<Note>The Increasing Implementation of Early Retirement : Pushing to Reshape the Orientation of Formal Education in Japan

Abstract

This article reports some results of a survey on white-collar workers attitudes toward values strongly promoted through formal education along workers life. The main argument of this article is that the current increasing implementation of early Retirement Programs (sokitaishoku yugu), which breaks a promise of long-term relation between employers and employees, turns into obsolete some functions that education has been performing in benefit of companies. The promotion of values such as loyalty, familialism and obedience to hierarchical organisation; and, the acting as a selective social filter to provide companies with the best workers. The sample was 86 male white-collar workers (in their 30s, 40s, and, 50s). The research focuses upon : 1) attitudes to work values; 2) attitudes toward the relation lifetime employment-education. The results suggest that in the current environment of increasing implementation of early retirement formal education is been pushed to change the orientation of the promotion of values. Therefore, if education is still to play the role of promoting values, its orientation has to change to create a more independent and creative worker, able to compete for a job. Also, it seems that formal education is facing the challenge to keep the attention of students when the possibility to access a lifetime employment is decreasing.