We begin by highlighting a number of key Japanese work and pay issues. Several topics – such as wage and bonus payments, employment and working time – are dealt with in some depth in later chapters and so we merely draw attention to a number of salient features at this stage. Other areas – such as the length of jobs, unemployment and labour force participation – are discussed in detail here in order to serve as a useful backdrop to related points of interest at later stages. In common with most of the ensuing text, we discuss topics in a comparative international setting.

From an international perspective, interest in Japanese employment, remuneration and labour costs has stemmed, primarily, from perceived differences in organisation and performance compared to other major industrial economies. One theme of the book is to question the extent to which Japanese differences are real or apparent. Four examples are as follows. First, in chapter 3, we question the degree to which the Japanese enterprise union system is unique. Second, in chapter 5, we examine the cases for and against the claim that the bonus system constitutes a unique form of remuneration. Third, we consider in the present chapter whether Japanese post-war unemployment experience has been significantly different from elsewhere. Fourth, in the present chapter and elsewhere, we investigate whether job tenure and labour turnover and their relationships to wage growth have played a distinct role in Japan.