Slow Down or Slow Dawn? Organizational Practices, Culture, and Emerging Opportunities for Women and Minorities in a Shrinking Japan

Abstract

Japan’s population is rapidly contracting. If current trends continue, its population will fall to just one third of its 2010 peak by as early as 2095, with even faster declines in the working age population. Scholars are unsure how population contractions in Japan and the rest of the developed world will alter or uphold existing status hierarchies. On one hand, those at the top of the economic hierarchy may strengthen their grip on a shrinking number of good jobs. Alternatively, labor shortages may create new opportunities for formerly disadvantaged people. In three papers this dissertation examines the forms and causes of economic inequality in the context of Japan’s demographic decline. It uses original data collected from 539 white collar workers at twelve large Japanese firms. The first paper on gender inequality finds little evidence that firms exclude women from good jobs. However, within jobs, firms continue to pay women less than men, even after adjustments for performance. The results indicate that labor shortages do induce firms to admit more women to good jobs, but may even increase their incentives to discriminate against them within jobs. The second paper compares economic outcomes for skilled foreign workers and their Japanese counterparts. After adjustments for acculturation and human capital quality, the data show that Western immigrants to Japan earn more even than Japanese doing similar jobs, while East Asians earn less. This pattern of stratification suggests that context of reception—particularly the attitudes of Japanese people towards members of different groups—is more influential in generating stratification within firms than the acculturation of foreign workers. The third paper tests directly whether ethnic and racial attitudes matter for inequality between Japanese and foreign workers. Using the results of a survey experiment on attitudes, I show that in firms where coworkers are more biased against non-Japanese East Asians, inequality between Japanese and other Asians is greater. Similarly, in firms where coworkers demonstrate more pro-Western bias, Western employees are at a greater wage advantage. Together, the three papers show that, in a context of demographic decline, outsiders do move into good jobs, but do not overturn existing status hierarchies.