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Araki TakashiJapan Institute of Labor, Tokyo, 2002. 234 pp.ISBN 4-538-71018-0
Research on labour and employment in Japan by Western academics sometimes lacks precision regarding employment law and, as a result, may reach conclusions that are sometimes at variance, in one way or another, with current employment practice. Partly this is because, although many employment regulations have been translated into English and are readily available to researchers, it is legal practice rather than statute that often sets normative standards of behaviour. Partly, also, it is because English language texts on Japanese labour law are treated as sections within larger and more general and more theoretical treatises on Japanese law in its entirety, and as a consequence, do not fully deal with the complexity of labour law in particular and its socioeconomic context.
The problem of a relative lack of good material in English on Japanese labour and employment law not only affects academic research, it also impacts upon the ability of foreign employers to understand both principle and practice in Japanese employment management; and it may prevent foreign employees resident in Japan from understanding their own legal position. Having lived and worked in Japan myself for a number of years, I can say with some personal authority that there is a chronic lack of knowledge about employment law among foreign residents of Japan, and this can encourage some employers in adopting what might be termed 'loose' practices with respect to these employees.
So the Japan Institute of Labor and Professor Araki should be congratulated for producing a succinct yet comprehensive and accurate as well as up-to-date survey of Japanese labour and employment law. The book begins with an introduction that sets the law within the context of the Japanese labour force, the economy, and their recent development. This is an important point to address because Japanese law is both statutory, with the Constitution as its foundation, and customary as it tries to reflect social practice as well as regulate...