Transformation of the Japanese Labor Market : Toward a labor market for all

The dependency ratio—the ratio of the population aged 65 and over to that between ages 15 and 64—of Japan was 25% in 2000 and is projected to reach 74% in 2050. To avoid fiscal crisis caused by growing social security expenditure, increased tax revenue through an expanded labor force as well as productivity improvement per worker are indispensable. This project focuses on groups of workers whose labor force participation as regular workers are traditionally low such as youth, women, and elderly. We describe the trends of utilization of these groups of workers, investigate the obstacles against full utilization, and propose policies to remove the obstacles. We exploit microdata of high-quality government statistics in an innovative way to address these issues.

September 29, 2015 - May 31, 2017