＜abstract＞
Since the mid 1990s, many Japanese manufacturers started or increased to use staffing agency workers in their manufacturing sites under the pressure of minimizing fixed personnel costs. Deep depression and the deregulation of the temporary dispatching work business are supporsed to accelerated this trend. The rapid increase of the use of agency workers is said to radically change the employment practice of Japanese manufactureres. Our research however suggests the opposite. According to our survey, a majority of the firms only assign their direct employees to some restricted job areas to keep the 'core' skills inside their firms. These employers try to provide stronger employment security (than
before) for these workers by using agency workers as a buffer to cope with business fluctuations. The use of temporary agency workers could be said to help the survival of the Japanese long-term employment practice.
Further, this situation does not mean that agency workers have to suffer employment insecurity. It is true that not a small number of temporary agencies employ hire-and-fire employment practices. It is however also true that an increasing number of agencies tries to provide employment security and even the opportunity of career development for their workers in order to keep long-term relationships with their client manufacturers. More and more manufacturers seem to start choosing such agencies as their partners because the retention of agency workers is becoming a bigger problem for them as they use more agency workers as a regular workforce. The survey tells that providing the opportunity of promotion inside the agency promotes a positive attitude of agency workers towards staying at their agency for a longer period. Since Japanese staffing agencies are heavily depending on a young workforce which is decreasing steadily due to the shrinking birth rate, it is vital for the growth of the agencies whether they are able to provide such steady employment opportunities to their workers in order to be more attractive to the young workforce.