ABSTRACT
In the previous two chapters I described the paths taken to the Shintani Metals factory by the men and women working there. We have seen that many of these individuals had prior employment experiences of various sorts and lengths of time. Fifteen of the thirty-five men (42.8 percent) and ten of the fourteen women (71.4 percent) for whom I have information had worked elsewhere. For many of the men now in their forties and fifties, the Shintani Metals factory may well be their final place of employment. However, for other of the men-including some of the older men-and perhaps for most of the women, Shintani Metals will eventually become one, even if temporally the longest, of the places where they will have been employed during their working lives. While I was at the company, four men and four full-time and seven part-time women workers quit. By the time I returned for a brief visit in August of 1991, another three men who had been working there during my fieldwork had left Shintani Metals for greener valleys, and others have continued (or have been forced) to leave (see Chapter 3) since then as well. For people making their livings by working in smaller enterprises it is perhaps more appropriate to talk about lifetimes of employment than about lifetime employment.
