| Summary: | This thesis examines the evolution of postwar industrial relations in postwar
Japan from 1945 to 1973. It analyzes the impact of postwar industrial relations
institutions on the origins and development of “lean production” or, as it is otherwise
known, the Toyota production system. It uses three case studies, Mitsui Coal’s Miike
mine in Kyushu, Suzuki Motors in Hamamatsu, and Moriguchi City Hall as an
empirical basis for analysis and constructs a schema of industrial relations institutions
that challenges the conventional “three pillars” interpretation (lifetime employment,
seniority-based wages, and enterprise unions).
From a historical perspective there were three distinct stages in the evolution
of industrial relations. The first, from 1945-1947 was a labour-dominated period
during which unions began to develop a distinct factory regime in which they were
equal partners with management and could veto layoffs. Employers rejected this
regime, however, and led an offensive against the independent union movement. This
offensive was relatively successful in weakening labour and overturning the new
institutions, but it engendered further antagonism. Thus the 1950s were characterized
by instability in labour relations and new institutions had to evolve out of the
workplace. A stable Fordist regime consolidated in the 1960-1973 period.
From a comparative perspective and in the context of the development of lean
production, the author stresses four institutions: tacit and limited job tenure; a
performance-based wage system controlled by management; unions with an enterprise
(i.e. market) orientation; and joint consultation. These institutions gave Japanese
industrial relations their distinctiveness and also help to explain why lean production
developed in Japan.
Under the traditional Fordist model, work was broken down into short,
repetitive cycles and organized along an assembly line. Employers exerted control by
keeping conceptual activities as their mandate and workers were to simply follow
instructions. This study found that work itself did not change substantively under lean
production but workers participated more in conceptual activities. One of the key
reasons for this was that employers in Japan were able to exercise control not only
through the division of labour but through the wage system and enterprise unions as
well. These mechanisms put discrete limits on the scope of worker innovations.
They also limited the benefits workers could expect from the system. Lean production represented a new stage in production, identified as lean, intensified Fordism. === Arts, Faculty of === History, Department of === Graduate
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