Lifetime Employment in Japanese
Companies In most large Japanese companies,
there is a policy of lifetime employment. What this means is that when people
leave school or university to join an enterprise, they can expect to remain with
that organization until they retire. In effect, the employee gets job security
for life, and can only be fired for serious mistakes in work. Even in times of
business recession, he or she is free from the fear of being laid off.
One result of this practice is that the Japanese worker identifies
closely with his company and feels strong loyalty to it. By working hard for the
company, he believes he is safeguarding his own future. It is not surprising
that devotion to one’s company is considered a great virtue in Japan. A man is
often prepared to put his firm’s interests before those of his immediate
family. The job security guaranteed by this system influences
the way employees approach their work. They tend to think in terms of what they
can achieve throughout their career. This is because they are not judged on how
they are performing during a short period of time. They can afford to take a
longer perspective than their Western counterparts. This
marriage between the employee and the company—the consequence of lifetime
employment—may explain why Japanese workers seem positively to love the products
their company is producing and why they are willing to stay on after work, for
little overtime pay, to participate in earnest discussions about the quality
control of their products. Lifetime employment in Japanese companies means that the employee
______.
A. leaves his company only when business is bad
B. gets a job soon after he leaves school or university
C. can work there throughout his career
D. can have his serious mistakes in work corrected