Developmental Perspectives on the Education and Economic Activities of Japanese Women.

This document explores the role played by women in the economic success of Japan in recent decades. Part 1 provides a brief history of Japan's rural legacy and describes its urbanization process. Part 2 reveals trends in the nature and extent of the economic activity of Japanese women using data on cohort age-groups at 5-year intervals beginning in 1950. Part 3 describes the constraints and opportunities for women in the evolving Japanese labor markets, and part 4 focuses on the relationship between education and labor force status of women. Such trends as the increasing proportion of younger Japanese women in clerical positions, the under representation of women in upper-level corporate positions, and the use of older women in manufacturing are documented. It is concluded that further erosion of the "breadwinner" system in Japan is inevitable and that continuing transformation of Japan's economic structure will both reflect and affect the evolution of sex roles in the economy in future years. The paper includes 38 tables and a 17-item bibliography. (JDH)