapidly since the 1990s. For example, main bank relationships, corporate finance and governance patterns as well as inter-firm relationships have undergone considerable transformations. These changes have raised the question whether Japanese firms are adopting practices that are predominant in liberal market economies or whether new models may be emerging.

The key argument this lecture will develop is that in the field of Japanese occupational pensions we cannot witness changes that point to a convergence towards approaches that characterize the provision of occupational pensions in liberal market economies, with the US and the UK as the two major representatives. Defined benefit-type pensions have rapidly declined in the US and the UK and have also lost some of their importance in Japan in recent years. However, while this might indicate a somewhat similar trend, there is strong evidence that Japanese occupational pensions are evolving very differently than those in the US and UK. In Japan, defined benefit schemes are now frequently becoming part of newly evolving multi-layered retirement benefit systems that reflect increasingly employee performance indicators. Furthermore, we find a growing diversity of benefit systems, highlighting a growing heterogeneity across firms within the economy.

Dr. Harald CONRAD is Sasakawa Lecturer in Japan's Economy and Management at the University of Sheffield's School of East Asian Studies. Prior to his appointment at the School of East Asian Studies in June 2008, he was Associate Professor at Ritsumeikan Asia Pacific University in Beppu from 2007 to 2008 and Deputy Director of the German Institute for Japanese Studies in Tokyo from 2005 to 2007. He spent a total of twelve years in Japan and received a Ph.D. in Economics from the University of Cologne. Between 2005 and 2008 he was concurrently Japan Representative of the German Friedrich Ebert Foundation in Tokyo. His research focuses on Japanese social policy, human resource management and economic issues related to demographic change. His latest book publications are The Demographic Challenge - a Handbook about Japan, Brill 2008 (co-editor and author) and Human Resource Management in Ageing Societies, Palgrave 2008 (co-editor and author).