Carrer formation and Critical Realism: Using Japanese employment as an example

Today’s career development is still heavily influenced by historical and cultural norms such as “stability-oriented thinking,” adaptation to organizations, mass recruitment, and seniority-based systems. As a result, systems and educational practices have yet to be fully designed with sufficient consideration for individual well-being, diverse life planning, or social inclusion. Therefore, we attempt to reexamine investment in human capital not merely as career education during schooling, but as an issue tied to lifelong career development and diverse individual life designs. To envision career development as a “system or educational model that enables more diverse and fulfilling career and human growth,” we seek to understand the deep social structures based on critical realism, and further refer to the Transformation Model of Social Activity (TMSA), which explores the relationship between society and individuals, as well as the Transformation Model of Education for Sustainable Development (TMESD). This is because we believe that critically deconstructing and reconstructing the dominant values and systems— such as employment styles, promotion standards, and the focus on stability — that underlie phenomena like an overemphasis on OJT, the rise in non-regular employment, and stagnant career prospects, is essential to achieving sustainable investment in human capital, better career development, and fair employment.