In the recent years, the "family-friendly" concept, that companies offer the work environment and working conditions to suit the needs of employees, has been introduced in Japan, and is now starting to influence on the employment systems of the Japanese companies.
"Family-friendly" companies became noticeable in the 1980s in the United States, and increased in number during the following decade. Companies with family-friendly programs have been recognized as excellent companies, and their concepts have been made into a corporate culture. The objective of this study is to examine what the driving force was for the companies to head in this direction, what the background has been like, and what kind of new working conditions were instituted up in the U.S.
Following the brief introduction in Section One, I review American transitions in Section Two: (1) transitions in American families, compairing the 1950s with the 1990s, (2) employees demands to the companies, with a brief summary of corporate childcare policies after the 1960s, and (3) "family-friendly" culture, which is derived from childcare needs of employees in the United States.
In Section Three, in order to examine what a family-friendly company is actually like, a case study of Patagonia Inc., a pioneer in this sphere is introduced. I discuss (1) the reason why Patagonia is introduced here, and (2) its family-friendly programs, including its corporate childcare center, other childcare programs, flex systems/telecommuting, and the "Domino" method, a way of substituting personnel when a leave takes place.
Section Four discusses the family-friendly trend in Japan, introducing the official commendations of family-friendly companies which were started in 1999, and the last section concludes by suggesting the growing importance of family-friendly companies in this country, which is creating gender-equal circumstances in an aging society with fewer children.
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