Yoshimichi Sato Yusuke Hayashi Center for the Study of Social Stratification and Inequality

1. ERIS SeminarFebruary 9, 2010 Change and Stability in the Social Stratification System in Contemporary Japan: Coexistence of Stability and Fluidization Yoshimichi Sato Yusuke Hayashi Center for the Study of Social Stratification and Inequality Tohoku University

2. Research Question • Seemingly contradictory discourses on social stratification and inequality in contemporary Japan • Stabilization / Immobilization / Bifurcation • Toshiki Sato: Increase in intergenerational immobility of professionals/managers • Toshiaki Tachibanaki: Increasing inequality of income • Fluidization • Yuji Genda: Increase in young non-regular workers • Yuki Honda: Weakening implicit contracts between schools and firms

3. Research Question (cont’d) • How can we consistently understand the two discourses? • Social stratification matters. • Some strata (classes) are still under the umbrella of protective institutions in the labor market such as the long-term employment practice. • Other strata (classes) are involved in the turmoil of the fluid labor market.

4. Image of Our Answer

5. Theoretical Backgrounds Global Forces • Globalization • Neo-liberalism Local Institutions • Dual Labor Market • Long-term • Employment Practice • Implicit Contracts • between Schools • and Firms Social Stratification and Mobility

6. Data and Method • Data • 2005 Social Stratification and Social Mobility Survey (2005 SSM Survey) • Method • Selecting empirical findings inthe fifteen volumes ofthe SSM report • Focusing on three areas: Education, the youth labor market, and career development.

7. Education • Implicit contracts between schools and firms • Those who got a job through the contracts are more likely to get it within a month after graduation and to get regular employment than those who used job advertisement (Brinton, 2008). • Widening gap between graduates using the contracts and those not using them

8. Youth Labor Market • Stability of the long-term employment practice (Nakazawa, 2008) • Young workers under the LTE vs. Young workers in unstable employment Coefficient of firm size of event history analysis with duration of first job as dependent variable

9. Youth Labor Market (cont’d) • Employment Status • Non-regular workers tend to leave their first job earlier than regular workers (Hirata, 2008). • Educational Stratification • Speculation: Entry to the long-term employment • Entry to regular employment (Brinton, 2008; Hirata, 2008)

10. Youth Labor Market (cont’d) • Early career of young female workers (Iwai, 2008) • Bottom Line: Increase in non-regular employment and fluidization of employment in the youth labor market are observed in a particular area of the market: less-educated workers in the periphery of the market.

11. Career Development • Heterogeneous change in the long-term employment practice (Inada, 2008) • Percentage of workers under the LTE has been decreasing. • HOWEVER, the decreasing rate in large firms is lower than that in small and mid-sized firms. % of workers under LTE White-collar workers at large firms White-collar workers at small/mid-sized firms Birth cohorts

12. Career Development (cont’d) • Differential influence of education on decrease in income associated with changing jobs (Hayashi, 2008) • Credentials (Agata, 2008): Less-educated workers tend to utilize occupational credentials with which to survive in the labor market. • Bottom Line: Social stratification matters. Percentage of Job Changers with Decrease in Income Timing of Job Change

13. Conclusions • Coexistence of stability and fluidization • Why so? • 1)Skill-biased technological change and 2) stagnated income of low-skilled workers (Nagamatsu, 2008) • Creation of rent in the upper area of the stratification system and its deterioration in the lower area (Grusky, Weeden, and Di Carlo, 2008)