A Study about the Job Training Expenditure of Japanese Firms in the 1990s

In this study, I summarize the changes relating to the skill development of workers in Japan in recent years. I show that the decline of per-worker job training costs spent by Japanese firms during the 1990s was caused by a slowdown in the recruitment of new employees and an increased reliance on part-time workers, and that Japanese firms have actually been spending the same or more on job training costs for newly hired employees than before. As a result, the fundamental problem is not that there is a slowdown in job training of all workers but rather the differential of the training opportunities between regular and part-time workers. Also, it is feared that Japanese public job training aid or Kyouiku Kunren Kyufu Seido, which is granted by employment insurance, may in fact widen the gap in relation to job training opportunities and should therefore be reformed.