Paper short abstract:

Drastic reform of the Worker Dispatching Act is an important part of the Abe administration's campaign to expand the freedom of employers and workers to adopt diverse work styles. However, the reforms have so far kept workers lives in precarity, and they have little hope towards the future.

Paper long abstract:

The Worker Dispatching Act underwent a series of revisions between its enactment in 1986 and 2015. Each revision lifted restrictions on the usage of temporary agency workers, making temp work more widespread. Using archival and ethnographic data, this paper examines the specific nature of the neoliberal legal reforms and the limited positive impact they have had on worker wellbeing. LDP administrations have hitherto aimed at stimulating economic growth by weakening regulations and increasing employment flexibility. In the current Abe administration the "Committee to Reform of the Japanese Way of Work" aims to expand the freedom of both employers and workers to adopt "diverse work styles." These neoliberal reform principles have sustained legal loopholes for employers who wish to continue using cheap labor flexibly, while supposedly guaranteeing upward mobility for the temp workers with the skills and the will to work on equal terms with regular workers. In addition, the Abe administration is seeking to implement the principle of equal pay for equal work, which should in theory benefit existing temp workers while encouraging more people to enter the labor market and positively choose temp work as a work/life style. However, how the legal statute will be designed, and who among the diverse group of temp workers will benefit remain uncertain. The reality of employment practices on the ground has so far made temporary agency workers suffer from economic insecurity and harbor strong anxiety towards the future. Temp law reforms have not contributed to nurturing hope among younger workers, and having a family remains a distant dream for those who suffer from precarity. As a result, deregulation of temporary work is undermining the Abe administration's objective of using labor reform to help revive the low birthrate and stimulate consumption. Labor unions have been using labor disputes to create momentum to impact labor law legislation at the national level. These struggles have been an uphill battle, given the hostile court decisions and the weak representation of labor in labor reform committees.