SKILL FORMATION AND JAPANESE PRODUCTION SYSTEMS

摘要

Abstract This article focuses on an important research gap in recent literature on the geography of labour market segmentation, namely internal skill formation within firms and how that skill formation is affected by inter‐firm relationships within a production system and among production systems. We address this research gap by drawing on Japanese perspectives and by integrating two approaches to flexibility – that defined in terms of the imperatives of labour market segmentation, and that defined by the imperatives of industrial organization and production. In particular we integrate Asanuma's concept of the relation specific skill, developed within the context of inter‐firm relations, and Koike and Inoki's concept of enterprise specific skills, developed in the context of the role of job training in skill formation. These concepts are illustrated with reference to the Japanese robot industry which has been developed according to a strategy of flexible specialization.