Japanese Society Series. Melbourne: Trans Pacific Press; Portland, OR: Distributed by International Specialized Book Services, 2011. xiii, 239 pp. (Tables, figures.) US$34.95, paper. ISBN 978-1-92090-163-9.
Demographic Change and Inequality in Japan was published in Japanese by Tokyo University Press in 2006 under the title Henka suru Shakai no Fubyōdō [Inequality in a Changing Society]. The title of the English edition reviewed here emphasizes demography’s role in Japan’s destiny, with aging of the population figuring more prominently than actual population decline, although the latter has certainly begun.
The passage of time since the Japanese edition appeared has only increased the value of the analyses, which connect measurable disparities in wealth, income, health and status with how people feel about the fairness of a society organized around such differentials. Editor Shirahase, who authored the chapter on inequality’s implications for households and gender, as well as the introduction and conclusion, says the book aims at “clarifying mechanisms” of inequality and unfairness (206) as an aid to policy reform. Shirahase and her co-authors ask, “What degree of equality should be the ultimate goal of society?” (48). In so doing, they draw attention to political and cultural concerns about care and welfare that are relevant to all mature, post-industrial economies: How idealistic can we afford to be? Which generation’s ideals will hold political sway? What range of family and life course diversity will be supported by welfare systems?
The overall argument is that changes in population structure due to aging and fewer births lurk as hidden threats to the stability of Japan’s social order. Where the labour of large cohorts of young people once supported a small cohort of elderly, smaller cohorts of young workers, many of whom find it very difficult to gain decent work, marry or start their own families, are being asked to contribute to the welfare of a growing population of wealthier retirees. Making young citizens sacrifice to protect elderly voters raises resentment and depresses the birth rate.
Perceived inability to meet typical life course norms is a major factor in what Toshiki Satō’s chapter terms an “explosion of inequality consciousness.” In the past, traditional beliefs about family continuity papered over dissatisfaction about inequality. Parents tolerated social differentials because they could hope that life would be better for their children. Today, however, younger people facing difficulties in employment and family formation see dimmer prospects for future generations, making them more aware of inequality, even though on some measures differentials have not significantly worsened.
A tight labour market and harsh working conditions are also seen to unfairly thwart the achievement of a normal life. Yūji Genda’s chapter on the NEET phenomenon (Not in Employment Education or Training), argues that long-term unemployed, youngish (primarily male) workers, often portrayed in the media as feckless or irresponsible freeloaders, are better characterized as ill and in need of care and welfare support. Many members of this vulnerable minority group want to work, but the longer they remain unemployed, the more likely they are to lose that desire, creating the specter of a despised cohort of permanently unemployed, who will become more problematic as they age.
Another gem in this collection is Takehiko Kariya’s expose of hidden inequalities in education. Japan’s egalitarian education has been hailed for ensuring fair access to opportunities for social mobility. Kariya’s analysis reveals how intense competition to acquire educational credentials and the social status they confer magnifies the advantages of those who are better positioned by birth to succeed in a conformist system in which small deviations from the mean are the basis of distinctions. The emergence of this system was paralleled by the spread of equal opportunity discourse and associated avoidance of meritocratic discrimination, which obscured both the unfairness of the growing competition in education and the pathologies it spawned. Ironically, recent countermeasures have only widened the gaps.
Japan’s health care system has also won plaudits internationally for both high quality and equality of care. Hiroshi Ishida’s chapter argues that apparent health equality may actually be due to what he terms a “healthy worker effect,” in which surveys omit the sick and fail to query health inequalities in sufficient detail. When measures for assessing quality of life are added, grounds for questioning health equality in older people emerge. These differentials correlate with occupational careers. Despite statistically significant differentials in chronic health problems lurking among the elderly by occupational status, health equality in Japan still seems to be an area of policy success, though for how much longer it is difficult to say.
Two chapters, by Katsumi Matsuura and Naomi Miyazato respectively, round out the collection. Together they point to a future of increased and increasingly irreversible inequality, as well as fewer children, resulting from purposeful distortions buried in the pension system and intergenerational transfers of wealth through inheritance. A trend toward American-style neoliberal fiscal policies in Japan is evident. Inadequate redistribution means that families who raise more children will ultimately subsidize those who have fewer or none. As this latent inequality becomes obvious, it is likely to give rise to strong feelings of unfairness that may further depress childbirth and undermine the principle of respect for age upon which so much of Japan’s social stability has rested.
In sum, Demographic Change and Inequality in Japan is a cogent and nuanced tour of some of Japan’s hidden inequalities. The well-documented power of survey averages to define social norms of inequality and deviance is prominent in the chapters on education and health. Self-reflexive awareness of the role of social research in creating the “mechanisms” of inequality addressed by this volume is less evident in the other chapters. Nevertheless, all of the chapters pay careful attention to historical context as they tease out statistical correlations between demographic trends, social policies and citizens’ feelings. Translator Tom Gill’s sensitive and skillful English renderings ensure that these important studies will be available to the international audience they deserve.
Scott North
Osaka University, Osaka, Japan
pp. 151-153