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OBJECTIVE The paper examines changes in the relationship between employment and household tasks of Japanese couples, using data drawn from national cross-sectional surveys in 1994, 2000, and 2009 of persons aged 20-49, and from the 2009 follow-up of the 2000 survey. RESULTS Wives' employment is structured by their husbands' employment time and earning power, as well as by their family situations, including the presence and age of children and co-residence with parents. Housework hours of husbands, though very low, increased over time, while wives' hours decreased. Wives' housework time decreases as their employment time increases. Marriage dramatically increases women's housework time but produces little change in men's time. Husbands' housework hours are positively correlated with reported marital satisfaction of both spouses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In most advanced countries, young people are now expected to remain in education until the age of 18 and, in a context of poor opportunities for those who leave at an early stage, there are concerns about those who are being left behind. In this paper we use comparable survey data to focus on the destinations of young people in two contrasting societies, England and Wales and Japan. We compare the destinations of 19/20-year-olds in the two countries, with a strong focus on those who leave education at an early stage, and go on to explore the extent to which young people's socio-economic backgrounds and their orientations to education explain their post-school experiences. We argue that, in both societies, those who enter the labour market before the age of 20 face severe difficulties irrespective of their social background. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This study investigates the recent process of job polarization in Japan. We focus on three particular aspects: the relationship with business cycles, total hours rather than employment and age cohorts. We find that, regardless of whether the focus is employment or total hours, job polarization is concentrated in recessions and that job polarization has occurred mainly in younger-age cohorts. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The cohort effect in the labor market refers to the lasting impact on employment conditions, such as wages and job separation, of a group of people of the same age, gender, and educational background that is created by supply and demand in the labor market at the time of graduation and that group's population size. This article outlines conventional research findings on the The cohort effect in the labor market refers to the lasting impact on employment conditions, such as wages and job separation, of a group of people of the same age, gender, and educational background that is created by supply and demand in the labor market at the time of graduation and that group's population size. This article outlines conventional research findings on the cohort effect, and presents the results of research conducted using long-term data, including data from the prolonged hiring slump known in Japan as the "employment ice age." During this time, rising unemployment rates at the time of graduation left graduates unable to find employment immediately after graduation or thereafter, increasing the likelihood that they would obtain provisional employment or remain unemployed altogether. A trend toward declining annual incomes was especially noticeable among high school graduates. This is attributable to the limited employment opportunities available to the less educated during a recession as well as to the effects of a structural pitfall of the Japanese labor market. That is, because of the weakness of the market's evaluation functions and the high level of mobility costs, the inability to find employment immediately after graduation makes it tremendously difficult to improve one's situation later. Helping the employment ice-age generation will require intensive skill development efforts and also efforts by the government and corporate sector aimed at improving the evaluation functions of the labor market. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses how promotion of elderly employment in Japan can impact younger workers dealing with the low rates of unemployment, declining working age population, and lack of demand for elderly worker. Topics include Japan's labor productivity, changes in the government policies regarding employment of the elderly, and revisions made to the employee pension laws. Also discussed is the possibilities how reduction in the hiring of the youth due to the retention of elderly employees.

It is recognized, mainly from Japanese aggregate data, that the wage-tenure profile is affected by conditions in external labor markets, by productivity, and by population aging. We estimate the effects of these factors on the wage-tenure profile using matched employer-employee panel data at the firm level for the period since the bursting of the bubble economy in Japan. The results show that ceteris paribus, the steepness of the wage-tenure profile is positively related to labor productivity, but negatively related to tightness of external labor markets and aging of employees. We also find that the wagetenure profile tended to flatten in firms that reduced employment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aggregate data on birth rates in the U.S. and Japan, classified by period and by age, are decomposed into age, period, and cohort effects using Bayesian cohort models that were developed to overcome the identification problem in cohort analysis. Main findings are fivefold. First, age, period, and cohort effects movements are all larger in Japan than in the U.S. Second, in both countries, age effects are the largest and are roughly consistent with the life-cycle movements showing an inverted U shape. Third, Easterlin’s cohort size hypothesis roughly fits U.S. birth rates but not Japanese birth rates. Fourth, despite rapid decline of total fertility rates in Japan in last three decades, period effects have been on an upward trend since the early 1990s. Finally, upward and downward cohort effects movements in Japan are derived by rapid economic growth and the Equal Employment Opportunity Law, respectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Examines the retirement age levels on the employment system in Japan. Implication of the growing cadre of aging workers; Response of the Japanese companies and industries on the age retirement; Approach of Japanese firms on the effective management of older work force.

The article offers a look at the pre-industrialization employment practices that can be observed in present-day industrial relations and management policy in the Japanese industry. According to the author, the nation is generally considered to be one of the world's six leading industrial nations. However, a melding of traditionalism and democracy can still be seen in Japanese industry. The practices include lifetime employment relationships, a wage and promotion system based on age and length of service and emphasis on intragroup harmony, among others.