North
Biographic Data
| ID | 88282 |
|---|---|
| NAME | North |
| FAMILY NAME | North |
| SIGNATURE | NORTH |
| AFFILIATIONS | Osaka University of Human Sciences |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-5576-7837 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 9 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 9 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 9 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2007 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2024 |
| H-INDEX | 2 |
Litigating Equal Pay for Equal Work in Japan, 2012-2020
Litigation and courts have been important arbiters of labour policy reforms aimed at redressing Japan's growing social inequality. This article considers seven lawsuits brought by non-regular workers, who sought to use Article 20 of the 2012 Labour Contracts Act to gain equal pay for equal work. All seven cases reached Japan's Supreme Court amid Abe Shinzō's 2018 labour reforms. The Court's interpretations reaffirmed employer discretion in catego…
Abe Shinzō's Campaign to Reform the Japanese Way of Work
Prime Minister Abe Shinzō has made Work Style Reform (hatarakikata kaikaku) part of his core policy agenda, promising above all to remedy the Japanese way of work's two greatest problems: dangerously long work hours and grossly unequal wage gaps between regular and non-regular workers. However, critics charge that the proposals will likely aggravate these problems, given that labor policymaking is dominated by conservative business and political …
Hope found in lives lost: Karoshi and the pursuit of worker rights in Japan
Japanese social order emphasizes a superior’s responsibility for their subordinates’ well-being. This traditional “right to benevolence” is a wellspring of hope for workers. This paper describes how, in the wake of changes in employment practices since the mid-1970s, citizens’ groups and labor lawyers creatively combined advances in medicine and legal knowledge with this right to benevolence in lawsuits seeking compensation for injuries caused by…
Limited Regular Employment and the Reform of Japan's Division of Labor
Responses to Japanese Prime Minister Abe's proposed labor reforms, which are part of the economic stimulus plan known as Abenomics, are a window on the positions of major stakeholders' social debates in Japan's future. This paper identifies, summarizes, and analyzes six responses to one of the proposed structural reforms: new labor rules that would encourage expansion of "limited regular employment," an employment status between Japan's famous "l…
Deadly virtues: Inner-worldly asceticism and karôshi in Japan
This article explores the relationship between Japanese workers' persistent inner-worldly asceticism and today's globalizing economy. The interplay of values and corporate cultural practices, global market forces and individual health outcomes is illustrated in the case of an Osaka stockbroker killed by overwork (karôshi) during the 1990 Gulf War and resultant collapse of Japan's 'bubble economy'. The analysis centres on corporate documents and e…
Interview with Charles Weathers and Scott North
Negotiating What's 'Natural': Persistent Domestic Gender Role Inequality in Japan
The burden of family work in Japan falls disproportionately on wives, even those who work full time and have relatively high incomes. Japanese household gender culture shows little of the progress toward equality seen in other industrialized nations and this is contributing to delayed family formation and low birth rates. This study of dual-income Japanese families with young children found a degree of increased mutuality in family work being neg…
Overtime Activists Take on Corporate Titans: Toyota, McDonald's and Japan's Work Hour Controversy
Japan’s long work hours generate high human and economic costs. Even between 2002 and 2008, when Japan enjoyed a growing economy, the media regularly reported cases of workers felled by strokes and heart attacks or driven to depression or suicide by unrelenting job demands. Work hours are a major impediment to equal opportunity, since working mothers cannot devote the long hours expected of professional employees and so must opt for low-paying, l…
The End of Overtime Pay: More Production or Just More Work for Japan's White Collar Workers
Seeking a "21st-century way of working" that promotes increased labor productivity and "diverse work styles," Japan's Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare (MHLW) has issued a report recommending major changes to work hour regulations. The centerpiece of the proposal is an exemption from overtime pay for white-collar workers
Hope found in lives lost: Karoshi and the pursuit of worker rights in Japan
Japanese social order emphasizes a superior’s responsibility for their subordinates’ well-being. This traditional “right to benevolence” is a wellspring of hope for workers. This paper describes how, in the wake of changes in employment practices since the mid-1970s, citizens’ groups and labor lawyers creatively combined advances in medicine and legal knowledge with this right to benevolence in lawsuits seeking compensation for injuries caused by…
Overtime Activists Take on Corporate Titans: Toyota, McDonald's and Japan's Work Hour Controversy
Japan’s long work hours generate high human and economic costs. Even between 2002 and 2008, when Japan enjoyed a growing economy, the media regularly reported cases of workers felled by strokes and heart attacks or driven to depression or suicide by unrelenting job demands. Work hours are a major impediment to equal opportunity, since working mothers cannot devote the long hours expected of professional employees and so must opt for low-paying, l…
Litigating Equal Pay for Equal Work in Japan, 2012-2020
Litigation and courts have been important arbiters of labour policy reforms aimed at redressing Japan's growing social inequality. This article considers seven lawsuits brought by non-regular workers, who sought to use Article 20 of the 2012 Labour Contracts Act to gain equal pay for equal work. All seven cases reached Japan's Supreme Court amid Abe Shinzō's 2018 labour reforms. The Court's interpretations reaffirmed employer discretion in catego…
Deadly virtues: Inner-worldly asceticism and karôshi in Japan
This article explores the relationship between Japanese workers' persistent inner-worldly asceticism and today's globalizing economy. The interplay of values and corporate cultural practices, global market forces and individual health outcomes is illustrated in the case of an Osaka stockbroker killed by overwork (karôshi) during the 1990 Gulf War and resultant collapse of Japan's 'bubble economy'. The analysis centres on corporate documents and e…
The End of Overtime Pay: More Production or Just More Work for Japan's White Collar Workers
Seeking a "21st-century way of working" that promotes increased labor productivity and "diverse work styles," Japan's Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare (MHLW) has issued a report recommending major changes to work hour regulations. The centerpiece of the proposal is an exemption from overtime pay for white-collar workers
Negotiating What's 'Natural': Persistent Domestic Gender Role Inequality in Japan
The burden of family work in Japan falls disproportionately on wives, even those who work full time and have relatively high incomes. Japanese household gender culture shows little of the progress toward equality seen in other industrialized nations and this is contributing to delayed family formation and low birth rates. This study of dual-income Japanese families with young children found a degree of increased mutuality in family work being neg…
Overtime Activists Take on Corporate Titans: Toyota, McDonald's and Japan's Work Hour Controversy
Japan’s long work hours generate high human and economic costs. Even between 2002 and 2008, when Japan enjoyed a growing economy, the media regularly reported cases of workers felled by strokes and heart attacks or driven to depression or suicide by unrelenting job demands. Work hours are a major impediment to equal opportunity, since working mothers cannot devote the long hours expected of professional employees and so must opt for low-paying, l…
Interview with Charles Weathers and Scott North
Deadly virtues: Inner-worldly asceticism and karôshi in Japan
This article explores the relationship between Japanese workers' persistent inner-worldly asceticism and today's globalizing economy. The interplay of values and corporate cultural practices, global market forces and individual health outcomes is illustrated in the case of an Osaka stockbroker killed by overwork (karôshi) during the 1990 Gulf War and resultant collapse of Japan's 'bubble economy'. The analysis centres on corporate documents and e…
Limited Regular Employment and the Reform of Japan's Division of Labor
Responses to Japanese Prime Minister Abe's proposed labor reforms, which are part of the economic stimulus plan known as Abenomics, are a window on the positions of major stakeholders' social debates in Japan's future. This paper identifies, summarizes, and analyzes six responses to one of the proposed structural reforms: new labor rules that would encourage expansion of "limited regular employment," an employment status between Japan's famous "l…
Hope found in lives lost: Karoshi and the pursuit of worker rights in Japan
Japanese social order emphasizes a superior’s responsibility for their subordinates’ well-being. This traditional “right to benevolence” is a wellspring of hope for workers. This paper describes how, in the wake of changes in employment practices since the mid-1970s, citizens’ groups and labor lawyers creatively combined advances in medicine and legal knowledge with this right to benevolence in lawsuits seeking compensation for injuries caused by…
Abe Shinzō's Campaign to Reform the Japanese Way of Work
Prime Minister Abe Shinzō has made Work Style Reform (hatarakikata kaikaku) part of his core policy agenda, promising above all to remedy the Japanese way of work's two greatest problems: dangerously long work hours and grossly unequal wage gaps between regular and non-regular workers. However, critics charge that the proposals will likely aggravate these problems, given that labor policymaking is dominated by conservative business and political …
Litigating Equal Pay for Equal Work in Japan, 2012-2020
Litigation and courts have been important arbiters of labour policy reforms aimed at redressing Japan's growing social inequality. This article considers seven lawsuits brought by non-regular workers, who sought to use Article 20 of the 2012 Labour Contracts Act to gain equal pay for equal work. All seven cases reached Japan's Supreme Court amid Abe Shinzō's 2018 labour reforms. The Court's interpretations reaffirmed employer discretion in catego…
Political science (7 works) · Economics (6 works) · Labour economics (4 works) · Law (4 works) · Employment and Welfare Studies (3 works) · Engineering (3 works) · Labor Movements and Unions (3 works) · Mechanical Engineering (3 works) · Sociology (3 works) · Asian Industrial and Economic Development (2 works)