Hostname: page-component-848d4c4894-4hhp2 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-30T22:19:01.153Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Japanese Teinen Taishoku: How Cultural Values Affect Retirement

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 November 2008

John McCallum
John McCallum
Affiliation:
Department of Sociology, Research School of Social Sciences, The Australian National University, GPO Box 4, Canberra A.C.T. 2601Australia
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Recent international research on retirement neglects the macro social context in which the process occurs. In an attempt to redress this neglect this paper analyses the phenomenon of retirement in Japan. It is argued, firstly, that different understandings of egalitarianism and individualism structure public policies about retirement in different countries. Japan with its different culture but highly developed economy provides a unique point of comparison with other developed countries because it can provide evidence of cultural values affecting individual motivations to action. In Japan, a strong group orientation as opposed to individualism in other developed countries has two consequences relevant to retirement. Firstly, individuals are unwilling to separate from their work group and, secondly, they are not socialised for leisure. Evidence is presented on how macro social factors influence work participation and attitudes. Finally, multivariate analyses show that cultural factors operate in conjunction with economic ones in retirement decisions. It is concluded that macro-social factors cannot be neglected in studying retirement and that caution is needed in taking policy innovations for dealing with population ageing from one culture and another.

Type
Research Article
Information
Ageing & Society , Volume 8 , Issue 1 , March 1988 , pp. 23 - 41
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1988

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

NOTES

1 Palmore, E. B., Burchett, B. M., Fillenbaum, G. G., George, L. K. and Wallman, L. M., Retirement. Causes and Consequences. Springer, New York, 1978, p. ixGoogle Scholar; Review Symposium, Ageing and Society, 6 (1986), 219–237.Google Scholar

2 Coleman, J. S.Social theory, social research, and a theory of action. American Journal of Sociology, 91 (1986), 1309–1335.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

3 See Merrilees, W. J. ‘Economic determinants of retirement’, in Mendelson, R. (ed.), The Finance of Old Age. Centre for Research on Federal Financial Relations, Canberra, 1986, pp. 203–222.Google Scholar

4 Morrison, M. H.Health circumstances – a major factor in the retirement decision. Ageing and Work, 6 (1983), 89–92, 90–1.Google Scholar

5 Coleman, , op. cit., pp. 1327–1328.Google Scholar

6 Phillipson, C.Capitalism and the Construction of Old Age. Macmillan, London, 1982, p. 3.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

7 Keesing, R. M. and Keesing, F. M.New Perspectives in Cultural Anthropology.New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winstor, 1971.Google Scholar

8 Benedict, R.The Chrysanthemum and the Sword: Patterns of Japanese Culture.Boston: Houghton Mufflin, 1946, p. 2.Google Scholar

9 Lebra, T. S.Japanese Patterns of Behavior.Honolulu: The University Press of Hawaii, 1979, p. xiv.Google Scholar

10 Tookee, Suuri Kenkyuujo, Nipponzin no Kokuminsei – (3) Shiseedo, Tokyo, 1975, P. 43.Google Scholar

11 Palmore, E. B.The Honorable Elders. A Cross-Cultural Analysis of Ageing in Japan. Duke University Press, Durham, 1975.Google Scholar

12 Palmore, E. B. and Maeda, D.The Honorable Elders Revisited. Duke University Press, Durham, 1985, p. 49.Google Scholar

13 Caudill, W. A.The influence of social structure and culture on human behaviour in modern Japan, Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease, 157 (1973), 240–57.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed

14 Nipponzin no Kokuminsei (3/4), A Study of the Japanese National Character, Institute of Statistical Mathematics, Idemitsushoten, Tokyo, 1975/1982, p. 22.Google Scholar

15 Okamoto, H., Hibiwarehajimeta ‘Kigyo’ to ‘Shakai’. Ekonomisuto, 12 (1984), 41–46.Google Scholar

16 Hamaguchi, E., ‘The Career Patterns of the Japanese’, in Morioka, K. (ed.), Family and Life Course of Middle-Age Men, The Family and Life Course Study Group, Tokyo, 1985, p. 219.Google Scholar

17 Ibid. p. 222.

18 Naoi, A. & Schooler, C.Occupational conditions and psychological functioning in Japan, American Journal of Sociology, 90 (1985), pp. 729–752.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

19 Doi, T.The Anatomy of Dependence (trans. Bester, J.), Kodansha International, Tokyo, 1973.Google Scholar

20 Naoi, and Schooler, , op. cit.Google Scholar

21 Misumi, J., Proceedings of the International Symposium on Meaning of Working Life. Osaka, Japan, 1983.Google Scholar

22 Prime Minister's Secretariat, International Comparative Survey of the Life and Perception of the Old, Foreign Press Center, Japan, 1981.Google Scholar

23 Abbeglen, J. C.The Japanese Factory: Aspects of its Social Organisation (Glencoe, Ill.: The Free Press, 1958), pp. 99–100Google Scholar, argues the case for continuous transmission of traditional patterns but most accounts show the contrary, e.g. Dore, R. P.British Factory – Japanese Factory (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1973), pp. 385–403.Google Scholar

24 Doi, op. cit., p. 112.Google Scholar

25 McCallum, J., Roojin to Yooka (Old Age and Leisure), Tokyo Shimbun, 16/9/87, p. 3.Google Scholar A recent case involving Toshiaki Yamaguchi, a Tokyo journalist, shows the ambiguity of Japanese attitudes to leisure. While the Government was promoting the need to take full holiday entitlements rather than the 60% take-up at the moment, Yamaguchi lost an appeal against his employer in the Tokyo District Court. He had taken 4 weeks holiday leave in 1980, half his entitlement. His employer objected and took 10 days pay off his end of year bonus. Yamaguchi took the case to Court but it upheld the Company's right to refuse holiday time in a decision in July, 1987.

26 Shakai Gakubu (Faculty of Sociology) Tookyoo to Roojin Soogoo Kenkyujo. Teinen Taishoku Ni Kansuru Chookiteki Kenkyuu [A longitudinal study of the impact of retirement]. Tokyo Metropolitan Institute of Gerontology. Monograph dated 03 1986.Google Scholar

27 Naoi, M. and Okamura, K.Teinenki ni Okeru Shokugyoo. Seikatsu no Henka. Kikan Roodoohoo, 1986, 141, 64–79.Google Scholar

28 Hayashi, H.Occupational satisfaction after retirement. Shakai Roonengaku, 1987, 26, 18–28.Google Scholar

29 Furuya, K. and Martin, L. G., Employment and Retirement of Older Workers in Japan. Nihon University Population Research Institute Paper Series No. 8, 12, 1981, p. 2.Google Scholar

30 Robinson, D., Sutton, T. and McMahon, P.An International Comparison of Labour Supply, Bureau of Labour Market Research Working Paper No. 30, Canberra, 1983.Google Scholar

31 Inagami, T.Extension of mandatory retirement and changes in personnel management, Japan Labor Bulletin, 12 (1980).Google Scholar

32 Matsumura, K. ‘Occupational status and life patterns in retirement’, in Aoi, K. and Wada, S.Chukonenreiso no Shokugyo to Seikatsu, Tokyo University Press, Tokyo, 1983.Google Scholar

33 Shannon, P.Labour force participation rates in Australia and selected countries: the effects on age structures. Social Security Journal, 12 (1985), 14–18Google Scholar and Robinson, et al. , op. cit., p. 48.Google Scholar

34 Ozawa, W. N.Social security reform in Japan. Social Service Review, 09 1985, 476–495.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

35 McCallum, J. Economic needs and resources of the Australian elderly. Paper presented at Seminar on Research on Ageing in Asia and the Pacific, Singapore, September, 1987.

36 Policy Planning and Research Department, Monthly contact earnings by size of enterprise and age group, Ministry of Labor, Ministers Secretariat, Tokyo, 1985.

37 Woodland, A. D., A Micro-economic Study of Labour Force Participation at Older Ages. Bureau of Labour Market Research Working Paper No. 26, Canberra, 1985.Google Scholar

38 Zabalza, A., Pissarides, C. and Barton, M., Social security and the choice between full-time work, part-time work, and retirement. Journal of Public Economics, 14 (1980), 245–276.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

39 Tachibanaki, T. and Shimono, K.Labor supply of the elderly, keizai kenkyuu, 36 (1985), 239–250.Google Scholar

40 Okamura, K.The factors determining the post-retirement employment of Japanese elderly. Shakai Roonengaku, 26, 3–17.Google Scholar

41 Tachibanaki, and Shimono, , op. cit.Google Scholar

42 Ibid. p. 246.

43 Seike, A., Maximum limit of pension payment and labor supply, Nihon Rodo Kyokai Zasshi, 09 (1982), 14–24.Google Scholar

44 Motokawa, A. and Mori, T.Decomposition analysis of the change in labor force participation of the elderly, Tokei-Chosa Geppo, 05 (1981), 4–21.Google Scholar

45 Binstock, R. H.Drawing cross-cultural implications for policy: some caveats, Journal of Cross-Cultural Gerontology, 1 (1986), 331–338.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed