紀要論文

Structural Changes in Japan's Labor Market and Its Attraction of Foreign Migrant Workers

eng

09111247

https://doi.org/10.15002/00002125

Journal of International Economic Studies

9

41

66

1995-03

Version of Record

Unlike most European labor importing countries, Japan was chosen by migrant workers as one of the major destination countries not in the 1960s but in l980s. Employment indicators point to two boom periods, one in the late 1960s and the other in the late l980s, when the labor market was outstandingly tight. The conditions in the labor market during these two periods were broadly similar as both showed a marked rise in the rate of growth of employment and real wages. But there was an apparent difference in their patterns of labor shortages. In the recent boom period, the labor shortages were sectorally, occupationally and regionally distinct. The revealed labor imbalances were neither simply transitional nor frictional but deeply rooted in the structural changes of the labor market which occurred during the last few decades. The aim of this paper is to explain these structural changes that have taken place in Japan's labor market in the last thirty plus years with special emphasis on the factors that attract foreign migrant workers.

Article

AA10459262