Shūshin koyō

Shūshin koyō (終身雇用; "employment for life") is the term for permanent employment in Japan. It was extremely common in major Japanese companies, beginning with the first economic successes in the 1920s. It continued to be a defining characteristic of Japanese corporate culture through the Japanese post-war economic miracle, but its prominence waned after the bursting of the Japanese asset price bubble, the Lost Decade and subsequent economic reforms.