This article aims to establish a new perspective on the labor movement strategy through examining a case study of the labor dispute in the Workers' Medical Institution. One debater deals with the idea of “workers’ control,” whereby the labor union encroaches on the authority and takes over hegemony from manager. Another debater asserts the idea of “social economy” as opposed to hierarchical structures such as workers' collectives and NPOs. They recognize that these two approaches are closely related, but are not clear about how they can be connected. I believe these approaches are related in that the enterprise can be governed by the labor union democratically if it ultimately pursues encroachment on the on the authority. Actually, in a case study conducted in this article, the labor union which has strongly regulated management has established the NPO for nursing care work, as a result of the intense battle between the union and the management. By running the NPO, the union has not only managed to raise the necessary funds for the struggle and for the living expenses of union members, but also contributed to the development of the regional community through the nursing care jobs. This example suggests that if trade unions can consistently push a “workers' control” strategy, fused with a “social economy” strategy which has contents such as democracy and socially useful work, they can achieve meaningful results. The implications of this are that new labor movement strategies should look beyond the existing framework of labor-management relations.

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In recent years, there has been a remarkable increase of young Japanese people who have come to a dead end in their career. Around the same time, the diverging international mobility of young Japanese people has become a striking trend. It should be noted that some of these people do not seem to improve their careers through their long stays overseas. In response to such circumstances, this study examines the life history of Japanese working holiday makers (=WHMs) in Australia. In so doing, it investigates the reasons why Japanese WHMs go overseas for an extended stay. In order to do this, I conducted an interview survey with Japanese WHMs in Australia. The data collected through this survey, especially the life history of four interviewees, demonstrate the following two findings. First, many interviewees used the working holiday program to move from the ‘space’ where they had been confined before their working holiday. This space is characterized by the limitation of upward mobility in their career ladder and the stagnation in life related to it. Secondly, they tried to present their decision in a positive light by borrowing images distributed by the media and travel agencies. Since an extended stay overseas is often associated with dream, challenge and prestige, they use those images to represent themselves. These findings have led to the following two conclusions. First, a class based mechanism is operating on young people without stable jobs, which pushes them into border crossing. Secondly, due to a lack of socioeconomic resources, those people tend to direct their interest toward affordable learning opportunities available in the consumer market instead of higher or professional education. Therefore, further research is suggested with a focus on their struggles to control their situation for a meaningful life with limited resources under difficult circumstances.

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In the literature on Japanese personnel management or work-life balance, there have been numerous arguments until now about working hours which is regarded as one of a basic variable. Those studies are naturally important since they have clarified several findings on working hours. However, various other studies have asked us to think about the following question “why reduction of working hours is important ?” The answers to the abovementioned question reinforce the arguments about working hours. Odaka's theory serves as a reference while analyzing this problem. According to Odaka's theory, our occupation is an activity that aims at not only maintaining livelihood but also demonstrating self-ability and attaining solidarity (Odaka [1953] 1995). Therefore, we can say that workers, in working time, also are able to display their abilities and get solidarities in the society. As per these viewpoints, it is also important to reexamine whether long working-hours have bad influences on the well-being of workers. Therefore, in this study, I examine the direct and indirect effects of working hours on well-being. In the analysis section, this study mainly employs the diagram that added the variables of cooperative work in addition to the variables frequently discussed in the study of job satisfaction. The following are the salient findings of this study: firstly, the length of working hours has a direct negative effect on the subjective well-being of workers to some extent; secondly, the length of working hours also has an indirect effect on the subjective well-being of workers. In particular, as the working hours become long, variables that weaken the effect on subjective well-being appear. The latter findings especially indicate an important possibility that as working hours become long, the occupational perspective of workers becomes narrow, namely, the meaning of occupation for the workers becomes poor.

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