The Educational Upgrading of Japanese Youth, 1982-2007: Are All Japanese Youth Ready for Structural Reforms?

Yoichi Arai, Hidehiko Ichimura and Daiji Kawaguchi

No 8870, IZA Discussion Papers from Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)

Abstract: Are all Japanese youth ready for the structural reforms proposed as a supply-side policy of Abenomics? To answer this question, we assess how well Japanese youth have coped with the labor market's long-term structural changes, induced primarily by deepening interdependence with emerging economies and rapid technological progress over the last three decades. We examine the role of educational upgrading on the labor-market outcomes of youth between the ages of 25 and 29, using six waves of micro data from the Employment Status Survey spanning from 1982 to 2007. The analysis demonstrates that the demand growth for skilled labor relative to unskilled labor has been met by the educational upgrading of youth through the expansion of tertiary education, including education in vocational schools. Youth left behind the trend of educational upgrading, however, have suffered significantly from decreasing employment opportunities and deteriorating working conditions.

Keywords: youth employment; tertiary education; Japan (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I23 J21 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 59 pages
Date: 2015-02
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-edu and nep-lma
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

Published - published in: Journal of the Japanese and International Economies, 2015, 37, 100-126

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Journal Article: The educational upgrading of Japanese youth, 1982–2007: Are all Japanese youth ready for structural reforms? (2015)
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