Research on labor market, labor policy and the constructive principles of labor law

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This research was devised with the objective of mapping out transitions in the labour market, employment, legislative policy, and labour law since the 1980s(particularly since the 1990s), as well as pursuing a new organisational principle for future development. During the last four years, the principal investigator, co-investigators, and research collaborators have published four books(Wada, Hajime, The Guarantee of Human Rights and Labour Law<in Japanese>(2008), Karatsu, Hiroshi, The Legal Theory of Labour Contracts and Rules of Employment<in Japanese>(2010), Tonai, Kazuhiro, Germany's Employee Representation System and Law<in Japanese>(2010), Nishitani, Satoshi and Itaru Nemoto, Labour Contracts and Law<in Japanese>(2011)). In addition, the research group has published over one hundred articles in journals, given five presentations at academic conferences, and held five international symposia(Japan-Germany, twice ; Japan-South Korea, three times).During the final year of the project … More the research group has focused, in particular, on the consolidation of research results achieved thus far:(a) Systematic research has been conducted on the Worker Dispatch Law with a view to publication in autumn 2012. Individual topics of research comprise, 1) analysis of the enactment and amendment process pertaining to the Law, 2) analysis of cases and court precedents ; 3) examination of fundamental problems inherent in the Law and ; 4) analysis of comparative law. At this stage, approximately eighty percent of the work is complete.(b) The succession of Supreme Court precedents concerning the legal concept of employer and unfair labour practices have been examined. This research corresponds to the theme of organisational change in enterprises and issues in labour law.(c) In relation to the theme of shifting labour-management relations and issues in labour law, research has been conducted on changes in national public service labour relations, currently a topic of debate in the Diet. The results of this research have been made public in Rodo Horitsu Junpo and Horitsu Jiho. With respect to the latter journal, in particular, this article constitutes a rare case of the issue being tackled inclusively and comprehensively.Theoretical results generated by the above research comprise, 1) an examination of the impact of labour law's deregulation policy on the labour market and employment, and a proposal as to the direction that the construction of a new safety-net could take ; 2) with regard the non-regular employment policy, an investigation of countermeasures, albeit focused primarily on dispatch workers, from the perspective of equality and social inclusion ; 3) a clarification of interpretative and theoretical problems evident in the Labour Contract Act of 2007 and ; 4) the routing of new developments in the Equal Opportunity Act. With respect to the research plan that was initially set, significant results have been achieved. Less