The employment of middle-aged and older workers is recently a serious social problem in Japan. Today the employment of middle-aged and older workers is not stable, and the unemployment rate is high. Therefore it is necessary to create employment opportunities for Japan's aging society. The purpose of this article is to investigate the bottleneck problems of employment stabilization, the creation of employment opportunities, and the labor conditions in which middle-aged and older workers can work.
Taking the Japanese seniority wage system in the long view, the level of performance and the salaries should balance. The theory of Lazear, E.P. is a rational explanation. However, Japanese enterprises show a tendency to evaluate their balance in the short view. Therefore the level of performance and the salaries become unbalanced, and the wage system loses it's rationality.
It is a problem that middle-aged workers are short of the will to work in demanding jobs and they do not have the labor skills and abilities which firms require. Some middle-aged workers don't recognise the necessity to develop their abilities and enterprise training is not put to good use. Firms have thought of introducing systems of performance evaluation and a specialized work structure to continue employing these middle-aged workers. Middle-aged workers assent to introducing these systems, but they don't select the systems. They may feel that their positions have become lower and their wages are reduced, but not that the stabilization of their lives is undermined.
To secure the employment of employees in their 50's, the gap between the level of performance and salaries has to be gotten rid of. The improvement of employees' abilities and the creation of employment opportunities in their 60's lead to employment stabilization.
Firms and employees will agree to conditions of employment pattern and wages easily, if the employment opportunities for employees in their 60's are created. This is because the base of their lives will be stable. In the short view, the level of performance and salaries can be kept balanced. However, the important problem remains in creating employment opportunities for older workers. The problem lies in the incompatibility of making the most of their skills and abilities, and constructing harmonious human relations in the workplace.
