About the transformation of Japanese society

Since the late 1990s, under conditions of economic depression and the aggravation of a number of unfavorable social trends (population aging, shrinking of youth population, and declining birth rates), there has been a rapid spread of the idea that Japanese middle-class society is transforming into a gap society, with the main evidence of this transformation being the growing socioeconomic inequality. The article examines three aspects of the problem of socioeconomic inequality: income distribution, social mobility, and the role of education as a key factor of social mobility. The analysis of statistical data (the dynamics of the Gini coefficient for equivalent disposable income and shifts in the structure of households by the ratio of their income to the median) does not confirm the thesis of increased economic inequality in the country in recent decades. Shifts in the population's employment structure have shown that, over the past 30 years, millions of Japanese have been able to move up the social ladder in terms of the prestige of their profession. This is also confirmed by the high rates of absolute social mobility. As for the growing inequality in the chances of such advancement for people from different social strata (i.e., relative mobility), this thesis is refuted by the calculations of Professor H. Ishida from the University of Tokyo, who showed that, throughout the post-war period, the strength of the connection between the class background of Japanese people and their achieved social status remained unchanged. Although the Japanese education system distributes Japanese to different levels of the social pyramid from the time they are in school, and one of the main factors influencing this distribution is the socioeconomic status of the family, Japanese researchers have found that there has not been an increase in inequality in terms of the chances of young Japanese from different social backgrounds to receive higher education. Thus, the thesis that Japanese society has transformed from a classless society of middle class, sôchûryû shakai, to a gap society, kakusa shakai, lacks a solid scientific foundation. Firstly, it was a class-based, gap society before. Secondly, there has been no increase in inequality in terms of income distribution, social mobility, or access to higher education for people from different social groups. But, in terms of the well-being of Japanese families, the distribution of income, and people's adherence to a shared value system, Japanese society had already become a sôchûryû shakai by the early 1970s and remains so to this day. This is confirmed by the results of annual surveys conducted by the Prime Minister's Office, which show that, for over half a century, approximately 90 % of Japanese people have considered themselves to be middle class by their standard of living.

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