ARC Guest lecture on Japan by Dr. Harald Conrad

ARC Seminar by Dr. Harald Conrad, University of Sheffield

Goodbye Seniority Principle? - Evidence and Explanations for Changes in Japanese Compensation Practices since the 1990s

Since the burst of the bubble economy in the early 1990s, changes in Japanese pay practices have received increased attention both in academia and the media. The focus has been on the extent to which the hitherto predominately seniority related compensation practices are being replaced by more performance-based salary systems and what kind of problems are associated with such changes.

Seniority-based pay (nenkō joretsu chingin) was one of the 'three pillars of the Japanese employment system'; the two others being lifetime employment (shūshin koyō) and in-house company unions (kigyōbetsu kumiai). Just as with many other features of the Japanese economic system it has recently come under increased scrutiny and has been criticized for being too costly and ill-suited to motivate and retain workers in the fast-changing business environment. Given the prevalence of this practice, any changes are significant for our understanding of contemporary Japanese management practices.

In his talk, Dr. Harald Conrad will address how Japanese compensation practices have evolved historically, which factors have influenced recent pay system reforms and how an interaction of costs, complementarities, and contingencies can explain the nature of these changes.

Dr. Harald CONRAD is Sasakawa Lecturer in Japan's Economy and Management at the University of Sheffield's School of East Asian Studies. From 2000 to 2008 he worked in Japan as Research Fellow and Deputy Director of the German Institute for Japanese Studies and Associate Professor at Ritsumeikan Asia Pacific University. 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).