Abstract
The Japanese general merchandising stores (GMS) have, in the 2000s, introduced new personnel management systems based on the principle of determining employee status and treatment according to 'working conditions rather than employment arrangements'. This paper analyzes the effects of the new systems in terms of differences in employee treatment among different employment classifications. In the new systems, working conditions are determined on the basis of "the possibility of a transfer." According to the analysis of this paper, the revision of the system caused many female regular employees to switch to part-time status, and the gap in treatment according to one's employment classifications remains wide. Furthermore, the same duties are now being performed by workers whose conditions have declined. In the society like Japan where the "male breadwinner model" gender relation dominates, not every worker can change his/her residence in accordance with the demands of their employers. As a result, new personnel systems may have strengthened the gendered working conditions and gendered status which once underlay employment arrangements, and will have great difficulties in bringing about equal treatment between different employment classifications.
