終身雇用制度とは、一つの会社に新卒で入社してから定年まで働き続けるという、日本独自の雇用慣行です。戦後の高度経済成長以来、この制度は年功序列の賃金体系、企業内労働組合とともに「日本的経営の三種の神器」と呼ばれ、企業文化の柱として定着してきました。会社は単なる職場ではなく、人生の大半を過ごす「ムラ」のような存在だったと言えるでしょう。世界的に見れば極めて珍しいこの仕組みは、戦後日本の繁栄を支えた重要な要素にほかなりません。
Lifetime employment is a uniquely Japanese practice in which a person joins a company straight out of school and works there until mandatory retirement. Ever since the postwar period of rapid economic growth, this system — together with seniority-based wages and enterprise unions — has been known as one of the "three sacred treasures" of Japanese management, and has taken root as a pillar of corporate culture. The company was not simply a workplace but a kind of "village" in which one spent the greater part of life. This globally unusual arrangement is nothing less than one of the essential ingredients that supported postwar Japan's prosperity.
この制度のもとで、社員は会社に対して強い忠誠心を持ち、会社もまた社員の生活を長期にわたって保障しました。新卒一括採用で入社した若者は、配属先で一から仕事を覚え、何年もかけて少しずつ昇進していきます。給料は能力よりも勤続年数によって決まることが多く、家庭を持ち、家を買い、子供を育てる人生設計が容易に立てられました。定年まで勤め上げた社員には、退職金と企業年金という形で、長年の貢献に対する報酬が与えられたのです。
Under this system, employees held a strong loyalty toward the company, and the company in turn safeguarded their livelihood over the long term. Young people hired through the spring cycle of mass new-graduate recruitment learned the job from scratch in their assigned posts and slowly worked their way up over many years. Pay was determined more by length of service than by ability, which made it easy to plan a life — marrying, buying a house, raising children. For an employee who served until retirement, a lump-sum payment and a corporate pension stood as a reward for years of contribution.
この仕組みには、社員にとっても会社にとっても大きな利点がありました。働く側は雇用の安定により、長期的な視野で生活を組み立てることができました。雇う側も、社員を長く育てることで、会社特有の技術や人間関係に精通した人材を確保しやすかったのです。一方で、配置転換や転勤を断りにくく、個人の希望よりも組織の都合が優先されがちだったという面も否定できません。
This arrangement carried real advantages for both sides. From the worker's standpoint, secure employment made it possible to plan life on a long horizon. From the employer's standpoint, cultivating people over time made it easier to retain those who understood the company's specific technologies and human relationships from the inside. On the other hand, it must also be said that it was hard to refuse transfers or relocations, and individual preferences tended to be subordinated to the needs of the organization.
しかし、バブル経済の崩壊を契機に、終身雇用の在り方は大きく変わりつつあります。企業は経営を維持するために人件費を削減せざるを得なくなり、新卒採用を絞り、早期退職を募集する会社も増えました。その結果、非正規雇用が急速に拡大し、いわゆる「就職氷河期世代」と呼ばれる、安定した職に就けないまま中年期を迎える人々を生み出しました。
Since the collapse of the bubble economy, however, the shape of lifetime employment has been changing dramatically. Faced with the need to keep their businesses afloat, companies have had no choice but to cut labor costs, scaling back graduate hiring and offering early-retirement schemes. As a result, non-regular employment expanded rapidly, giving rise to the so-called "Employment Ice Age generation" — people who entered middle age without ever securing stable work.