In the postwar period, Japanese workers came to symbolize the economic and cultural prosperity of Japan. In return for their hard work, they were rewarded with life-time employment and various fringe benefits. This postwar social contract of "corporate welfarism" minimized the social risks and personal career uncertainties of a fluid labour market. However, nearly 30 years of economic recession and neo-liberal reforms have undermined the postwar model of corporate welfarism. Structural and management reforms have been invoked to reengineer Japan's corporate practices and to "flexibilize" the workforce, thereby "freeing" employees while offloading social risks of economic uncertainties to individual workers. As a result, these Japanese workers are caught between the slippage of the older corporate ideology of corporate welfarism premised on long-term employment, and the rise of the new global ideology of neo-liberalism premised on labour mobility, in the process exposing them to new social risks and conditions of uncertainty.<br/> By focusing on mid-career and experienced workers whose expectations of long-term employment were directly affected by restructuring, this article sheds light on the various forms of "precarious employment mechanisms" that have been used to cut personnel costs while avoiding outright dismissal. Drawing from different cases of informants who have been subjected to various forms of restructuring, this article highlights the decoupling of Japan's welfare and employment systems and examines the mechanisms and experiences of "in-house unemployment" for employees in an increasingly hollowed-out corporate welfare society.

中文翻译：

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从就业保障到管理不稳定：日本不断变化的福利-工作关系及其对职业中期工人的影响

战后时期，日本工人成为日本经济和文化繁荣的象征。作为他们辛勤工作的回报，他们获得了终身工作和各种附带福利。这种战后“企业福利主义”的社会契约将流动劳动力市场的社会风险和个人职业不确定性降至最低。然而，近 30 年的经济衰退和新自由主义改革破坏了战后企业福利主义模式。已经援引结构和管理改革来重新设计日本的企业实践并“灵活化”劳动力，从而“释放”员工，同时将经济不确定性的社会风险转移给个体工人。因此，这些日本工人陷入了以长期就业为前提的企业福利主义的旧企业意识形态的滑落与以劳动力流动为前提的新自由主义全球新意识形态的兴起之间，在这个过程中，他们面临着新的社会风险和<br/> 通过关注那些对长期就业的期望直接受到重组影响的职业中期和有经验的工人，本文阐明了用于削减的各种形式的“不稳定就业机制”。人员成本，同时避免直接解雇。本文以线人经历了各种形式重组的不同案例为基础，突出日本“脱钩”