Speaker: Shibata Saori

Abstract

Hampered Digitalisation: Institutional Failure and New Instability in Japan

Shibata Saori, University of Sheffield

This article examines how business, labour, and the state have adapted to digitalisation, highlighting the critical role of national institutions in shaping how societies experience this global shift. By drawing on Régulation Theory and considering the case of Japan, this article analyses the interplay between competition, wage-labour relations, and the state. The paper argues that Japan’s response to digitalisation has reinforced neoliberal restructuring without establishing a new mode of regulation (which would require the reconciliation of the competing interests of labour, capital, and the state). Digitalisation has intensified competition, placing downward pressure on wages and exacerbating skills shortages while also creating a digital divide between large firms and SMEs. The existing low-wage problem has been exacerbated by rising investment in technological upgrades without commensurate wage increases. Finally, the Japanese state’s failure to effectively coordinate labour market policies with digitalisation efforts has exacerbated existing inequalities and hindered the development of a stable regulatory framework. Consequently, instead of reconciling the competing interests of labour, capital, and the state, current institutional adjustments to digitalisation in Japan have generated further instabilities, hindering the realisation of any growth potential.

Short bio

Name

Dr. Shibata Saori

Position

Lecturer

Affiliation

University of Sheffield, School of East Asian Studies

Research focus

Japan´s political economy (including the changing nature of work, the digital economy and Japan´s model of capitalism is transforming)

relevant Publications

Shibata, Saori. 2024. Contesting Precarity in Japan: The Rise of Nonregular Workers and the New Policy Dissensus. Ithaca: Cornell University Press.

Saori Shibata. 2024. „The Contribution of Digitalization to Non-Inclusive Growth in Japan: A Regulationist Perspective on Post-Industrial Dynamics.“ Competition & Change. https://doi.org/10.1177/10245294241289585 [Online first]. (with Lechevalier, Simon)

Shibata, Saori and D.J. Bailey. 2024. „Regional Pathologies of Late-Stage Neoliberalization: The Case of Japan in East Asia.“ Economy and Society. https://doi.org/10.1080/03085147.2024.2387986 [Online first].

Shibata, Saori. 2022. „Global Political Economy, Additional Blind Spots and the ‘US or Europe’ Problem: Lessons from East Asia.“ Global Political Economy 1(1): 173–187.

Shibata, Saori. 2021. „Digitalization or Flexibilization? The Changing Role of Technology in the Political Economy of Japan.“ Review of International Political Economy 29(5): 1549–1576.