| DISPARITY IN JAPAN: Thinking From Perspective of Income and Assets |
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by Toshiaki Tachibanaki
November 1998, Paperback, 173 x 180 mm, 212 pp.,  660- |
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We are witnessing the decay of the myth
of the equality of income and assets created by the post-war reforms
and high economic growth. Income distribution in Japan is clearly
moving toward inequality, the trend resulting from a complex interplay
of factors, including wage inequality and the rapid move toward a
large aging society. Steep rise in land and share prices during the
“bubble economy” in the late 1980s aggravated inequalities
in the distribution of assets. The possession of such assets played
an important determinant in the movement.
In this book, using international statistical data, the author explores
the economic mechanisms that decides this distribution of income and
assets. He also examines the role of sociological variables such as
education, occupation, marriage, and parental wealth in determining
income and asset holdings in a society where social strata is appearing
more rigidly, and provides suggestions for an egalitarian society
we should strive for. Can policies to halt this slide toward inequality
be developed and implemented without sacrificing individual freedoms
and economic efficiency? In addition to providing an historical analysis
of Japanese society from before World War II to present, the author
identifies the problems that confronts us in the fields of education,
tax system, social security, and business culture. |
| Contents |
| Foreword |
| Chapter 1: Myth of Equality- Is It Still
With Us? |
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1. Truth Behind the Sense of “All-Middle-Class
Nation” - Japan in the International Comparison |
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2. What “Bubble Economy” Has Brought |
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3. Age of Low Growth |
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4. US economy- Revival and Uncertainties |
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5. Have We been On the Path to a Welfare
State? |
| Chapter 2: Track of Post-War Japanese Economic
Society Through Issue of Income Distribution |
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1. Prewar Inequality and Effects of Post-War
Reforms |
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2. From High Economic Growth to “Bubble
Economy” |
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3. Economic Development and Unequal Income
Distribution |
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4. International Comparison of Income Distribution
- Past and Present |
| Chapter 3: Causes of Increasing Inequality
In Terms of Income Components |
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1. Gap Between Statistical Data and Actual
Feeling |
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2. What the Components of Income Tell Us |
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3. Changes In Wage Income |
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4. Changes In Composition of Family |
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5. Roles of Taxation and Social Security
System |
| Chapter 4: Unequal Distribution of Assets,
and Inherited Property |
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1. Two Types of Assets -Material Assets
and Financial Assets |
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2. Desirability of Home Ownership and Safe
Financial Assets, and Significance of Savings Ratios |
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3. What Was “Bubble Economy”? |
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4. Roles of Inherited Property |
| Chapter 5: Will Inequality Expand? -Necessity
of Systematic Reforms |
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1. Social Strata (Occupation), Education
(Academic Background), Marriage |
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2. Growing Acceptance of Merit System and
Changes in Mentality |
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3. Guarantee on Equal Opportunities and
Rectifying Unequal Outcomes |
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4. Efficiency and Fairness (Equality) |
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5. Reforms of Tax and Social Security Systems |
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6. Reforms of Education System and in Internal
Corporation |
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7. Conclusions |
| Afterword |
| Bibliography |
