Thread by @jakeadelstein

Let’s talk about Japan’s labor shortage, declining companies, and low wages.. we’ll start about pointing out a weird similarity to the decline of the #yakuza
This article explains why the Hangure (gangs) are not going to replace the once powerful yakuza

nikkan-gendai.com/articles/view/…

The gangs (半グレ) are big news in Japan because they orchestrate fraud, violent robberies, sensational crimes. But none of them last long.
They often pay tribute to the yakuza but are not a networked structure
The lower ranking members are temporary staffers
No benefits

As Mizoguchi, the yakuza expert points out, the gangs don’t have quasi-family ties, no rituals, no protections for the lowest ranking members. The top take the money, recruit fringe of society, exploit them, expose them to risk, abandon them when they’re arrested. Sorta works

The problem: there’s no passing on of institutional knowledge. The recruits only learn to do their job and don’t add anything to the enterprise. They also have no loyalty so they may steal the money they make, or rat out their bosses. Thus these new gangs don’t evolve & fail

Basically, the biggest yakuza group in Japan, the Liberal Democratic Party, which runs this one party-democracy kept weakening temporary staffing restrictions, making disposable labor the norm.
Goodbye lifetime employment.
LDP cronies like Takenaka and Nanba’s Pasona got rich

In the 1980s, roughly 80% of Japan had “jobs for life”. Under successive LDP rule and with Abenomics, that number is now about 50%
Companies have two-tiered systems where temps do a lot of the dirty work for less pay with no benefits and no job security. A permanent underclass

Many companies fail because they don’t innovate or evolve and they have a huge number of workers who don’t care because their future and the company future aren’t the same—there is little reward for working hard or contributing.

In a sense, many of Japan’s companies, the so-called “ブラック企業” (dark companies/evil enterprises) are corporate Hangure—nasty gangs exploiting the part-timers for short-term profits. They don’t improve the lot of their workers, no quasi-family feeling, no loyalty either way

And just like the gangs, crappy companies don’t have the staying power of the yakuza groups like the Yamaguchi-gumi which has been in business since 1915. Yes, the yakuza are being put out of business but there’s really nothing to replace them. Average age gangster age is 50

Japan has more jobs openings than people to fill them. Terrible wages and the knowledge that the company will toss them out in a minute doesn’t inspire people to put up with the working conditions. Raising wages may attract workers but won’t keep them.

The gangsters running the Liberal Democratic Party (which was founded by yakuza and war criminals) always figured that they could fill the void with cheap foreign labor—but the devalued yen isn’t enticing and the xenophobia isn’t attractive either.
They could reform labor laws

The ruling party is worried that people aren’t getting married and having babies
Well, they’ve created a permanent underclass of people who have second-rate jobs and no job security because they’re temporary staffers and always will be

The Japanese dream for many men used to be: bust your ass to pass an exam to get into an elite college, get a job for life, marry an office lady, play golf, have a kid or two, work hard, retire. Only possible for about 50% now

In a recent poll, over 40% of Japanese women in their twenties wanted to be a housewife that doesn’t work outside the home. That’s fine but that means they have to find a husband who can support that lifestyle. They won’t find many. There’s a mismatch between ideal and reality

Percentage of working women who really want to be full-time housewives ・20代:43.2% ・30代:33.3% ・40代:30.3% ・50代:28.7% ・60代:24.1% *Sony Life Survey results

The old-fashioned Japanese dream is only possible for less than half the population. Many women who are dreaming of a stay-home life won’t consider marrying a man who doesn’t have that employment for life job with a big company. Part-timers are ashamed to propose.

So let’s return to basic problem here—the ruling party by weakening temporary staffing laws and constantly catering to the demands of their corporate cronies has created a corporate universe without yakuza but a lot of low-life thugs. And a thugocracy doesn’t last long.

Part of the success of the yakuza and old-school Japanese corporations was a semblance of family. If you dedicated yourself to the firm, they’d take care of you. Even the Yamaguchi-gumi had a pension plan.
But all we have left now are thugs ruling thugs with no long-term vision