"Colonial Period Employment System: Labor Policy, Labor Management and Korean Laborers"(in Japanese)

Through a close analysis of the formation process and characteristics of employment system in colonial period Korea, this paper outlines the structure and limits of colonial control, and sheds light on the interactions of the Government General of Korea and with Korean factory workers, and the relations of Japanese managers with the Korean laborers. The employment system in colonial Korea was mainly a product of interactions between Japanese managers and Korean laborers, but was not bounded or guaranteed by legal clauses. The employment system was a product of the interactions and reactions of Korean laborers to the system implemented by Japanese management. The labor market structure, determined by the praxis of being employed by Japanese managers, was differentiated along ethnic lines. This structure changed somewhat as Korean laborers were employed by Japanese and improved their technical skills. However, while Korean workers accumulated skills, they were unable to advance to mid-level supervisory management positions. The reason was that Japanese management thought that if Koreans workers were promoted to mid-level supervisory positions, the Korean supervisors would have to be given the same rights as the Japanese supervisors, and thus affect the basic labor management structure of Japanese workers supervising Korean laborers. Also, management would have little choice but to recognize such Korean mid-level supervisors as official representatives of the Korean laborers, and consequently, be forced set up labor-management councils. Another reason for the absence of Koreans in mid-level management positions was that, even though Korean workers accumulated skills and training, the perceptions of Japanese managers toward Korean laborers did not change. Japanese management continued to evaluated the performance of Korean workers not as individual workers with varying skills and personalities, but as merely as laborers of a colonized race. Thus, the employment system of colonial period Korea was a formed as a result of the interactions between Japanese management and Korean laborers, while the Government General was a regular participant in this matrix. However, the fundamental gap between the views of Japanese bureaucrats and management toward Korean workers and the self-perception of the Korean workers generated considerable strain on the interactions of the Korean laborers with the Government General and the Japanese management. This in turn, destabilized the basic foundations of the employment system in colonial period Korea.