The company had previously had a lifetime employment policy but the mass layoffs caused a morale crisis.

Restricted migration, lifetime employment, egalitarian wage structures, and the insular nature of work units were intended by the state, at least in part, to curtail individual competition.

They are said to be loyal to their organisations, enjoy the notion of lifetime employment and prefer to be valued or needed as opposed to rewarded with recognition or money.

The idea of lifetime employment was that you would always have a job, no matter what was going on with the cyclical nature of the semiconductor industry.

Traditionally, under the lifetime employment system, directors and department chiefs begin their careers as line employees of the company and work their way up the management hierarchy over time.