Social Change in Japan, 1989-2019 by Carola Hommerich Naoki Sudo Toru Kikkawa

Social Change in Japan, 1989-2019 by Carola Hommerich Naoki Sudo Toru Kikkawa

Author:Carola Hommerich, Naoki Sudo, Toru Kikkawa [Carola Hommerich, Naoki Sudo, Toru Kikkawa]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Nonfiction, Social & Cultural Studies, Social Science, Sociology
ISBN: 9781000203639
Publisher: Taylor and Francis
Published: 2020-10-15T04:00:00+00:00


6 Support for government redistribution programs in the age of welfare retrenchment

Workers’ changing attitudes

Kikuko Nagayoshi

1 Introduction

From the late 1990s onwards, Japanese society has witnessed a dramatic increase in non-regular employment and a rise in income inequality. Figure 6.1 shows the continuous increase in the proportion of non-regular workers (i.e. part-time, contract or dispatched workers), male and female, in Japan. In 2003, the proportion of non-regular workers exceeded 50% of total female employees. Ten years later, proportions among male workers exceeded 20% of total male employees.

Income inequality has also been growing during this period, but not as sharply. Figure 6.2 shows the Gini coefficient after tax and transfers among the working population (aged 18 to 65) and the elderly population (aged 65 and over). While the Gini coefficient has declined among the elderly, it has risen slightly among the working age population.

These two trends seem to be in track with the restructuring of the Japanese welfare-employment regime, which took place from the middle of the 1990s to the middle of the 2000s. According to Miyamoto (2008), the welfare regime and employment regime secure citizens’ livelihood. In Japan, where state welfare is minimal, the employment regime plays a more important role in supporting its citizens’ livings. In other words, the Japanese government supports citizens’ social safety-nets by way of employment.

The employment regime in Japan is divided between large firms and high productivity industries like the automobile industry (hereafter, the high productivity sector) and small- and mid-sized firms, or low productivity industries, like construction and retail sales (hereafter, the low productivity sector). In the first sector, large firms provide their employees with lifelong employment, generous fringe-benefits and living wages high enough to support their families. In the second sector, employees are not provided with the benefits that employees in large firms enjoy, but the government protects their employment through the provision of public work and various regulations. This provision of public work and regulations can be regarded as a circuit of redistribution from the high productivity sector to the low productivity sector (Miyamoto 2008).

This employment regime and the male breadwinner model complement each other. While the male breadwinner earns to support his family, his wife takes care of the family, especially the children and the elderly members of the family. In this sense, the family is the primary safety-net for people in need.

Figure 6.1 Proportions of non-regular workers in employees by gender (%)

Source: “The Special Survey of the Labour Force Survey” (1984–2001, every February), “Labour Force Survey (Detailed Tabulation)” (2002–2019, January-March average).



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