Social Inequalities in Contemporary Japan: From a Mass-Middle-Class Society to a Class-Divided Society

Lecture Information:
Japan was the first Asian country to succeed in industrialization. From the 1970s into the 1980s, the buzzword in Japan was “all-middle-class society.” More recently, issues of poverty and inequality have become a popular topic of discussion among Japanese, especially conspicuous since the end of 2008. This lecture examines some of the factors that have contributed to the increasingly active discourse on inequality, focusing in particular on demographic and family changes in contemporary Japan.

Lecturer Information:
Sawako Shirahase is a professor at the Department of Sociology, the University of Tokyo, and a visiting fellow of Todai-Yale Initiative in 2010-11. Her research interests include ageing and socio-economic inequality, family change and the social security system, and the comparative study of welfare states. Her recent books are Ikikata no Fubyodo: Otagaisama no Shakai ni Mukete (Inequalities in Life Course: Seeking for the Mutually Supportive Society), published by Iwanami in 2010, and Nihon no Fubyodo wo Kangaeru: Shoshi Korei Shakai no Kokusai Hikaku (Thinking about Inequality in Japan: A Comparative Study of Ageing Societies), published by the University of Tokyo Press in 2009.