We provide the incentive mechanism of the public pension on the retirement decisions made in the Japanese labor market. Though the labor market participation of Japanese older persons is quite high by international standards, a principle incentive mechanism of the public pension system in Japan...

Deregulation in the labor market is accused of increasing income disparities. Nevertheless, the fundamental reason for the increasing number of non-regular employees is the persistence and significance of rigid hiring practices and the seniority wage system from high growth periods that carry...

It appears that Japanese employment practices, once hailed as one of the secrets to Japan's “miracle” of rapid economic development after World War II, are not keeping up with important changes in Japan's economy and society under deceleration of economic growth and aging of the population....

Declining population as well as population aging has substantial impacts on the economy and on the society. By contrast, the size of the population usually does not matter for economic development, if it is stable; Switzerland and Sweden, for example, are rich countries with fewer than 10 million...