Huiyan Fu’s study focuses on neoliberalism and globalization’s impact on the Japanese workforce. More specifically, he looks at employees in temporary agency work (TAW) in the post-bubble era of Japan’s economy which placed immense pressure on employment. The workers in these short term contracts are referred to as “non-regular” workers and have sparked controversy towards staffing agencies as some believe them to be merely increasing the population “working poor”. Due to the lack of permanence in TAW, the effects on the employees of Japan include a loss of identity of the self and inherently new perceptions of life. In order to investigate this industry, Fu undergoes the employment process and completes research from the inside of 2 large firms specializing in finance and manufacturing. Since Japan is a collective society that emphasizes social harmony, Fu follows other employees within the firm to explain the disconnect between this way of life, and the social construct of the TAW. From females who work to find possible suitors but are not treated equally, to hardworking, non-confrontational male workers, the constituents of TAW are all personally effected in different ways. Fu concludes that gender, educational background, and a socialistic state of mind contribute to the disharmony between flexible jobs such as TAW, which are the unfortunate result of an economic disaster as firms strive towards globalization.
Fragmented Work in Post-Bubble Japan: Negotiating Identity, Gender, Age, and Class in Triangular Employment Relationships by Huiyan Fu