This article explores the long-term consequence of a prevailing superstition regarding women who were born in 1966, a year of the fire horse, who were around 44 years of age in 2010. The findings indicate that 'fire horse women' are disadvantaged in some aspects such as divorce rates,...

We investigated whether people were insured against unexpected losses caused by the Great Hanshin-Awaji (Kobe) earthquake in 1995 and found that the full consumption insurance hypothesis was rejected overwhelmingly, suggesting the ineffectiveness of the formal/informal insurance mechanisms...

Using unique employer-employee matched data, this study reveals the existence of a nonprofit wage premium in Japan's child care industry. Nonprofits reward experienced workers with higher education, associated with the quality of care, more than their for-profit counterparts.