Institutional legacy of state corporatism in de-industrial labour markets: a comparative study of Japan, South Korea and Taiwan

Abstract

De-industrialization has created new economic environments for Japan, South Korea and Taiwan. While structural changes in the labour market took place rather rapidly, accompanying institutional changes have been more gradual. While maintaining some core institutional arrangements, each country has adjusted to new labour market challenges and thereby created various labour market risks. In the period of de-industrialization, both South Korea and Japan experienced a sharp increase in the proportion of atypical workers, unlike the case of Taiwan. This study investigates how the institutional legacy of state corporatism matters in explaining how these three economies have differed in two respects: (a) a rapid increase in the proportion of atypical workers, and (b) the gendered characteristic of atypical employment-that is to say, a disproportionate concentration of women in atypical employment.