EMPLOYMENT IN JAPAN

A. Every autumn, when recruitment of new graduates and school leavers begins, major cities in Japan are
flooded with students hunting for a job. Wearing suits for the first time, they run from one interview to
another. The season is crucial for many students, as their whole lives may be determined during this period.

B. In Japan, lifetime employment is commonly practised by large companies. While people working in small
companies and those working for subcontractors do not in general enjoy the advantages conferred by the
large companies, there is a general expectation that employees will in fact remain more or less permanently
in the same job.

C. Unlike in many Western countries where companies employ people whose skills can be effective
immediately, Japanese companies select applicants with potential who can be trained to become suitable
employees. For this reason, recruiting employees is an important exercise for companies, as they invest a lot
of time and money in training new staff. This is basically true both for factory workers and for professionals.
Professionals who have studied subjects which are of immediate use in the workplace, such as industrial
engineers, are very often placed in factories and transferred from one section to another. By gaining
experience in several different areas and by working in close contact with workers, the engineers are
believed, in the long run, to become more effective members of the company. Workers too feel more
involved by working with professionals and by being allowed to voice their opinions. Loyalty is believed to
be cultivated in this type of egalitarian working environment.

D. Because of this system of training employees to be all-rounders, mobility between companies is low.
Wages are set according to educational background or initial field of employment, ordinary graduates being
employed in administration, engineers in engineering and design departments and so on. Both promotions
and wage increases tend to be tied to seniority, though some differences may arise later on as a result of
ability and business performance. Wages are paid monthly, and the net sum, after the deduction of tax, is
usually paid directly into a bank account. As well as salary, a bonus is usually paid twice a year. This is a
custom that dates back to the time when employers gave special allowances so that employees could
properly celebrate bon, a Buddhist festival held in mid-July in Tokyo, but on other dates in other regions.
The festival is held to appease the souls of ancestors. The second bonus is distributed at New Year.
Recently, bonuses have also been offered as a way of allowing workers a share in the profits that their hard
work has gained.

E. Many female graduates complain that they are not given equal training and equal opportunity in
comparison to male graduates. Japanese companies generally believe that female employees will eventually
leave to get married and have children. It is also true that, as well as the still-existing belief among women
themselves that nothing should stand in the way of child-rearing, the extended hours of work often do not
allow women to continue their careers after marriage.

F. Disappointed career-minded female graduates often opt to work for foreign firms. Since most male
graduates prefer to join Japanese firms with their guaranteed security, foreign firms are often keen to
employ female graduates as their potential tends to be greater than that of male applicants.

G. Some men, however, do leave their companies in spite of future prospects, one reason being to take over
the family business. The eldest sons in families that own family companies or businesses such as stores are
normally expected to take over the business when their parents retire. It is therefore quite common to see a
businessman, on succeeding to his parents’ business, completely change his professional direction by
becoming, for example, a shopkeeper.

H. On the job, working relationships tend to be very close because of the long hours of work and years of
service in common. Social life in fact is frequently based on the workplace. Restaurants and nomi-ya,
“pubs”, are always crowded at night with people enjoying an evening out with their colleagues. Many
companies organise trips and sports days for their employees. Senior staff often play the role of mentor. This
may mean becoming involved in the lives of junior staff in such things as marriage and the children’s
education.

I. The average age of retirement is between 55 and 60. For most Westerners, retirement may be an eagerly
awaited time to undertake such things as travel and hobbies. Many Japanese, however, simply cannot get
used to the freedom of retirement and they look for ways of constructively using their time. Many look for
new jobs, feeling that if they do not work they will be abandoned by society. This has recently led to the
development in some municipalities of municipal job centres which advertise casual work such as cleaning
and lawn mowing. Given that Japan is facing the problem of an increasingly ageing society, such activities
may be vital in the future.

Questions 1 – 8: The reading passage has 9 paragraphs marked A-I. Match each of the topics i-ix below
with one of the paragraphs A-I
Example: i: how new employees are used in a company - Paragraph C

ii: women and Japanese companies

iii: why men sometimes resign from Japanese companies
iv: permanency in employment in Japan
v: recruiting season: who, when and where
vi: the social aspect of work
vii: the salary structure
viii: the recruitment strategy of foreign firms
ix: Japanese people after retirement
1. Paragraph A -
2. Paragraph B -
3. Paragraph D -
4. Paragraph E -
5. Paragraph F -
6. Paragraph G -
7. Paragraph H -
8. Paragraph I -

Questions 9 – 11: Complete the sentences below with words taken from the reading passage.
Use NO MORE THAN THREE WORDS for each answer.

Japanese employers believe that moving professionals within companies and listening to
workers’ views leads to 9. ___________________.

Employees receive their wages monthly and a bonus 10. ____________________.

Japanese workers often form close personal relationships and older staff may even become a 11.
___________________ to junior staff.

Questions 12 – 13: Choose the appropriate letter A-D

12. Company training in Japan
A.is not important
B. is for factory workers only
C. is for professionals only
D. is for all staff

13. Foreign firms are keen to employ Japanese women because

A. the women are more intelligent than men
B. the women that apply are more capable than the men that apply
C. the women will be only short-term employees
D. the women prefer guaranteed security
 THE HISTORY OF CINEMA

The history of the cinema in its first thirty years is one of major and, to this day, unparalleled expansion and
growth. Beginning as something unusual in a handful of big cities - New York, London, Paris and Berlin -
the new medium quickly found its way across the world, attracting larger and larger audiences wherever it
was shown and replacing other forms of entertainment as it did so. As audiences grew, so did the places
where films were shown, finishing up with the ‘great picture palaces’ of the 1920s, which rivalled, and
occasionally superseded, theatres and opera-houses in terms of opulence and splendour. Meanwhile, films
themselves developed from being short ‘attractions’ only a couple of minutes long, to the full-length feature
that has dominated the world's screens up to the present day.

Although French, German, American and British pioneers have all been credited with the invention of
cinema, the British and the Germans played a relatively small role in its worldwide exploitation. It was
above all the French, followed closely by the Americans, who were the most passionate exporters of the new
invention, helping to start cinema in China, Japan, Latin America and Russia. In terms of artistic
development it was again the French and the Americans who took the lead, though in the years before the
First World War, Italy, Denmark and Russia also played a part.

In the end, it was the United States that was to become, and remain, the largest single market for films. By
protecting their own market and pursuing a vigorous export policy, the Americans achieved a dominant
position in the world market by the start of the First World War. The centre of film-making had moved
westwards, to Hollywood, and it was films from these new Hollywood studios that flooded onto the world’s
film markets in the years after the First World War, and have done so ever since. Faced with total
Hollywood domination, few film industries proved competitive. The Italian industry, which had pioneered
the feature film with spectacular films like Quo vadis? (1913) and Cabiria (1914), almost collapsed. In
Scandinavia, the Swedish cinema had a brief period of glory, notably with powerful epic films and
comedies. Even the French cinema found itself in a difficult position. In Europe, only Germany proved
industrially capable, while in the new Soviet Union and in Japan, the development of the cinema took place
in conditions of commercial isolation.

American’s Hollywood took the dominating lead artistically as well as industrially. Hollywood films
appealed because they had better-constructed narratives, their special effects were more impressive, and the
star system added a new dimension to the screen acting. If Hollywood did not have enough of its own
resources, it had a great deal of money to buy up artists and technical innovations from Europe to ensure its
continued dominance over present or future competition.

From early cinema, it was only American slapstick comedy that successfully developed in both short and
feature format. However, during this ‘Silent Film’ era, animation, comedy, serials and dramatic features
continued to thrive, along with factual films or documentaries, which acquired an increasing distinctiveness
as the period progressed. It was also at this time that the avant-garde film first achieved commercial success,
this time thanks almost exclusively to the French and the occasional German film.

Of the countries which developed and maintained distinctive national cinemas in the silent period, the most
important were France, Germany and the Soviet Union. Of these, the French displayed the most continuity,
in spite of the war and post-war economic uncertainties. The German cinema, relatively insignificant in the
pre-war years, exploded onto the world scene after 1919. Yet even they were both overshadowed by the
Soviets after the 1917 Revolution. They turned their back on the past, leaving the style of the pre-war
Russian cinema to the émigrés who fled westwards to escape the Revolution.

The other countries whose cinemas changed dramatically are: Britain, which had an interesting but
undistinguished history in the silent period; Italy, which had a brief moment of international fame just before
the war; the Scandinavian countries, particularly Denmark, which played a role in the development of silent
cinema quite out of proportion to their small population; and Japan, where a cinema developed based
primarily on traditional theatrical and, to a lesser extent, other art forms and only gradually adapted to
western influence.

Questions 14-16: Which THREE possible reasons for American dominance of the film industry are given
in the text 'The history of cinema'?

A  plenty of capital to purchase what it didn't have

B  making films dealing with serious issues
C  being first to produce a feature film
D  well-written narratives
E  the effect of the First World War
F  excellent special effects

14. ................
15. ................
16. ................

Questions 17-18
Answer the questions below using NO MORE THAN THREE WORDS from the above reading passage
for each answer.
17. Which type of film did America develop in both short and feature films?  
18. Which type of film started to become profitable in the 'silent' period?

Questions 19-25
Look at the following statements (Questions 19-25) and the list of countries below. Match each statement
with the correct country.
NB You may use any letter more than once.

19. It helped other countries develop their own film industry.

20. It was the biggest producer of films.
21. It was first to develop the 'feature' film.
22. It was responsible for creating stars.
23. It made the most money from 'avant-garde' films.
24. It made movies based more on its own culture than outside influences.
25. It had a great influence on silent movies, despite its size.

List of countries

A.   France F.   Japan

B.   Germany        G.   Soviet Union  

C.   USA H.   Italy

D.   Denmark I.   Britain

E.   Sweden J.   China