Skills Development and Labor Union in Japan 1
2. Vocational Training in Japan
1) Transition of Government Policy on Vocational Training
In this overview, the postwar government policy on vocational training will be divided into three phases, not by the absolute weight the government placed on different aspects of vocational training but merely in relative terms.
(1) Phase of Emphasis on Public System of Vocational Training
After World War II, the institutional arrangements in Japan for vocation training were somehow established when the Vocational Training Law of 1958 was enacted. As the voice rose in the second half of the 1950s that active administrative measures to secure skilled labor and enhance skill standards were urgently needed in order for Japan to attain economic independence, the Vo- cational Training Law was instituted to meet the social demand for the establishment of a compre- hensive vocational training system to ensure organized training in various skills to maintain and foster skilled labor and improve skill standards. Under this Vocational Training Law, vocational training is classified into public vocational training and intra-company vocational training. This study will mainly focus on intra-company vocational training. An arrangement for intra-company vocational training is authorized as accredited vocational training, which is allowed access to such benefits as the use of public vocational training facilities, assignment of vocational training instruc- tors, and the supply of textbooks, teaching aids and other necessary reference materials. An entre- preneur providing a course of accredited vocational training was authorized to issue completion certificates to trainees having completed the course (Iwasaki 1979:25).
In the early 1960s, as the national economy had to adapt itself to a chronic labor shortage, the rise in the average educational level of workers and the progress of technological innovation resulted in qualitative and quantitative changes of the skilled labor, it became necessary to train and secure the supply of new types of skilled workers responsible to these changes, and the vocational train- ing system had to be updated and developed accordingly. In view of these needs, the Vocational Training Law was substantially revised in 1969. The revision included the following main points.
a) Regarding the objectives of the law, it was expressly stated that (a) vocationally capable workers should be brought up by providing them with vocational training and testing them for skills, and (b) vocational training should be provided in principle in a phased plan and systematically throughout the whole span of workers’ vocational lives. b) In order to ensure well planned implementation of vocational training and skill testing, a basic program of vocational training shall be formulated. c) A legally prescribed vocational training scheme shall be set forth to integrate vocational training provided by public vocational training facilities with accredited vocational training provided by employers and the like, and this legally prescribed vocational training was divided into five catego- ries including recruit training, advanced training, training for ability redevelopment, retraining and instructor training. d) As public vocational training facilities, special vocational schools, higher vocational schools, vocational colleges and vocational schools for the physically handicapped shall be allocated respective due positions. e) Vocational training provided by employers, etc., and satisfying prescribed standards shall be authorized as accredited vocational training. As a result, the scope of accredited vocational training which had been limited to recruit training under the Vocational Training Law of 1958 was expanded to cover all the legally prescribed categories of vo- cational training, and provisions regarding official assistance to accredited vocational training were enhanced in level and expanded in scope. Finally, f) regarding skill testing, skill tests and paper tests were prescribed for every job class to be defined by the Minister of Labor by Cabinet order (Takanashi 1995:519).
The revised Vocational Training Law of 1969 defined five categories of vocational training as stated above, but the emphasis in its implementation was placed on expanding and strengthening the recruit training of fresh graduates and, allegedly, know-how in this area alone was built up with the inadvertent consequence of disregarding other aspects (Iwasaki 1979:158). Such recruit train- ing intended for new graduates, especially graduates from junior high schools (two years’ course
for them) is criticized by some (Takanashi 1982:184)2 as being of little social importance because, according to the critics, it ended up as an institution of “dropout education” for those unable to go to senior high school and discouraged the youngsters from studying. Furthermore, even though the revised law was intended to integrate vocational training provided by public vocational training with the system of vocational training provided by employers, etc., there was no change in the per- ceived priority of public vocational training. Vocational training measures were implemented with primary emphasis on public vocational training, and vocational training provided by employers, etc. and education or training provided by private sector institutions were given only secondary consideration. These non-public education and training were belittled in the official framework of vocational training, and remained in a state of under-evaluation and inadequate positioning (Iwasaki 1979:159).
Thus, in this period, the main target of the official vocational training policy was fresh graduates.
As they were not union members, there was little room for labor unions to participate in any spe- cific form in the government initiatives for vocational training.
(2) Phase of Policy Emphasis on Vocational Training by Private Enterprises
In 1974, the Employment Insurance Law was enacted, marking a major change in the legal basis of the official employment policy. The Employment Insurance Law replaced, and represented a step ahead from, the former Unemployment Insurance Law. The new law not only covered unemploy- ment and job stability problems, but also addressed the issues of developing the conditions and laying the ground for better-off and fuller occupational life. Namely it aimed at full employment both in quality and in quantity. Under this law, projects for improvement of employment, ability development and welfare of employees were implemented in addition to the provision of insurance benefits to the unemployed. In 1977, projects for employment stabilization were added. Through these projects, the Employment Insurance Law developed into an institutional arrangement with comprehensive employment-related functions including not only the livelihood stabilization of the unemployed but also the promotion of their reemployment, prevention of unemployment, ability
2. Other problems in public vocational training after the revision of the Vocational Training Law in 1969 include: the skills taught were predominantly those in the manufacturing and construction industries with little coverage of white collar skills in the service industries, etc. where the demand for labor was increasing; the coverage of skills taught in ability redevelopment training for the unemployed and workers wishing to transfer to other jobs was also limited, together with the relative ineffectiveness of the training given; the obsolescence and inflexibility of training manuals, which accordingly were not responsive to technical advances, and the inadequate capabilities of instructors, who themselves were not sufficiently retrained and therefore unable to provide sufficient training to really meet social needs (Takanashi 1982:184-185).
development of workers and enhancement of their welfare.
Out of the three areas of employment insurance projects, ability development projects included, first, development and improvement of facilities for and contents of public vocational training with lifelong education (recruit training, advanced training, training for ability redevelopment and so forth) in mind; second, subsidies available to employers covering employed persons (financial as- sistance to accredited training, subsidies for projects to promote vocational training, financial assis- tance to smaller entrepreneurs encouraging employees to take paid vacations to receive education and/or training); third, benefits paid to laid-off workers and prospective retirees to cover tuition fees for vocational lectures or vocational training and, fourth, development of a skill certification system and financial support to organizations providing such testing and certification services.
The implementation of ability development projects made important contributions to the development of the vocational training system as it served to enrich and strengthen the contents of vocation training projects under the Vocational Training Law and to identify the financial resources available for them. At the same time, the implementation of those projects was also significant in the sense that it brought about a new turning point upon the vocational training system which pre- viously had as its main targets the recruit training of fresh graduates primarily carried out at public vocational training facilities. Thus, ability development projects, based on vocational training activities under the Vocational Training Law, ushered in such new tools as the promotional system for outside vocational training of employees and that for use of paid vacations to receive educa- tion and/or training with a view to establishing a lifelong training system, and the development from a vocational training system to a comprehensive ability development system it triggered was significant indeed (Iwasaki 197947-48). Ability development projects were also intended to help develop and improve ability throughout the occupational lives of the insured workers to prevent unemployment, stabilize employment and promote early reemployment of workers who have lost jobs (Takanashi 1995:521).
Other related arrangements include the employment adjustment subsidy system for financially as- sisting companies in the education and training of employees. This system is intended to prevent dismissal of workers by compensating employers who have been obliged to compress their busi- ness activities by a recession, a change in industrial structure or a like circumstance and provided for education and training of employees in this connection for part of the wages they pay to these
employees3.
Thus, the Employment Insurance Law significantly impacted the vocational training system by not only contributing to enriching the vocational training system under the Vocational Training Law but also implying the desirable directions of the encouragement of comprehensive ability develop- ment for lifelong training in an age of slower economic growth and the positioning of education and training in the employment policy. Further, as the employer was required to bear the financial burden of projects in the four areas under the Employment Insurance Law, official support to vo- cational training came to be concentrated on training activities carried out by employers and their organizations. Beyond that, through such support, the priority in government policy was shifted from public vocational training in the previous phase to vocational training given by private enter- prises in relative terms.
In 1978, four years after the enactment of this Employment Insurance Law, the Vocational Training Law was revised. The main points of the revision can be identified as shifts, first, from the domi- nance of public vocational training to a training system based on integrated public-private initia- tives; second, from the legally prescribed vocational training to diverse vocational training; third, from concentration on skill-oriented jobs to the development and improvement of a broad range of vocational capabilities and, forth, from the dominance of recruit training of fresh graduates to lifelong education and training (Iwasaki 1979:158-65, Takanashi 1995:529-530). Underlying this revision was the factual perception that “technical workers have actually been trained, apart from official measures for vocational training, by employers, their organizations and private sector in- stitutions for education and training.” Mirroring this perception, the government admitted that
“the contents of public vocational training have tended to lag behind industry’s needs for skills and knowledge” and moreover, “it is essentially desirable for the contents and methods of voca- tional training to be determined between the labor and the management to appropriately meet their needs, and there are only a few industries and job categories where intervention by public policy is required.” Thus, there was a perception that “what is needed before everything else is expanded implementation of vocational training in the private sector at the initiatives of employers, etc.”
Furthermore, the Ministry of Labor had prospects that “to keep abreast of the likely increased proportion of the service industries in the overall economy, it is required to develop and enhance
3. Employment adjustment subsidies are also available to employers who have laid off or transferred part of their workforces besides their coverage of education and training of employees.
the occupational ability of not only technical workers but also employees of the tertiary industries, who constitute a majority of the workforce in general” (Iwasaki 1979; Endo 1975:132).
The Ministry of Labor in 1984 reorganized its Vocational Training Bureau into the Human Resources Development Bureau for more effective implementation of vocational training and ability development, better adapted to changes in industrial structure, technological innovation and the advancing average age of the population to enable itself to more broadly address the require- ments of vocational ability development. Further in 1985, the Vocational Training Law was abol- ished, and the Vocational Abilities Promoting Law was enacted instead. These actions embody the ministry’s intention to develop a system that can facilitate the development of vocational abilities adapted to changing trends of the times (Employment Promotion Corporation 1997:3). The renam- ing of the bureau from “Vocational Training” to “Human Resources Development” was motivated by the ministry’s reflection on its previous vocational training policy which mainly focused on young technical workers mainly in the secondary industries and was regarded as being intended to develop primarily manual skills based on the traditional concept of job classification. Based on this reflection, the ministry perceived the needs for a) the development of abilities specifically required in different phases of the whole span of each person’s occupational life from recruitment to retirement, b) the development of abilities of workers in not only the secondary industries but also in a broad spectrum of sectors, and c) the development of abilities utilizing a variety of oppor- tunities for education and training in addition to vocational training mainly intended for workers’
learning of skills (Nomiyama 1987:95, Employment Promotion Corporation 1992:36-37).
The basic principles of the Vocational Abilities Promoting Law are a) to recognize the importance of autonomous education and training in the private sector and to strengthen the guidance of and support to such activities, and b) to activate public vocational training by implementing it on an au- tonomous and flexible basis with a view to comprehensive and deliberate implementation of ability development over the whole span of each worker’s occupational life. Worthy of particular note here is that the Ministry of Labor clearly shifted its policy priority from the previous core of public vocational training to autonomous education and training at private sector initiatives, which were now given greater emphasis.
In addition to the shift of priority to occupational training at private sector initiatives, a notable development in the early 1990s was a new emphasis placed on vocational training of white collar workers. Thus, on top of the traditional focus on blue collar workforce, importance was recog-
nized of developing the abilities of white collar employees. In 1993, a vocational ability learn- ing system (dubbed the business career system) was instituted to support phased and systematic endeavors to develop the abilities of the white collar, and in 1997 the Lifelong Human Resources Development Center (Ability Garden4) was set up as a core of comprehensive development of the vocational abilities of the white collar.
The vocational training policy of the government in this phase targeted on companies or their associations undertaking vocational training. One of the reasons for this focus was that the budget of the government expenditure for vocational training covered the four areas (three areas now) of projects for which only employees pay under the employment insurance scheme, and the government support was provided to companies paying insurance premiums for the four areas of projects. For this reason, in this phase again, there was basically no room for labor unions to actively participate in various official measures pertaining to vocational training.
(3) Phase of Policy Emphasis on Development of Vocational Abilities of Individuals
What triggered a major change in the vocational training policy of the Japanese government was the training and education benefits system. The training and education benefits system was launched in December 1998. Under the training and education benefits system which is intended to support workers in their voluntary efforts to develop their own abilities by helping stabilize their employment and facilitating their placement, a benefit is paid to each worker having received and completed any course accredited by the Minister of Labor5 for vocational education and/or training (a reference material released by the Ministry of Labor 1998).
The most significant aspect of the training and education benefits is that they are paid to individual workers. The factors that underlay the institution of this system include a) the importance of cre- ative human resources and original technical resources that can provide high value-added new products and services, b) in spite of the increasing need for the development of individual workers’
4. The Ability Garden (Lifelong Human Resources Development Center) was set up as a core of comprehensive activities regarding the vocational abilities of the white collar. It derived from the perceived importance of lifelong development and enhancement of vocational abilities for white collar workers in seeking satisfaction in occupational life in the increasing sophistication and complexity of their duties in the context of progressively automated business environment and the extensive use of information and communication technology exemplified by the Internet.
5. In order to be accredited by the Ministry of Labor, an educational/training facility should satisfy every one of the following conditions. a) It should be able to provide the intended education/training continuously in a steady manner; b) it should have an adequate organization and equipment for appropriately providing the intended education/training, and c) it should be able to cooperate in the proper implementation of the training and education benefits system.
vocational abilities under the growing influence of meritocracy on personnel affairs and labor man- agement in corporations, the presence of barriers, in terms of time and money, to self-enlightening initiatives6, and c) the expected contribution of ability development to the stabilization of employ- ment by enhancing the employability of workers by any corporation.
First to outline the system, to be eligible for the benefits, a worker should a) be employed (generally insured under the employment insurance system) on the starting day of the educational/training course and have been insured for at least five years by that day, or b) be unemployed (for not more than one year) on the starting day of the course and have been insured for at least five years before that day. A person falling under b) is a beneficiary of this system in the unemployed category. A beneficiary shall be paid 80% (with an upper limit of ￥300,000) of the admission and tuition fees he or she has paid, but if the sum is no more than ￥8,000, no benefit shall be paid7. To receive the payment, an eligible person is required to file a request with the Public Employment Security Of- fice competent for the locality of his or her residence after the completion of the educational/train- ing course8.
Under this scheme, 3,445 courses are designated including 770 for accreditation under the business carrier system.
The system was launched in December 1998, and the payment of benefits to persons having completed a course began in March 1999. Pertinent statistics until 2012 year are listed in Chart 1.
Both the number of beneficiaries and the sum of benefits increased remarkably and reached peak in 2003. The number, however, started to decrease with economic recovery in earlier half of 2000s and has decreased continually since then. Recently the number is less.
6. Nobu Watanabe 2001：145-146
7. The system has changed with the time, and the contents as of October, 2014 are as follows. Qualification to be a recipient is more than unemployment insurance subscription period 1 year, a payout is 20% of education-and-training cost (the 100,000 yen limit during one year), and the education-and-training cost for provision is 4000 yen or more. Moreover, "special and actual training course" started as one subsystem of education and training benefit system from October, 2014. Qualification to be a recipient is more than unemployment insurance subscription period 2 years or more, a payout is 40% (320,000 yen limit during one year) of training cost, etc.
8. To be recognized as having completed the course, a written certificate of completion is required. The certificate should expressly state the starting date if the course requires physical attendance or, if it is a correspondence course, the school regulations, educational rules or the like should include an express provision about the start of the course. The criteria of recognizing completion should be expressed in such objective indicators as the rate of attendance and the passing mark of the completion test and be made clearly known to the trainee at the time he or she applies for admission so that no trouble may arise between the trainee and the institution providing the course.