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21st Century Shape of Japan Series, No. 6
THE DEVELOPMENT OF HUMAN RESOURCES: FROM COMPANY-FOCUSED TO
INDIVIDUAL-FOCUSED
| Q |
Due to dizzyingly rapid changes in the company
environment and the digitization of the workplace, the human
resources of workers are becoming outdated, and the constant
acquisition of new skills is demanded. What sort of measures
is the government announcing in response to this issue? |
| A |
Measures concerning the development of the human resources
of workers are stated in the "Basic Policies for Macroeconomic
Management and Structural Reform of the Japanese Economy," published
on May 31, 2001 by the Council on Economic and Fiscal Policy,
which is established in the Cabinet Office. For example, [1]
in order to do away with mismatches and promote employment stability
in the midst of increasing labor fluidity, it is necessary to
support voluntary human resources development adapted to meet
the needs of individual work and life plans in addition to company-sponsored
resource development. [2] To this end, the paper promotes the
building of in-company systems of career formation such as systems
of resource development and flexible working hours, and suggests
the need for establishment of the infrastructure of the labor
market. Undertaking to meet these goals amounts to a conversion
from the prior aid for company-focused vocational training toward
support for individual-focused resource development.
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| Q |
What is the reason for this 180-degree turnaround
in government policy? |
| A |
Presently, we are changing over from the era of material
to the era of information and the era of knowledge. It is the
arrival of the so-called knowledge-oriented society and information
society. Intellectual creations brought forth by the human brain
are becoming the core of a society's wealth. That Bill Gates
of Microsoft Corporation became the richest man in the world
is evidence of this. This fact bears witness to the fact that
the core of our nation's wealth is changing from the "physical
products" of heavy industry to the "intellectual-creation products"
of intellectual-creation industries and specialized-knowledge
service industries. Realizing that kind of change in the economic
activity of our nation is the reason for this.
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| Q |
What, specifically, do individual-focused
employment policies comprise? |
| A |
First there is the carrying out of policies toward the development
and employment of the new growth fields that the government
is currently promoting. The prior subsidies for in-company vocational
training have to be revisited and changed to direct financial
support to workers. The products of the new growth fields will
have at their core services produced by the creative activity
of the workers' brains. Thus, whether those services excel or
not will depend on the intellectual level and level of specialization
of the workers who perform those services. The organizational
support of the company will do nothing more than provide basic
preparation and have a secondary effect.
Second there is the change over from the prior company-focused
economic policy to policy towards workers and individuals. This
is the change of emphasis from the Ministry of Economy, Trade
& Industry to the Ministry of Health, Labor & Welfare. One could
call it a change "from capital to labor." This means not giving
favorable treatment to investment and loans to companies but
instead providing loans and scholarships for workers' vocational
training and resource development. This also means the establishment
of systems for the purpose of refining, specializing and advancing
the working power and brains of workers, such as the introduction
of paid leave, study and training systems and lifelong learning
systems. These are already being implemented in Western countries.
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| Q |
Speaking of Western countries, in the United
States, job hunters place advertisements in major newspapers
and mass media describing the kind of work they are seeking.
How would it be if this sort of personal advertisement spread
in Japan as well? |
| A |
In the U.S., newspapers have long carried individuals' situation
wanted advertisements. It seems that one can get a three-line
advertisement for $25. In Japan, this would cost about 500,000
yen. Recently, it became possible to place situation wanted
advertisements on Internet websites. However, there is no system
in which tens and hundreds of such advertisements are gathered
together in one site. In the U.S., such ads are placed on websites
in which large numbers of job hunters gather.
The Ministry of Health, Labor & Welfare should provide support
so that the web pages of large numbers of job hunters are gathered
together. Because major newspapers are treated favorably by
the resale price maintenance exemption system for copyrighted
works, they should cooperate in this from the standpoint of
the public interest.
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| Q |
It seems that there is something called a
"career sheet" in order to prove the career experience of workers.
What is this? |
| A |
When a lateral hire, as opposed to a new hire, is employed,
a work history is usually submitted along with a resume. At
present, job hunters draft these on their own, but not enough
confidence can be placed in the reliability or objectivity such
documents. Because one's future career development and self-development
as a professional continue throughout one's life, it would be
good to approximate something that could authenticate this career.
Accordingly, this might mean steps such as the following: [1]
in the case of studying or training at a private educational
institution, the educational institution issues a certificate
of completion of studies or academic transcript; [2] in the
case of attending college, uniform national units are conferred;
and [3] with respect to one's career within the company, career
certificates are issued in which, to the extent possible, the
human resources department states objectively the worker's actual
work history. By means of such steps, workers would become able
to move securely to another company or into another field.
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| Q |
The education and training benefit system
and contract training business at private educational and training
institutes are already operating under the government's employment
measures, right? However, looking at recent unemployment rate
figures, don't we need even more effective policies? |
| A |
That's right. Japan's worker-focused employment policies
and human resources development policies have only just begun.
The Koizumi Cabinet is resolutely carrying out "structural reform
with nothing sacred." Accordingly, the establishment of an employment
safety net is being hurried along. On this point, I think that
in order to realize the expansion, reproduction and refinement
of workers' working power, the reform of the tax system that
propels this is absolutely necessary.
Recent economic policies have been ineffective because the tax
system that supports them has not been revised. This is because
the tax-system investigative commission of the ruling party
and the government maintains, as ever, a company-focused tax
system and a tax system that places great importance on "material,"
and has not changed to a system that treats individuals advantageously
by supporting their original ideas and the expansion, reproduction
and substantial improvement of workers' working power. This
can be seen, for example, in the following: [1] investments
are made with a focus on recipients of government loans and
investments that are publicly-held companies; [2] consolidated
tax payment is not employed even though holding companies are
institutionalized; [3] a company or individual employer's vocational
training and facilities are deemed necessary expenses, but a
worker's vocational training and facilities purchased to procure
the expansion, reproduction and refinement of his or her own
working power are not allowed as necessary expenses for income
tax purposes; [4] there exists no system of bank loans or scholarships
for expenses to promote the intellectual abilities or intellectual
improvement of individual workers (there are some marginal home
loans); [5] although it is known that 60% or more of GTP comes
from individual consumption, with respect to stock investments
(which bring about individual consumption and investment) the
tax law does not allow individuals to offset profits and losses
or carry losses forward to the following year; [6] in contrast
to the proportional tax rate on company profits regardless of
the size of the company, the taxation of individuals is progressive;
[7] companies do not have anything corresponding to the inheritance
tax on individuals, the inheritance tax for individuals is as
much as 70%, and the basis therefor is said to be the application
of a punitive progressive tax to no more than 5% of taxpayers.
The idea behind the taxation system applied to these individuals
is based on the sense of labor valuation that continues to view
workers as providers of physical labor. It is high time to scrap
this notion. We need to create a culture that does not treat
individuals who make efforts and those who succeed in the capitalist
economy coldly, but that straightforwardly praises them.
The idea in Western countries is based on the principle that
focuses on individualism and respects the original, creative
activities of each individual. This idea is working advantageously
in the advanced knowledge and information era of today. Japan
has made a principle of collective cooperation, and formal equality
has been respected under the principle of the nail that sticks
up being pounded down. Now it is all the more indispensable
that this idea be changed from the perspective of competing
with Western countries.
What is called for is turnaround thinking: from the company
to the individual, from capital to labor, from material to intelligence.
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(Author: The form of question and answer was taken
to clarify the issues.)
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