As Japan PM Abe weighs labour reform, IBM emerges as test case

When 27-year IBM veteran Martin Jetter came to Tokyo last year, the new president of the technology giant’s Japanese arm had a radical idea: hold workers accountable for performance.

Within months of Jetter’s arrival, IBM Japan fired a group of workers deemed to be underperforming in the kind of restructuring common in many Western countries but rare in Japan, where the most sought-after jobs have carried a promise of lifetime employment.

via Business feed http://www.scmp.com/business/companies/article/1279511/japan-pm-abe-weighs-labour-reform-ibm-emerges-test-case