Kironitatsu Jieigyo (The Self-employed at a Crossroads - Expansion and Future of Professionals)

What kind of work do people associate with the term "self-employed"? Some people might not have had any personal experience with self-employment; however, I believe everyone has encountered the concept of self-employment in their lives to some extent. However, if you ask self-employed people simple questions on when they began their business or what they are doing, having closed their businesses, you may not be able to immediately understand their situation. This book investigates the reality of Japanese self-employment from a sociological viewpoint.
 
In social stratification studies in sociology, understanding the disparities and inequalities in income and opportunities for social advancement among employed persons constitute the major research subjects. However, the unemployed have also been focused on; to consider the various issues in employment such as excessive working hours and death from overwork, it is important to understand "self-employed modes of working" that may result in greater freedom in people's lives.
 
This book summarizes a series of studies on a long-term trend of self-employment. I clarify how self-employment has changed in post-war Japan by employing quantitative sociological approach using nationwide social survey data. Especially, this book focuses on "self-employed professionals.” This concept is a synthesis of the occupational classification of "professionals/technicians" and the "self-employed" employment status. From this original concept, a long-term trend of self-employment could be redrawn along one axis. That said, the reality of self-employment is very complex, and the form it takes greatly varies depending on one’s perspective and focus.
 
The unique perspective of "self-employed professionals" revealed, by focusing on occupations that require professional skills, that self-employment is a process of gradual transformation into a specialist occupation. To show this, asking questions about job mobility such as who is engaged in self-employment and who is leaving self-employment, I carried out a quantitative analysis on data on the composition of employment. This was to determine whether the link between self-employment and professional was stronger than traditional employment, and whether the trend is based on changes in the structure of the labor market.
 
In this book, I attempt to explain why composition of self-employment is becoming a professional, while considering not only the working hours and income situation of people working as self-employed professionals but also the kind of meaning attached to their work and lifestyle. Based on this explanation, I consider the future implications of the “self-employed professional” mode of working on working and living in Japanese society. This book is the modest result of an attempt to raise questions about how to work in a society in which "continuous employment after recruitment" is becoming less certain.
 

(Written by NAKA Shuhei, Research Associate, Institute of Social Science / 2019)