A Gender Analysis of Skill Transfers by a Japanese Ready-made Garments Multinational Corporation after the Global Financial Crisis : Case Study of Japan, China and Bangladesh

The objective of this paper is to analyze from a gender perspective the skill transfers conducted by a Japanese ready-made garments multinational corporation since the global financial crisis. The global financial crisis which occurred in 2008 brought about a reorganization of Asian economics. China has shifted from being the Factory of the World to the Market of the World and, consequently, there has been capital transfer from China, where labor costs are rising, to Bangladesh, where labor costs are much cheaper than in China. This paper compares the first skill transfer conducted from corporation A’s holding company in Japan to their branch factory in China with the second skill transfer conducted by the branch factory in China to the grandchild factory in Bangladesh. Concretely, this paper discusses how these skill transfers have been conducted by disclosing each corporation’s organization. The second skill transfer has two problems—the gender asymmetrical labor force allocation in the Bangladeshi factory and language—and consequently it is difficult to transfer the high-level skills of Chinese technicians to Bangladeshi workers. Finally, this paper shows some possibilities for the second skill transfer