This paper documents the secular decline of years of job tenure in Japan based on micro data from two representative government surveys, namely the household-based Employment Status Survey (ESS) and the establishment-based Basic Survey of Wage Structure (BSWS). Workers born in 1970 have...

The gender wage gap among full-time workers has narrowed in the last 15 years in Japan. The demographic characteristics of full-time employees also has changed during the same period. The changed composition of workers could result in an observed gender wage convergence without any change in the...

Children start their schooling at different actual ages because schools accept entering students only once a year. Those born in a late month in a school cohort are said to be handicapped because they are behind their peers in terms of physical and mental development. Primary schools in Japan...

Japan's labor standard law defines weekly legal work hours, and employers must pay a 25- percent wage premium for overtime. The number of legal work hours was 48 in 1987 and gradually declined to 40 by 1997. During the corresponding period, the average weekly hours of work dropped from 45 to 41,...