Class structure and status hierarchies in contemporary Japan

Abstract

This paper empirically examines four hypotheses related to the relationship between class structure and status hierarchies in contemporary Japan. The homogeneity hypothesis claims that there are no longer any fundamental differences in life styles among different classes in contemporary Japan and that the status composition of various classes is highly homogeneous. The bipolarity hypothesis suggests that the basis of the distribution of various status characteristics is polarised along the lines of the ownership of the means of production and that classes are divided into two basic groups with respect to their status attributes. The status inconsistency hypothesis predicts that various status characteristics of classes are inconsistent so that classes cannot be characterised by consistently high or low status attributes. The dual structure hypothesis suggests that the distribution of status attributes is further stratified by firm size among Japanese employees. The empirical analysis supports the dual structure hypothesis. Japanese employees in large firms tend to have better status attributes than those in small and medium-sized firms even though they occupy the same class positions. The bipolarity and the status inconsistency hypotheses also receive partial support from the data. Bipolarity is marked at the extremes of Japanese class structure while classes which occupy partially dominant locations in social relations of production tend to show status inconsistency.