Coordination as a Political Problem - Changes in Industrial Relations in Coordinated Market Economies (Japanese)

Sweden, Germany and Japan - long regarded as typical coordinated market economies - have been swept by a wave of change as a new market environment emerges from the process of globalization. This paper looks at these three countries' industrial relations systems, a key element of their socioeconomic structures. Specifically, it examines centralized collective bargaining in Sweden, the industry-level wage bargaining system in Germany, and the seniority-based wage systems and lifetime employment practices that characterized Japanese industrial relations. Focusing on employer coordination rather than the responses of labor unions, it analyzes the pressures for change these three countries face and the changes that have been made. The analysis clearly shows that amidst changes in the industrial relations systems of these three countries, forms of dualism that sustain the existence of conventional systems have emerged, and that these forms of dualism have created new tensions.