Unemployment Rate In Japan Research Articles

Heterogeneous Worker Flows and Japan's Labor Market

This study divides workers into regular, non-regular, and self-employed and other workers, and investigates the role of the flows of these different types of workers on Japan's labor market stocks using a counterfactual simulation. I find that the job finding rate for non-regular jobs and the participation margin are relatively important for the evolution of Japan's unemployment rate. Further, the transitions between regular and non-regular works are important for the dynamics of Japan's non-regular worker ratio.

Structural Unemployment, Underemployment, and Secular Stagnation

We introduce a preference for wealth into the standard search and matching model to analyze the labor market when there is persistent demand shortage. We show that, under some conditions, a secular stagnation steady state exists in which the economy permanently operates below capacity due to both structural unemployment and underemployment. The latter is a direct consequence of the lack of aggregate demand. Our findings are as follows. In the absence of demand shortage, the preference for wealth creates a new transmission channel for shocks and policy measures due to induced changes in the real interest rate, in addition to the job creation channel of the standard matching model. Turning to the stagnation equilibrium, the effects of demand and supply shocks are opposite to those of the standard case and result in a co-movement of unemployment and underemployment. In contrast, the effects of wage and cost shocks depend on the degree of aggregate demand shortage, but they can explain movements of unemployment and underemployment in opposite directions. Finally, we show that fluctuations in the total employment gap under stagnation are primarily driven by fluctuations in underemployment instead of structural unemployment. Our analysis helps to understand why the unemployment rate in Japan has been surprisingly low during its lost decades and highlights the need for further policy interventions in support of aggregate demand despite a seemingly decent employment record.

Structural Unemployment, Underemployment, and Secular Stagnation

We introduce a preference for wealth into the standard search and matching model to analyze the labor market when there is persistent demand shortage. We show that, under some conditions, a secular stagnation steady state exists in which the economy permanently operates below capacity due to both structural unemployment and underemployment. The latter is a direct consequence of the lack of aggregate demand. Our findings are as follows. In the absence of demand shortage, the preference for wealth creates a new transmission channel for shocks and policy measures due to induced changes in the real interest rate, in addition to the job creation channel of the standard matching model. Turning to the stagnation equilibrium, the effects of demand and supply shocks are opposite to those of the standard case and result in a co-movement of unemployment and underemployment. In contrast, the effects of wage and cost shocks depend on the degree of aggregate demand shortage, but they can explain movements of unemployment and underemployment in opposite directions. Finally, we show that fluctuations in the total employment gap under stagnation are primarily driven by fluctuations in underemployment instead of structural unemployment. Our analysis helps to understand why the unemployment rate in Japan has been surprisingly low during its lost decades and highlights the need for further policy interventions in support of aggregate demand despite a seemingly decent employment record.

A Bayesian Approach for Analyzing the Dynamic Dependence of GDP on the Unemployment Rate in Japan

A Bayesian Approach for Analyzing the Dynamic Dependence of GDP on the Unemployment Rate in Japan

Dynamic Effects of Oil Price Fluctuations on Business Cycle and Unemployment Rate in Japan

Dynamic Effects of Oil Price Fluctuations on Business Cycle and Unemployment Rate in Japan

Is Labor Market Mismatch a Big Deal in Japan?

Despite its low unemployment rate, the recent shift in the Japanese Beveridge curve indicates increased labor mismatch. This paper quantifies the age, employment-type (full or part-time), and occupational mismatch in the Japanese labor market following Sahin and others (2013). Between April 2000 and April 2013, the age mismatch has steadily declined while the occupational and employmenttype mismatch has shown a countercyclical pattern, showing a sharp increase during the global financial crisis. Occupational mismatch accounted for approximtely 20-40 percent of the recent rise in the unemployment rate in Japan. The magnitude was comparable to that of the U.K. and the U.S.

Unemployment and labour force participation in Japan

This article studies a long-run relationship between the labour-force participation rate and the unemployment rate in Japan. By using cointegration analysis, we demonstrate that there exists a long-run relationship between the two variables for male workers but not for female workers. Furthermore, using labour-force data by age group, we find the added-worker effect for young males and the discouraged-worker effect for middle-aged and old male groups.

Gross Worker Flows and Unemployment Dynamics in Japan

This paper studies worker flows dynamics in Japan for the period between 1980 and 2009. We construct gross worker flows data from the monthly Labour Force Survey. Our data enables us to examine the size and cyclical patterns of the flows and transition rates between the states of employment, unemployment, and not-in-the labor force. We find that the cyclical pattern of worker flows is similar to that found in other countries, while worker flows in Japan are generally smaller than those in the U.S. and European countries. We also decompose changes in unemployment into contributions due to changes in unemployment inflow and outflow rates. We find that both inflow and outflow rate play an important role to account for variation in the unemployment rate in Japan.

President Obama's “Pivot” to Jobs: Lessons from Comparative Law and America's Rivals

AbstractBy adopting sensible economic policies over the past several decades, Germany and Japan have reduced their unemployment rates without sacrificing the health or financial well‐being of their populations. Japan's unemployment rate is less than 5%, and Germany's is less than 7.5%, while the U.S. rate is over 9%. Their legal tools for achieving these levels include: (1) consideration of the interests of workers when executives plan mass layoffs, and direct action to create jobs; (2) creation of a healthy and well‐educated workforce; (3) preservation of an industrial base that includes a vibrant manufacturing sector, by shifting many of the costs of supporting workers and their families from employers onto the government; and (4) taxation of goods and services imported from abroad, rather than mainly taxing domestic but not foreign producers' incomes.

The correlation between unemployment and suicide rates in Japan between 1978 and 2004

The number of suicides in Japan has increased from approximately 22,000 per year from 1988 to 1997 to over 30,000 per year since then; this increase is among the most important problems facing Japan. Moreover, the unemployment rate in Japan has increased rapidly since 1998. In this study, we examined the total number of suicides and both the suicide and unemployment rates in Japan from 1978 to 2004. We also focused on the correlation between annual suicide rates in Japan and the annual unemployment rates during the study period. During that period, 455,357 males and 225,012 females committed suicide in Japan, and the suicide rates by sex were 27.8 males and 13.3 females per 100,000 population ( P < 0.05). The annual suicide rates among males correlated significantly with the annual unemployment rates: r(27) = 0.94, P < 0.001, while the female suicide rates did not correlate with the unemployment rates: r(27) = 0.39, P = 0.05. Thus, when unemployed men are observed to be depressed, it is important for those close to them, as well as their health care professionals, to pay careful attention to their behavior to detect suicidal tendencies or intentions.

A Correlation between Increases in Suicide Rates and Increases in Male Unemployment Rates in Mie Prefecture, Japan

The number of suicides in Japan has increased from approximately 22,000 per year in 1988-1997 to over 30,000 per year since then. It has also increased in Mie prefecture during that period. In the present study, we investigated the correlation between annual suicide rates in Mie prefecture, Japan from 1996-2002 and the annual unemployment rate in Japan from 1996-2002 among males. Among the results, annual suicide rates in total correlated with the unemployment rate in Japan, but the relation was not statistically significant: r(7)=0.76, r(2)(7)=0.58, p=0.05 (y=3.54x+6.37); the rates in males, however, correlated significantly with the unemployment rate in Japan: r(7)=0.85, r(2)(7)=0.73, p=0.01 (y=5.72x+4.49). In addition, we found that annual suicide rates in total correlated significantly with the male unemployment rates. When a patient is unemployed and in a bad situation, the medical staff and the family should be aware of the correspondence between suicide rates and unemployment.

Significant correlation of yearly suicide rates with the rate of unemployment among men results in a rapid increase of suicide in Mie Prefecture, Japan

The number of suicides in Japan has increased from approximately 22 000 per year in 1988–1997 to >30 000 per year since then. Likewise, the number of suicides has been increasing in Mie Prefecture. Many researchers consider that a major factor related to the number of suicides is an increase of unemployment in men;1,2 but it has not been described clearly in Mie Prefecture so far. According to Yoshioka, Mie Prefecture had intermediate suicide rates similar to the rates for Japan as a whole.3 It is possible to analyze enough suicide data for this prefecture to investigate the causes of suicide in detail. In the present study, we investigated the incidence and the circumstances of all suicide cases between 1989 and 2002 in cooperation with the First Department of Criminal Investigation of the Mie Prefectural Police Headquarters, and we investigated the unemployment rate from 1989 to 2002 in cooperation with the Department of Work in Mie Prefecture. In Japan, the annual rate of unemployment among the whole Japanese population and the current rate of unemployment are available for each Prefecture every 5 years, but the annual rate of unemployment is not available in each Prefecture. Therefore we calculated the correlation between the rate of unemployment every 5 years in the total Japanese population and that in Mie Prefecture for each sex. The correlations were r = 0.80 and r = 0.97 for men and women, respectively. Accordingly we considered that the rate of unemployment in the Japanese total reflected the rate of unemployment in Mie Prefecture. We focused on the correlation of yearly suicide rates in Mie Prefecture from 1989 to 2002, with the rate of unemployment in Japan from 1989 to 2002. The statistical analysis was performed using single regression analysis and Fisher’s exact test. During the test period, 3276 male and 1772 female suicides were reported to Mie Prefectural Police Headquarters. The suicide rates by sex were 26.2 (male) and 13.4 (female) per 100 000 (P < 0.05). Among the causative factors, ‘economic difficulties (including suffering from unemployment)’ was the second most prevalent in men (20.0%), and the least prevalent in women (5.0%). The yearly suicide rates for men correlated significantly with the unemployment rate in Japan: r(14) = 0.92, P < 0.001; the yearly sucidie rates for women also showed some correlation with the unemployment rate in Japan: r(14) = 0.56, P = 0.04. The factor of ‘economic difficulties’ is particularly relevant for the increase in suicide in men. When economic conditions become worse, people are exposed to more stress in the workplace.3–6 It should be noted that suicide rates were less related to the level of unemployment than to the change in situation from employment to unemployment. One typical case was the significant increase in suicide rates in the year 1997–1998 when such worsened changes of working conditions were observed. In 1997 and 1998, yearly suicide rates were 17.19 and 26.91, and the unemployment rates were 3.5 and 4.3, respectively. We conclude that psychosocial health care should be considered to be part of occupational affairs by industry physicians, primary care physicians and psychiatrists in order to prevent suicide, which is now a national increasing trend in Japan. When the patient is in a bad situation because of unemployment, the family and medical staff should be aware of the correspondence between suicide rates and unemployment.

Opinion Polls in 2003

On 26 April 2001, Junichiro Koizumi emerged as the new prime minister of Japan, representing the public's desire for economic recovery through fundamental structural change in Japanese politics. More than two years have passed since then, and Japan has seen neither significant economic revival nor major changes in its political and administrative structures. People's expectation and faith in this henjin (“weirdo” as labeled by Former Foreign Minister Makiko Tanaka) prime minister for rescuing Japan's economy has been greatly undermined as Japan's unemployment rate stays high and stock prices low. Japanese banks are performing poorly as usual, and bad loans seem to never go away or decrease in amount. Despite these seemingly critical shortcomings, however, Prime Minister Koizumi and his administration have maintained a high approval rate from the public.

Wage Flexibility and Employment Changes

Japan's unemployment rate began to rise on the heels of the first oil shock and has not yet shown a sign of improvement. Nevertheless, it is far lower than the European and American levels. According to recent arguments on macroeconomic performances of the labor market, the principal reason for the low unemployment in Japan may be attributable to the high flexibility of nominal and real wages in the process of business cycles. Other things being equal, flexible wages—more precisely, a sharp fall in the rate of increase of real wages in a recession—lead to stable employment and contribute to reducing an increase in unemployment.

On Recent Studies of Unemployment in Japan

The introduction of UV analysis and labor flow analysis is perhaps most prominent feature of recent discussion of unemployment in Japan. The former, which is considered to be an effective tool for estimating so-called frictional unemployment, is frequently used for judging current employment situation. It is well known that unemployment rate in Japan is not as high as in European and North American countries; however, opinions vary as to how to evaluate this low Japanese rate. Some maintain that actual situation is close to full employment, interpreting rising unemployment rate as nothing more than a longitudinal increase in frictional unemployment. Those who oppose this view regard worsening of employment situation in Japan as a matter that cannot be neglected. For example, Labor White Paper of 1983 states that the recent rise in unemployment is largely due to decrease in labor demand that has accompanied economic slowdown (p. 30). Thus, different conclusions...

Is Japan's Unemployment Rate Too Low?

The Japanese unemployment rate attracted much attention in 1983: Although it began to show signs of settling down at the end of the year, the total unemployment rate averaged 2.6 percent for the year, a rise from 2.4 percent in 1982 and the highest in thirty years. On the other hand, rates of the Western European countries and the United States were far higher than that of Japan, although those rates also began to show signs of mitigation recently: The average unemployment rate in 1983 was 9.4 percent in the United States, 12.4 percent in the United Kingdom, and 9.1 percent in West Germany. The argument here concerns whether or not the unemployment rate in Japan is indeed comparable to rates in European countries and the United States, particularly to that of the latter, which supposedly compiles unemployment statistics using the same labor force survey method as is used in Japan.