Hosogaya Nobuko

CD-rom

The nation of Singapore consists of several ethnic groups, and diversity of language has been a significant matter which concerns with both economic development and political stability. So, language planning always has been taken as one of the most important policies by the government. It always has influenced the whole nation, every ethnic group, including the Chinese majority in Singapore. In this paper, we will focus on language planning and its influences to the languages of the Chinese Singaporeans. At first, this paper shows how language planning has been carried out, and how the political intentions of it have been changed. Second, this paper shows how the languages of the Chinese Singaporeans in their life have changed along with the language planning. We will also point out several factors for the change. In the end, we will argue about the efficiency of the Chinese-ness identity that is praised by government. And also, we address some problems that came to be visible through 1990's.

This paper aims to clarify the main determinant factors for the development in the employment of foreign white-collar employees in Japanese companies. The factors that are considered in the discussion below are the following: the labor-supply and the changes in law regulations and managerial conditions in specific companies which are hiring them. The analysis is based on the empirical data which has been gathered by a mail survey on 4400 companies in Japan, as well as official data from governmental reports. The empirical data was analyzed according to company size, and the kinds of jobs in which the foreigners were actually engaging.

A probelm arises, in the Japanese Companies' attempt to utilize foreign white-collar employees, it being that they do not intend to remain long within one company. The purpose of this paper is to discuss the employment and promotion problems of foreign white-collar employees working for Japanese companies in Japan. This concerns their employee-status and then country of origin. Their career prospects seem to depend on employee-status, working experience, educational background, native languages, etc. To examine such factors is crucial in defining how career prospects are attained, and how prospects are offered by the company. Utilization of foreign employees is inevitable for Japanese companies that struggle to be globalized both in Japan and abroad.