Changing Unchanged Inequality: Higher Education, Youth Population, and the Japan's Seniority Wages

Wage inequality declined in the 1990s for full-time male workers in Japan, while it in- creased in the 2000s. We find that a decreased return to firm-specific human capital, which has been neglected in previous empirical analyses of inequality, is a key factor preventing a rise in wage inequality during the prolonged period of economic stagnation, known as Japan’s lost decades. A significant fraction of the increase in wage inequality in the 2000s is a mechanical change arising from an increased share of educated and experienced workers.