Study On The Reform Of Human Resource Management System Of Contemporary Japanese Giant Enterprises

Human resource management system is one of important management systems of enterprises. With the coming of the era of knowledge economy, the importance of human resource management increasingly becomes paramount. The mode of Japanese enterprise HRM which is represented by the mode of Japanese giant enterprise HRM is one of the two main HRM modes of the world.The HRM system of giant enterprises in Japan has played a key role for high-speed growth of Japanese economy, while, in the early 1990’s after the bubble economy busted, the operating environment of Japanese giant enterprises changed essentially. From the external environment aspect, as Economic globalization and informationalization flourished, Japanese economy fell into a long-term downturn, accelerated the adjustment of industrial structure and Japan entered the ageing of the population and the traditional values of Japanese society started shaking. From the enterprise’s internal environment, the shares of individual and foreign investors expanded rapidly. The system of independent directors was introduced and corporate finance system went towards liberalization and international trend In other words, Property institution, Board institution and Financing institution of Japanese enterprises all changed. The changes of enterprise’s internal and external environment challenged the traditional system of HRM of giant enterprises in Japan.This paper adopts the method of historical research, examining the process of transformation of HRM system of giant enterprises in Japan after 1990s; and this paper applies comparison analysis method which we compare and analyze vertically the reforming of HRM system of giant enterprises in different periods of Japanese postwar economy, such as high-speed growth period, stable growth period and the long economic slump period, by which we conclude the features of transformation of HRM system of giant enterprises and emphasize the institution innovation of the transformation of HRM system of contemporary Japanese giant enterprises. And horizontally we compare HRM systems between the enterprises of Japan and America, by which we clarify the differences of the two main HRM modes of the world; this paper also uses game analysis method by which we analyze the game between Japanese enterprises and government and forecast the tendency of the reform of HRM system of Japanese giant enterprises. This paper uses some case studies to express the fact of the innovation of HRM system of Japanese giant enterprises.This paper analyzes the reform of HRM system of contemporary Japanese giant enterprises, by which we draw some conclusions as below:1、The situations of the domestic and international economic development is linked with the micro-systems of enterprises. The employment system, wage system and promotion system of enterprises are different in high-speed economic growth period and depression-era. The economic globalization brings the international flow of labor and increases the employment of foreign workers, and changes the employment system of enterprises as well.2、The State policies and laws restrict the micro-systems of enterprises. The Constitution, labor laws and regulations and national labor policies are restrictive to the HRM system of enterprises. They clearly defined the labor standards, working hours, the ability of labor rights and labor activities, so the enterprises must develop the HRM system within these stipulated limits. The state policies and laws not only restrict the forming of the micro-systems of enterprises, but also constraint the reform of the micro-systems. This paper comes to this conclusion by game analyzing the reform of HRM system of Japanese giant enterprises and the strategy choice of the government.3、Social and cultural factors constrain the micro-systems of enterprises. Social culture is a kind of‘soft system’which restricts the actions of enterprises by depending on an invisible and untouched‘psychological contract’, rather than policies, laws and regulations. Social culture has orientations and restrictions to the HRM systems of enterprises. Social culture as an informal system not only restricts the forming of the HRM systems of enterprises, but also has some restrictions to the path of HRM system reform.4、There are collaborations relationship between the property rights of enterprises and the internal management system of enterprises. Property rights require management systems to be in line with them. Strong dispersion and mobility of the shareholding structure will require the HRM systems which are mobile and open; under normal circumstances ,the HRM systems is stable and closed under the system of property rights with a highly centralized shareholding structure.5、there are couplings between management systems of enterprises and Internal sub-systems. The coupling of systems is the same time interdependent relationship between the systems. Efficient system consists of a series of logical consistency institutional arrangements which can mutually coordinate and jointly play a role. The couplings which exist between various sub-systems have formed a balanced system and interact, and operate efficiently as well. Instead, if the coupling of the system is once broken, the balanced system is also broken and costs of the system rise ,reducing the efficiency of the system, then the inevitable changes will happen within the system.The reform of HRM system of Japanese giant enterprises, which means that the traditional lifetime employment system, seniority wage system, internal training system of enterprises and internal Promotion system of enterprises are changed into diversified employment system, salary system based on performance, training system which pays attention to the education on personal capability and promotion system which weakens the seniority wage system.. This system reform broke the human resource system which had been implemented for half a century by Japanese giant enterprises which had a tremendous impact on both Japanese enterprises and Japanese economy, even on the Japanese society. The system reform that improved the competitiveness of enterprises was a key factor to help the Japanese enterprises get out from long-term economic depression and ease“the disease of giant enterprises”. It promoted the development of the Japanese economy, in the mean time, and led the changes of the Japanese social culture and labor law into a certain extent.The reform of human resource system of Japanese giant enterprises gave guidance to the enterprises of china. Firstly, culture is an important parameter to form the HRM system of the enterprises. Chinese enterprises should pay full attention to cultural factors to construct the most motivated HRM system; secondly, the HRM system of Japanese giant enterprises is a kind of internal labor market mechanism, it has the strengths of saving transaction costs, preventing the loss of skilled workers, enhancing the accumulation of human capital of enterprises and stabilizing the development of enterprises. Chinese enterprises should not only focus the function of external labor market, but also strengthen the building of internal labor market; thirdly, we should pay attention to the vocational education, strengthen the enterprise training and develop the social education and build an educational network system of human resource development for the whole society as well; the last but not the least, we should practice the role of enterprise human resource management and development and widen our method of thinking to solve the employment problem of redundant personnel.The purpose of writing this paper is through the study of the reform of HRM system of the Japanese giant enterprises to make the important conclusions of economics and management and clarify the effect of the reform of HRM system of the Japanese giant enterprises on the aspects of Japanese enterprises, Japanese economy and Japanese social culture and Japanese laws as well, and especially to reveal the implication of the reform of HRM system of the Japanese giant enterprises to our Chinese enterprises.