Blogs and Articles from Third Way Forum Membrs

・ The remote working, the side job practice allowed by companies, the gig economy and the future anxiety are expected to impact the current full-time employment system in Japan.

・ While the government and more and more companies are encouraging employees to have a side job, there have been concerns about possible issues of overwork/exhaustion, the lack of focus on the main job and social insurance complexity.

・ The major driver to have a side job from the employee standpoint is the desire or need to earn more money. The major driver from the company standpoint is the realization that they can not guarantee life-long employment and happy retirement any more and they want their employees to be more self-reliant.

・ Even if the side job is allowed, what most individuals can do is limited as long as they spend long hours and most of their energy at their main jobs. If they divide their time and energy more evenly between their main job and the side job, their jobs can no longer be full-time jobs.

・ One point to consider is that not everyone is suitable to work in an entrepreneur-like environment. Many employees also like to have certain safety ensured. It will become more visible in future how this environment is influencing the paycheck. Independently working people also need to secure stability by their own.

・ In the gig economy, more and more jobs are now on project-based and each project is getting shorter and shorter. As a result, companies are using many vendors who are professionals and can do the job quickly. There have been also many online job platforms where individual vendors can register and get assigned to suited gig jobs.

・ If that is the case, one possible direction would be that companies convert their full time employees to self-employed vendors and start treating them as such. If they deliver, they are paid well. If they do well, their contract will be renewed. In this model, employees are no longer constrained by the company policy and rules and they can get as many jobs as they want. Also, the companies no longer have to take care of these people as employees and arrange social insurance, training, appraisal etc.

・ However, it is unlikely that the Japanese business society will shift to this “all vendor staff” model mainly due to the following reasons. 1. Many Japanese employees are still generalists who do not have strong professional skills and they can not survive as individual vendors. 2. It will totally change the fundamental philosophy of the employment contract and all the related laws. Managing Japanese workers mainly with contract laws instead of employment laws is a huge change and the Japanese society is not ready for it.

・ Having said that, the fact that so many Japanese employees are still generalist without any profession is one of the major causes of the inability of Japanese companies in innovation, transformation and further growth. In this sense, more self-reliant professional attitude such as thinking like an entrepreneur is very important and should be promoted even if they are working in a company as employees.

・ On the other hand, because of the SDGs, ESG finance and other compliance/human right and humanitarian issues, companies can no longer just focus on their money making business. They have to take care of much more social responsibilities. This will make it difficult for companies to make more money and increase employees’ salary. As it has been discussed globally lately, the introduction of BUI (basic universal income) and other similar (somewhat socialistic?) measures may be needed if companies want to protect employees from over-exhausting themselves by working multiple jobs to pay their bills.

・ Although the immediate quick change is unlikely to occur, the full-time employment in Japan will gradually change either by shifting toward more individualistic approach to support employee’s self-reliance or by shifting toward more socialistic approach to support employee’s basic needs.

・ Young professionals need assistance and guidance for planning their business carrier. Defining how to gain expertise and how become valuable in business is difficult for people who just finished education.