When purchases of new cars screeched to a halt at the start of the global economic crisis half a decade ago, more than 200,000 people employed by the US automobile industry found themselves out of work.

In Japan, too, motor industry workers suddenly found themselves with much less to do. Yet beyond a relatively small group of temporary contractors, most employees at Toyota, Nissan and Honda stayed in their jobs and off the dole, even as profits at those companies evaporated. Instead of building cars, many spent the downturn maintaining machinery or painting factory walls.

Now, however, Japan’s system of generous worker protections is under scrutiny as part of an effort by Shinzo Abe, prime minister, to reinvigorate the economy through structural reform.