Diversity within Convergence amongst Capitalist Economies: Politics of Labour Market Deregulation in Italy and Japan

My research examines politics of labour market deregulation in Italy and Japan and provides explanation about how and why the governments of the two countries have implemented labour market deregulation through different processes and to different extents. I hypothesize that the institutional structure of labour policymaking and the political power of labour unions can explain these differences, and specify the conditions under which partisan effects of the governments can be observed on the manner of labour market deregulation. My research provides a nuanced and balanced explanation about the co-existence of a converging tendency under globalization towards labour market deregulation and the remaining diversity in institutional settings amongst capitalist economies.

Hiroaki Richard Watanabe is a PhD candidate at the University of Oxford and a visiting research scholar at the Institute of Social Science at the University of Tokyo.