Abstract

This chapter offers the authors' conclusions about how firms' practices and national institutions contribute to different outcomes in growth, security, and equality in Japan and the U.S. The mechanisms underlying the successes of the Japanese system are reviewed, as well as the evolution of the Japanese system and the U.S. system. The chapter also demonstrates the lessons that the firms of each country can learn from the employment practices of the other, and the extent to which these lessons are constrained by union and government practices. It concludes with a discussion on how the authors expect the Japanese and U.S. employment and wage systems to continue to evolve.