Lifetime employment

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It has been suggested that Permanent Employment be merged into this article or section. (Discuss)

Lifetime employment or Permanent employment (終身雇用, shuushin koyou^?) has been the rule in big Japanese companies beginning with the first economic successes in the 1920s. It gives Japanese workers the important feeling of job security as part of Japanese management culture, and in turn, elicits a high degree of company loyalty.

A high demand for the few available engineers forced companies to bind these employees to the company. The collapse of the Japanese asset price bubble and the following crisis in the 1990s did not weaken the practice. It is also used in small Japanese companies. In 2003, 83% of major Tokyo firms still had policies of lifetime employment^{[citation needed]}. The practice has been strengthened in the past years as the economic situation has significantly improved.

The State and Change in the "Lifetime Employment" in Japan: From the End of War Through 1995