Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, February 26, 1993 TAG: 9302260124
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: A-5 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: TOKYO LENGTH: Medium
THE DREADED `KATA TATAKI' JARS JAPAN'S JOB SECURITY
THE JAPANESE LANGUAGE has a graphic vocabulary to describe losing one's job, and Japanese companies are often loath to fire their employees outright - or, literally, "cut off their heads." But some workers say they're being harassed into quitting.
The image of major Japanese companies as paternalistic, lifetime employers is taking a beating as workers protest tactics that force them out of their jobs without even a whisper of the dreaded word "layoff."
As recession strains the traditionally Japanese intimate ties between managers and their employees, workers are protesting the loss of their "right to work." Meanwhile, employers argue they must make personnel cuts, however painful, to survive.
Some economists say that as Japan's economy matures, even top corporations will have to adapt with more flexible policies on hiring and firing, leading to a job market more closely resembling that of the West.
When Japan's economy boomed in the 1980s, many manufacturers dallied in their task of trimming hundreds of thousands of what analysts called redundant workers from their payrolls.
Major corporations are softening the bad news with special programs to help employees make a "soft landing" - cutting jobs through attrition, voluntary early retirements and reduced new hiring.
Yet behind the paternalistic facade is a harsher reality.
Phones rang nonstop at a hot line recently set up by the Japan Labor Defense Counsel to handle complaints from people who said companies were using harassment to force them to quit.
Many complaints were from managerial employees, including one who said he was forced to work alone in a dim basement after refusing to resign. Another was ordered to a remote company branch, where he was told to cut trees and write a daily composition.
"Sometimes companies have to send workers off to branch offices. If the economy gets worse, some might have to fire their employees. But they often fail to clearly explain the reasons for the changes and that leads to misunderstandings," said Yukio Inoue, a lawyer in one of the offices running the hot line.
The mostly older white-collar and managerial employees affected by these changes have been outraged to discover what blue-collar workers in smaller companies have always known: that lifetime employment is often limited to a handful of top companies that employ a If employees refuse early retirement, they may face pay cuts or be assigned tasks considered demeaning, a practice known as "iyagarase," or annoyance. small fraction of the 50 million-plus Japanese labor force.
Thousands of part-time employees and workers at smaller companies have seen their jobs disappear, sometimes overnight. But a labor shortage in the construction and service industries has kept the unemployment rate at a relatively low 2.4 percent.
Japan's jobless rate excludes members of the armed forces and anyone employed for more than one hour in the last week of the month. It would be higher if calculated by U.S. or European methods.
The Japanese language has a very graphic vocabulary to describe losing one's job - perhaps a reflection of how deeply such losses are taken.
Japanese companies are often loath to fire their employees outright - or, literally, "cut off their heads." Instead of receiving the dreaded "kata tataki," some workers are made to feel unwelcome with a request for "voluntary" early retirements.
If they refuse, they may face pay cuts or be assigned tasks considered demeaning, a practice known as "iyagarase," or annoyance.
Because employees of Japanese firms rarely have specific job descriptions, they're expected to do just about anything their companies ask.
Still, the impact of thousands of job cutbacks has been far less severe for Japanese workers than for the hundreds of thousands of American workers laid off because of corporate cutbacks.
When 2,200 employees at electronics maker Hitachi Ltd. were furloughed for four days last fall, they still received 90 percent of their salaries.
Nissan Motor Co. said this week it would cut its Japanese work force by 5,000, closing one factory, because of an unexpectedly severe sales slump. But it said the reductions will be through attrition and reduced hiring.
Mitsubishi Heavy Industries also said it would eliminate 400 jobs through attrition and retirements over the next two years.
"Our company policy is to not lay people off. We do it naturally and gradually," said Mitsubishi Heavy Industries spokesman Yasushi Kawano.
Even such gentle cutbacks are controversial in Japan. This is particularly true for subsidiaries of foreign firms, which have been singled out in Japanese media reports.
When IBM Japan Ltd. recently confirmed plans to cut 1,200 jobs using a voluntary early retirement program, it was front-page news.
"American-Style Firings Have Hit Japan, Terrifying Employees of Foreign Firms," shouted a headline in the weekly Asahi magazine.
The article accused several foreign firms of unfairly forcing employees out by cutting off their phone lines, disabling computerized-entry keys and other forms of "bullying."