Thursday 16 March 2006
6:00pm – 8:00pm
Changing Patterns of Work and Employment
Daiwa Foundation Japan House
Organised by the Daiwa Anglo-Japanese Foundation in association with The Japan Society
Emotive headlines about the ‘demographic timebomb’ point to a future of labour and skills shortages as an ageing workforce of ‘babyboomers’ heads inexorably towards retirement. Both Britain and Japan face challenges in the years ahead as the rapid ageing of society impacts upon patterns of work and employment. How to manage those who stay and how to provide for those who go are dual dimensions of the same problem. But a further challenge lies in recruiting new talent and revising long-held business principles to accommodate a changing workforce for the different times that lie ahead. How Britain and Japan are facing up to the future of work will be addressed by our speakers who will deal with both the policy and practice of adapting to a new economic environment.
Organised in association with The Japan Society
About the contributors
Dr Marcus Rebick
Dr Marcus Rebick is University Lecturer on the Japanese Economy and Fellow of St. Antony’s College, Oxford University. He is currently Director of Asian Studies Centre at St Antony’s. Dr Rebick has been a visiting researcher at the Japan Institute of Labour, Gakushuin University, Nagoya University and the Japan Development Bank. His recent publications include The Japanese Employment System: Adapting to a New Economic Environment (OUP, 2005) and he is now editing The Changing Japanese Family with Ayumi Takenaka, which is scheduled to be published in March 2006 by Routledge.
Junichi Yasutaka
Junichi Yasutaka is Managing Director of J. Yasutaka Business Consultants Ltd. He is also a consultant on Japan HR matters to DaimlerChrysler AG and an Honorary Fellow at the University of Durham, lecturing on Japanese business. He is a graduate in Indonesian Studies at Tokyo University of Foreign Studies and has worked for Japanese, Anglo-American, Swedish and German companies over the past 29 years.
David Coats
David Coats (chair) is Associate Director – Policy at The Work Foundation. He is responsible for the Foundation’s advocacy activity and seeks to influence the national conversation about the world of work. He previously led the Economic and Social Affairs Department at the TUC, managing policy on economic policy, the welfare state, pensions, the national minimum wage, working time and the public sector. He serves on several Economic and Social Research Council advisory committees and was a member of the Low Pay Commission from 2000 to 2004.