Nihon no Rodo Shijo (The Japanese Labor Market: Perspectives of Economists)

In Japan, population decline and population aging continue to worsen simultaneously. Undoubtedly, the current social structure, in which people under the age of 65 years constitute the working population and those older retire on principle, cannot be sustained. Under these circumstances, various labor problems arise, such as: how elderly employment can be promoted; how foreign workers can be accommodated; how female participation in the workforce can be increased; and how each worker’s productivity can be enhanced. As population decline and population aging occur at a quicker pace in rural areas, the disparity between urban and rural areas is becoming more conspicuous. Further, because of the changes in society following the rapid development of information/communications technology and the advancement of globalization since the 1990s, the gap between workers benefiting from these changes and those who are not, has gradually become problematic.
 
Labor economics as an academic discipline considers these emerging problems in terms of household and business optimization behaviors, and the equilibrium achieved when they intersect. Understanding these dispersed emerging problems based on a unified framework deepens our understanding of phenomena in a comprehensive way. In the first half of this volume, we asked leading researchers in each field how they would analyze various labor problems from a labor economics perspective. In addition to basic theoretical approaches, the Japanese system and the results of previous empirical studies have been briefly introduced. I also asked top experts to apply theoretical/empirical analysis and experimental methods employed in labor economics, to labor problems. The last half of this volume documents the results of these efforts.
 
I believe this is an ideal textbook for undergraduate and graduate seminar classes. When I commissioned an author for a chapter, I requested that the manuscript be prepared on the premise that labor economics students working on their undergraduate or Master’s thesis would be able to commence their research by reading the relevant chapter. All the authors faithfully complied with my request. Prior to publication, the authors held a book conference bearing their manuscripts and exchanged opinions among themselves. Several people were asked to read the manuscripts carefully and they provided insightful comments. This volume has been painstakingly prepared and I would be most grateful if it could reach as many readers as possible.
 

(Written by Daiji Kawaguchi, Professor, Graduate School of Economics / 2019)