As Japan's financial system moves toward a more market oriented one, depositor discipline is expected to play a larger role in the monitoring of the country's banks. Relying on detailed survey data on households' bank switching behavior matched with banks' financial data, we examine households'...

The recently-enacted Japanese long-term care (LTC) system was implemented to reduce so-called social hospitalization or warehousing of the elderly in expensive medical facilities. This paper seeks to evaluate recent patterns in Japanese LTC use and examine the factors associated with LTC...

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,...

This study examines the work capacity of older adults in Japan. First, we estimate the relationship between a variety of health indicators and work status.Work status is divided into full-time work, part-time work, and retired for those in their 50s who are not yet age-eligible for public...

In 2000, government deregulation along with the introduction of the long-term insurance scheme allowed for-profit providers of at-home care for the elderly to compete directly with nonprofit operators. According to the contract failure hypothesis, we would expect consumers to prefer nonprofit...

This study examined the factors that affect the retirement decisions of the middle-aged and elderly in Japan, focusing especially on their earnings, public pension benefits, and health status. Using two-year panel data from the JSTAR and applying the OV model proposed by Stock and Wise (1990a,...

This paper empirically investigates the effects of the 1995 and 1996 tax cuts in Japan. Both tax cuts were introduced to compensate consumers for an impending consumption tax rate increase from 3% to 5% in 1997. We use micro-level data of the Family Income and Expenditure Survey to evaluate...

This paper explores what factors determine the nature, extent, and location of Japanese multinationals' R&D activities abroad. Taking advantage of a rich micro-level dataset from the survey on Japanese overseas subsidiaries, the study distinguishes between two types of overseas R&D:...