Inequality amid Affluence: Social Stratification in Japan (review)

Inequality amid Affluence, written by two well-known and well-respected scholars, is one of several recently published books on social and economic inequality in Japan.¹ Originally published as Nihon no shakai kaisō: Yutakasa no naka no fubyōdō by the University of Tokyo Press in 1999, it is the first in a series of books on inequality to be published in English by To¯hoku University's Center for the Study of Social Stratification and Inequality. It is an ambitious work based on 40 years of data from the Social Stratification and Mobility (SSM) surveys, perhaps the richest source of information on mobility, stratification, and inequality in post-World-War-II Japan. Conducted every ten years since 1955, these surveys have provided the data for some of the most well-known studies of social stratification in Japan and represent a unique and tremendously valuable resource for understanding social change.

Combining descriptive analyses of the SSM survey data with the presentation of information from the census and other government surveys, the authors examine trends in postwar social and economic stratification from several perspectives. Chapter one describes alternative theories of stratification and inequality while briefly introducing the issues and measures examined in subsequent chapters. In chapter two, the authors focus on the role of education, concluding that widespread investment in children's education in "education conscious" Japan has diminished the role of educational attainment as a mechanism of stratification (p. 57). Chapter three describes the career trajectories of SSM respondents and presents results for log-linear models of intergenerational occupational mobility. Importantly, these analyses provide scant empirical support for the popular perception that Japan has become an increasingly inegalitarian society in recent decades (p. 84). Chapter four offers a historical overview of "strata consciousness," a concept the authors define very broadly as an amalgamation of class consciousness, educational and occupational aspirations, and feelings of satisfaction and social fairness (p. 90). This chapter's focus on trends in both political affiliation and perceptions of stratification is particularly interesting in light of evidence that more conventional, objective indicators of inequality have exhibited little change over time. Chapter five describes the historical foundations of recent changes in women's educational and occupational opportunities. Much of the information on gender stratification and the organization of women's life course presented in this chapter is available in other studies that are, unfortunately, not cited. One novel and interesting empirical nugget with potentially important implications for patterns of stratification among women is evidence of an increasing association between fathers' occupational status and daughters' educational attainment (Figure 5.6).

Much of the high-profile research on recent trends in inequality and stratification in Japan has focused on the distribution of household income and employment conditions for young men and women.² A major contribution of Inequality amid Affluence is its focus on intergenerational occupational and educational mobility as indicators of societal openness (or closure). Evaluating the relative likelihood of moving from one social "class" or occupational category to another based on information about the socioeconomic characteristics of two generations (e.g., fathers and sons) is a conventional approach with a very long and rich history in stratification research. Indeed, earlier studies have employed these techniques to demonstrate that intergenerational transmission of socioeconomic status in Japan is similar to that observed in most Western countries,³ as posited by the widely discussed Featherman-Jones-Hauser hypothesis summarized in chapter three of this book. Other related work has identified distinctive characteristics of mobility patterns in Japan and has emphasized the importance of education for occupational attainment.⁴

The primary conclusion drawn from the analyses in chapter three is that patterns of intergenerational mobility have remained relatively stable over the last several decades, thus providing little empirical reason to believe that life chances in Japan have become signi...