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This study examines whether or not aging is increasing the political influence wielded by Japan’s elderly and promoting a so-called “gray democracy.” Using a median voter model based on data from Japan’s 47 prefectures during the period from 2000 to 2010, we examined the relationship...

This study examines the formation of the inflation expectations of Japanese households using a micro-level dataset of forecast errors of expected inflation rates. The Japanese have recently come to be interested in policies that intend to positively influence the inflation expectations of...

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All people in Japan are covered by a basic pension. Currently, homemakers (Category 3 subscribers) make no contributions to the basic pension yet always receive full basic pensions. On the other hand, self-employed, non-regular employees, and unemployed people (Category 1) currently make...

This paper uses a two-period overlapping generations model in order to provide a theoretical design for an optimal public pension system based on a partial equilibrium analysis. Household preferences only depend on two periods consumption and leisure and is homogeneous of degree m with respect...

This study provides insights into the expectation-updating behavior of Japanese households with regard to future inflation. Households do not renew their information set in every period, but they do so at a greater frequency than that argued in the literature. A more volatile inflation rate...