Takashi Oshio

Income inequality, perceived happiness, and self-rated health: Evidence from nationwide surveys in Japan☆☆☆

In this study, we examined how regional inequality is associated with perceived happiness and self-rated health at an individual level by using micro-data from nationwide surveys in Japan. We estimated the bivariate ordered probit models to explore the associations between regional inequality and two subjective outcomes, and evaluated effect modification to their sensitivities to regional inequality using the categories of key individual attributes. We found that individuals who live in areas of high inequality tend to report themselves as both unhappy and unhealthy, even after controlling for various individual and regional characteristics and taking into account the correlation between the two subjective outcomes. Gender, age, educational attainment, income, occupational status, and political views modify the associations of regional inequality with the subjective assessments of happiness and health. Notably, those with an unstable occupational status are most affected by inequality when assessing both perceived happiness and health.

Income inequality, area-level poverty, perceived aversion to inequality, and self-rated health in Japan.

In this study we conduct a multilevel analysis to investigate the association between regional income inequality and self-rated health in Japan, based on two nationwide surveys. We confirm that there is a significant association between area-level income inequality and individual-level health assessment. We also find that health assessment tends to be more sensitive to income inequality among lower income individuals, and to degree of area-level poverty, than income inequality for the society as a whole. In addition, we examine how individuals are averse to inequality, based on the observed association between inequality and self-rated health.

Gender Differences in the Associations of Life Satisfaction with Family and Social Relations Among the Japanese Elderly

The purpose of this study was to investigate gender differences in the associations of life satisfaction with family and social relations among the Japanese elderly. Ordered logit models were estimated to explain life satisfaction with a rich set of explanatory variables, using micro data of 3,277 elderly Japanese adults (1,679 men and 1,598 women) collected from the first-wave sample from the Japanese Study of Aging and Retirement (JSTAR). This study found that men are less satisfied with life when living without their spouse; women are less satisfied with life when they live and/or have close relations with their parents-in-law; coresidence with an unmarried son is negatively associated with life satisfaction for both men and women; and, a larger number of friends and social activities enhance life satisfaction for women but not for men. Men are more sensitive than women to overall family relations, while the relative importance of social relations is higher for women. These results confirmed gender differences in the associations of life satisfaction with family and social relations in Japan—a nation characterized by a gender-asymmetric society and multi-generational family settings.

New Evidence on Initial Transition from Career Job to Retirement in Japan

The interval in time between leaving a career job and exit from the labor force is especially long for Japanese employees. We examine determinants of post-career work arrangements from two perspectives: work status and the route to a second job. We show that these determinants differ between male and female workers and that the customary function of career employers to place their workers in a second job has declined since the middle of the 1990s.

SOCIAL SECURITY REFORMS AND LABOUR FORCE PARTICIPATION OF THE ELDERLY IN JAPAN

We examine how social security programs have affected the labor force participation (LFP) of the elderly over the past forty years in Japan. Using publicly available data, we construct forwardlooking incentive measures for inducing retirement, to ascertain the actual changes in the generosity of the programs and to explore the impact of the reforms on the labor supply of the elderly. Our regression analysis shows that the LFP of the elderly is significantly sensitive to the measures, and our counter-historical simulations show that since 1985, social security reforms have significantly encouraged the elderly to remain longer in the labor force.

The Mediating and Moderating Effects of Workplace Social Capital on the Associations between Adverse Work Characteristics and Psychological Distress among Japanese Workers

Our current study investigated how workplace social capital (WSC) mediates and moderates the associations between adverse work characteristics and psychological distress among Japanese workers. We collected cross-sectional data (N=9,350) from a baseline survey of an occupational Japanese cohort study. We focused on individual WSC and considered job demands/control, effort/reward, and two types (i.e., procedural and interactional) of organizational justice as work-characteristic variables. We defined psychological distress as a score of ≥5 on the Kessler Psychological Distress Scale (K6 scale). Multivariate logistic regression analyses predicted a binary variable of psychological distress by individual WSC and adverse work characteristics, adjusting for individual-level covariates. Individual WSC mediated the associations between adverse work characteristics and psychological distress in almost all model specifications. Additionally, individual WSC moderated the associations of psychological distress with high job demands, high effort, and low interactional justice when we used a high WSC cutoff point. In contrast, individual WSC did not moderate such interactions with low job control, reward, or procedural justice. We concluded that individual WSC mediated the associations between adverse work characteristics and psychological distress among Japanese workers while selectively moderating their associations at high levels of WSC.

Impact of interpersonal adversity in childhood on adult mental health: how much is mediated by social support and socio-economic status in Japan?

OBJECTIVES To examine the extent to which social support and socio-economic status (SES) in adulthood mediate the impact of interpersonal adversity in childhood on adult mental health using large-scale population data in Japan. STUDY DESIGN Cross-sectional survey. METHODS Data were derived from the Japanese Study of Stratification, Health, Income and Neighbourhood, which was conducted from October 2010 to February 2011 in four municipalities in and around the Tokyo metropolitan area. Survey participants were community residents aged 25-50 years who were selected at random from voter registration lists. The total sample size was 3292. The self-reported experience of parental maltreatment (physical abuse and/or neglect) and bullying in school and their impacts on adult mental health (in terms of K6 = 5+, K6 = 13+ and suicide ideation) were examined using multivariate logistic models. RESULTS Interpersonal adversity in childhood has a negative impact on adult mental health even after controlling for childhood SES. For example, the odds ratio for K6 = 5+, responding to parental maltreatment, was 2.64 (95% confidence interval 2.04-3.41). Perceived social support and adult SES mediated the impact of interpersonal adversity in childhood, but a substantial proportion of the impact was unexplained by their mediating effects; social support and adult SES only mediated 11-24% and 6-12%, respectively. It was also found that social support and adult SES (except educational attainment) did not moderate the negative impact of interpersonal adversity in childhood. CONCLUSIONS This analysis highlighted that the impact of interpersonal adversity in childhood is relatively independent of social support and SES in adulthood. This result has clear policy implications; more focus should be placed on policies that aim to reduce incidents of childhood maltreatment and bullying per se, both of which have a long-lasting direct impact on mental health.

The association between individual-level social capital and health: cross-sectional, prospective cohort and fixed-effects models

Background It is well known that individual-level social capital is positively associated with health, but most preceding studies have not fully controlled for an individuals time-invariant attributes, especially unobserved ones. The current study attempted to address how the association between individual-level social capital and health is confounded by an individuals unobserved time-invariant attributes. Methods Data were collected from six-wave nationwide panel surveys conducted from 2005 to 2010, with 162 720 observations from 30 590 individuals. Individual-level bonding and bridging social capital, as well as their associations with self-rated health (SRH) and psychological distress (measured by Kessler 6 scores), were considered. Estimation results of cross-sectional, prospective cohort and fixed-effects logistic models were compared. Results The OR of reporting poor SRH responding to high bonding social capital rose from 0.64 (95% CI 0.62 to 0.65) in the pooled cross-sectional model to 0.77 (0.75 to 0.80) in the prospective cohort model and 0.87 (0.82 to 0.92) in the fixed-effects model. Similar patterns were observed for bridging social capital, but the OR of reporting poor SRH became non-significant in the fixed-effects model. Similar results were obtained for psychological distress. Conclusions The results suggest that the association between individual-level social capital and health is overstated by an individuals unobserved time-invariant attributes. The relevance of health in individual-level social capital should be assessed cautiously.

The Economics of Education in Japan: A Survey of Empirical Studies and Unresolved Issues

The purpose of this article is to survey the empirical studies on education in Japan and to identify the issues yet to be addressed by the research. We divide the existing studies into six categories: (1) human capital theory and rates of return on education, (2) the labor market and education, (3) factor analysis of educational performance, (4) industrial analysis of education, (5) determinants of education demand, and (6) education and social stratification. We then compare the purposes, methodologies, conclusions, and policy implications of the studies discussed. There is an abundance of literature on each topic and we found many insights provided by noneconomic approaches, such as education sociology, that are also of interest from an economic viewpoint. A lack of data, however, limits empirical analysis and leaves many problems unresolved. The following four issues in particular remain to be resolved. First, there are relatively few empirical analyses on educational performance in Japan as compared with countries like the United States, and long-term panel data that include educational background information need to be developed. Second, a certain level of liberalism is being allowed in school education at the municipal level, expanding the opportunities for conducting analyses of educational performance based on cross-sectional data. Third, additional analyses of education from the perspectives of industrial organizational theory and business management need to be performed in light of the conversion of the national universities into independent administrative institutions. Fourth, some topics are conducive to joint research by scholars in the fields of economics and education sociology, such as the relationships between education and social stratification, and between education and income disparities.

How the Distribution of After-Tax Income Changed Over the 1990s Business Cycle: A Comparison of the United States, Great Britain, Germany and Japan

Using kernel density estimation we find that over their 1990s business cycles the entire distribution of after-tax (disposable) income moved to the right in the United States and Great Britain while inequality declined. In contrast, Germany and Japan experienced less growth, a rise in inequality and a decline in the middle mass of their distributions that spread mostly to the right, much like the United States over its 1980s business cycle. Inequality fell within the older population in all four countries and within the younger population in the United States and Great Britain, but rose substantially in Germany and Japan.