Japan: Retention of Older Workers Becoming More Difficult with Changing Evaluation Systems

A Japan government white paper has been released finding increased unhappiness among Japanese workers who have complaints over pay, lack of vacations and a decline in morale. Among other things, the paper also reports that retaining older staff has been a challenge for companies trying to avert a labor crunch.

According to a Reuters story on the paper, "older workers were switching jobs because they failed to get along with colleagues or were unhappy with how they were being evaluated at companies using performance-based management."

Under Japan's traditional lifetime employment system, employees were guaranteed promotions and pay increases as they grew older, regardless of performance.

"For an effective performance-based system, efforts are needed to improve the implementation of the wage system, such as making clear the basis for evaluation and providing detailed explanations for the assessments," the white paper said.

Source: Reuters "Japanese workers more unhappy, government report says" (July 22, 2008)