Risutora : the impact of globalization and restructuring upon women in the Japanese workforce.

This thesis is an analysis of the relationship between gender and globalization in one
specific national context: Japan. Japan's position as an affluent, industrialized liberal
democracy, with a distinctive model of capitalism, means that Japanese women's
experiences of globalization differ from those of women both elsewhere in Asia, and
in other First World countries. The actions of the Japanese state and Japanese
companies have been instrumental in the globalization of production, which is now
having reciprocal effects upon the Japanese national model of capitalism. In
response to global economic change, the Japanese model of capitalism is being
intentionally restructured through company practice and legal change. This
restructuring (risutora) impacts differently upon men and women, as the liberalizing
processes associated with globalization interact with specific local institutions,
including the ideal of the three generation family and the position of women in the
Japanese national model of capitalism.
After an analysis of the mainstream literature about globalization, the state and
historical institutionalism and feminist literature about gender and globalization, the
thesis demonstrates that the complex trends associated with globalization have
produced pressures for two kinds of, ostensibly contradictory, employment reforms in
Japan. There are pressures for labour market deregulation, to increase the
international competitiveness of Japanese production. There are also pressures for
the 're'-regulation of labour to establish a principle of sexual equality at work. The
deregulation of employment, including the removal of sex-specific protective
legislation, has made it increasingly difficult for many women to pursue full-time
careers. A detailed examination of the impact of the Equal Employment
Opportunities Law (EEOL) shows that this legislation has led to the formalization of
the gender-based segregation of regular workers, and encouraged employers to
employ an increasing proportion of women in non-regular positions. Nevertheless,
social and political changes, which are also associated with globalization, are leading
an increasing number of women to seek higher status careers or longer tenure in the
workforce. These changes are also providing campaigners for women's labour rights
with new opportunities for effective action, as this thesis demonstrates, using a case
study of an activist group.