Abstract

In most Japanese companies, the implicit social contract was for human resource development through On-the-job Training and in-house education/training to be performed in exchange for long-term employment, job achievement, promotion and rises in pay. Therefore, employees, including white-collar workers, believed that long term service to the company was important for promotion to the positions with higher authority or income.

Specialized jobs and knowledge in areas such as personnel, accounting and purchasing have been meaningful and evaluated in company contexts, and there has been little necessity for them to be accepted in wider society. Although there are occupational qualifications in information processing, medical treatment and nursing, there are almost no public qualifications corresponding to the job of white-collar workers, in areas such as personnel, accounting, and sales. Established chartered qualifications are limited to the Certified Social Insurance and Labour Consultant and the Small & Medium Enterprise Consultant for independent consultants and specialists rather than employees.

Tests and qualifications for white-collar worker jobs were in low demand from companies and individuals because of lifetime employment and seniority HR systems. Once employed in Japan, the necessity of proving job knowledge and capability used to be low under the traditional situation.

One aspect of the business career development system that has been reformed is the business career test which has aimed to examine ability rating since 2007. With the new business career test, units are bundled corresponding to practical jobs, then it becomes a more objective public qualification related to company business and it may become the fundamental qualification of white-collar workers in the future.

In this paper the public qualifications of employees in white-collar worker jobs in Japan will be analyzed, drawing out the extent of their utilization and key features and problems, based on research comprising statistical data, a review of the literature and interviews with personnel managers in Japanese corporations. The externalization of in-house jobs and the shift to competency and performance based Human Resources (HR) systems will continue to increase the demand for public qualifications for white-collar workers in Japanese society.

Next, a comparison of public qualifications in Japan (BCT), UK (CIPD and NVQ), and the USA (PHR) for personnel jobs will be made. Qualifications for personnel jobs and their supporting system are more established in the UK and USA; the contents of tests are not so different from the comparable Japanese ones. More autonomous career orientation is pursued and employability and performance based system are further developed, as does demand for the public qualification, which can authorize and evaluate capability, which can be expected to increase further from now on in Japan.

Finally, the meaning to management and the ideal state which white-collar workers public qualifications could bring are considered. White collar workers' qualifications have little accumulation, and the full-scale consideration for examination contents and evaluation methods could be a future subject in Japan. In this sense, the improvement of contents and operations of the qualifications is an important social policy. The process of such improvements will exceed the limits of the qualifications, and help raise their validity.

Methods

• a) Review and analysis of related papers and reports of Japan, UK, and USA
• b) Implementation of a survey to managers and staff members
• c) Complementary selected analysis of third party surveys
• d) Consultation with individual experts, expert institutions and other organizations

Results

• (1) Qualifications of personnel jobs have permeated and their supporting system and operation are more progressed in the UK and USA; their requirements of qualifications are not so different form those of comparative ones of Japan.
• (2) It takes time for osmosis of white-collar workers' qualification and a social policy or a legal basis will be an important key whether such qualifications to be socially accepted in Japan.
• (3) White collars' qualifications have fairly a portion improvable by the contents and operations as well as a social policy. Such improvements will exceed the limit of qualification.

Bibliography

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ECER 2008 - Paper #267 - "Significance and Prospect of Japan s Qualifications for White-Collar Workers in comparison to Personnel Qualifications in the UK and USA" - ECER 2008 Kiyoshi Miyashita, Tokyo Metropolitan University, Japan