FEMALE LABOR IN THE POSTWAR JAPANESE ECONOMY: A GEOGRAPHIC PERSPECTIVE
DISSERTATION
Presented in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Doctor of Philosophy in the Graduate School of The Ohio State University
By
Joel A. Shelton, M.A.
*****
The Ohio State University 2006
Dissertation Committee:
Professor Emeritus Lawrence A. Approved by Brown, Adviser
Professor Phillip Brown ______Professor Linda Lobao Adviser Professor Edward Malecki Geography Graduate Program
ABSTRACT
A major factor underpinning growth in the post-Second World War Japanese economy has been the substantial contributions made by female labor—an issue that has not received academic attention relative to its importance. Moreover, studies that
specifically address geographic aspects of the gender division of labor are all but absent for Japan, surprising in light of significant regional variations in women’s employment experiences as revealed in North American-based studies. Focusing on the 1970-2000 period, the goal of this research is thus to investigate how the trajectory of social and economic changes in postwar Japan have impacted the form and extent of female labor force participation, with particular focus on how these changes have manifested themselves geographically. Methods include location quotients (LQ) and cartographic display to identify sub-national areas and prefectures where women are under- or over- represented in the labor force relative to Japan as a whole. Findings are interpreted in the context of broad changes in the economy and existing literature on the Japanese female labor force.
Analysis reveals: shifts of women over time into paid employment, albeit to a large extent in low-waged and low-status jobs; increases in “flexible” forms of employment for women, including paato (part-time) and temporary; and female overrepresentation in tertiary sector clerical work, wholesale/retail, or services.
ii
Concerning geographic aspects, this research confirmed significant sub-national variation
in the secondary sector, and identified contributing factors. High LQ values, for instance,
were shaped by presence of particular manufacturing industries with a history of
employing women, and by social norms that encourage long-term labor force
participation. Less spatial variation existed for the overall tertiary sector, but more so in
certain occupational categories. High female shares, for example, in low-waged and low- benefit sales, and food/beverages jobs in prefectures in southwestern Japan were likely influenced by relative lack of secondary sector employment and higher order services;
while the Tokyo region’s world city status has created to some extent opportunities for
women in professional/technical and managerial occupations.
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Dedicated to my mother, Sandra Williams Shelton (1938-1996)
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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
I extend my gratitude to my advisor, Larry Brown, for his encouragement and enthusiasm in carrying through this project to completion, and for his support in my overall intellectual and career development. I also thank my committee members, Linda
Lobao, Philip Brown, and Ed Malecki for their valuable comments and insight.
I am indebted to my graduate school friends, including Shawn Banasick, Steve
Mulherin, Rini Sumartojo, Julie Weinert, and Kyle Coots. I will always appreciate their friendship.
To all of my family and friends, I remain grateful for your encouragement. To
Mayuko, I extend my love and gratitude for the emotional and “logistical” support throughout the various stages of this project.
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VITA
October 30, 1967………………………… Born – Huntington, West Virginia
1991……………………………………… BA Geography, West Virginia University
1995……………………………………… MA Geography, West Virginia University
1991-1993……………………………….. Graduate Teaching Assistant West Virginia University
1998-2001…………...... Graduate Associate The Ohio State University
2004-present……………………………… Coordinator, Academic Advising Colleges of the Arts and Sciences Advising and Academic Services The Ohio State University
FIELDS OF STUDY Major Field: Economic Geography
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
Abstract……………………………………………………………………………………i Dedication…………………………………………………………………………………iii Acknowledgments…………………………………………………………………………iv Vita………………………………………………………………………………………...v List of Tables……………………………………………………………………………...ix List of Figures……………………………………………………………………………..xi
Chapters:
1. Introduction and research methods……………………………………………….1
1.1 Introduction…………………………………………………………...1 1.2 Research objectives and organization of dissertation………………...3 1.3 A note on economic sectors…………………………………………..7
2. Historical overview of the post-Second World War Japanese economy…………9
2.1 Postwar recovery and high growth: 1945-1971………………………10 2.2 Era of slower growth 1971-1991……………………………………..18 2.3 The prolonged economic downturn, 1991 to 2000…………………...21 2.4 Summary and interpretation…………………………………………..25 2.4.1 Chapter summary…………………………………………....25 2.4.2 The Fordist to post-Fordist transition: the Japanese vs. US experience…………………………………………………27
3. The female labor force in Japan: 1970-2000……………………………………...30
3.1 Overview of female labor……………………………………………..32 3.1.1 Unpaid family enterprise work, and self-employment……...33 3.1.2 Paid employment……………………………………………35 3.1.3 Nonstandard employment: regular nonstandard, temporary, arubaito, and paato workers………………………….36 3.1.4 Shift of female workers from regular nonstandard labor to other types, notably paato………………………………………………………………39 3.1.5 The life cycle of the Japanese labor force…………………...42 3.1.6 Legislation affecting women………………………………...44
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3.2: The changing industrial and occupational composition of the female labor force…………………………………………………45 3.2.1 Industrial composition……………………………………..46 3.2.1 Occupational composition…………………………………49 3.3 Summary and interpretation ………………………………………...52 3.3.1 Chapter summary…………………………………………..52 3.3.2 Female labor: cross-national comparisons…………………54
4. Spatial trends in the postwar Japanese economy………………………………...57 4.1 Regional classifications……………………………………………...57 4.2 Population distribution……………………………………………….59 4.3 Distribution of labor force……………………………………………62 4.4 Regional shifts………………………………………………………..64 4.4.1 Formation of the Pacific-Urban Industrial Belt…………….64 4.4.2 Industrialization in areas outside the Pacific Urban-Industrial belt……………………………………...71 4.4.3 Increasing secondary and tertiary sector primacy of the Tokyo Core relative to other regions……………..73 4.5 Summary and interpretation…………………………………………..74
5. The changing spatial distribution of female labor in the secondary sector: 1970-2000………………………………………………….77
5.1 Secondary sector location quotient analysis…………………………..78 5.2 Manufacturing case study analysis……………………………………83 5.3 Summary and interpretation…………………………………………..94
6. The changing spatial distribution of female labor in the tertiary sector: 1970-2000…………………………………………………….97
6.1 Tertiary sector location quotient analysis…………………………….98 6.2 Spatial distribution of female labor force by occupation, and by paato and temporary non-standard employment type…………………………………………………………102 6.2.1 Female employment in selected tertiary sector occupational groups……………………………………….103 6.2.2 Female employment by prefecture in engineering/technical and managers/officials occupational categories…………………………………………..110 6.2.3 Female employment by prefecture in nonstandard employment: paato and temporary occupations…………………………………………...112 6.3 Summary and interpretation………………………………………….115
7. Summary and conclusions………………………………………………………..118
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Bibliography………………………………………………………….……………….128
Appendices………………………………………………………………….………...136
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LIST OF TABLES
Table
1.1 Industrial classification systems in Japan and the United States…………………………………………………………………8
2.1 Size of business establishments by numbers of employees (1000s) 1981-1999……………………………………………….15
2.2 GNP growth in Japan, 1956 to 1990…………………………………………....17
3.1 Self-employment, family enterprise work, and paid employment, 1970-2000: numbers (1000s), PCTLF, and concentration indexes CI …………………………………………………..34
3.2 Regular, temporary, arubaito, and paato types of labor in Japan, 1985 and 2000: numbers (1000s), PCTLF, and concentration indexes CI ……………………………………………………….41
3.3 Industry: female and male employment (10,000s), PCTLF, and concentration indexes CI: 1970-2000………………………………………47
3.4 Occupation: female and male employment (10,000s), PCTLF, and concentration indexes CI: 1970-2000……………………………..50
4.1 Secondary sector employees and percent of total labor force: 1970-2000………………………………………………………………...68
4.2 Secondary sector employees and percent change in total employment: 1970-2000…………………………………………………...69
5.1 Secondary sector female employment and location quotients: 1970, 1985 and 2000…………………………………………………80
5.2 Medium industrial groups in manufacturing…………………………………….84
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5.3 Case study prefectures, and characteristics, 1970……………………………..85
5.4 Manufacturing labor force in selected prefectures: industrial groups with >10% of female or male labor force…………………...87
6.1 Tertiary sector female employment and location quotients: 1970, 1985 and 2000………………………………………………..99
6.2 Location quotients and female/male employment in selected tertiary sector occupational groups: 2002 (A)…………………………104
6.3 Location quotients and female/male employment in selected tertiary sector occupational groups: 2002 (B)…………………………106
6.4 Location quotients and female/male employment in selected tertiary sector occupational groups: 2002 (C)………………………....107
6.5 Location quotients and female/male employment in paato and temporary forms of nonstandard employment: 2002……………………………………………………………...113
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LIST OF FIGURES
Figure
2.1 Changes in the percent of the labor force in the primary, secondary, and tertiary sectors, 1950-1999……………………………………17
2.2 Changes in employment in selected secondary and tertiary sector categories during the 1990s……………………………………………..24
3.1 Life cycle/labor force participation patterns for males and females, 1993 and 2003……………………………………………………43
3.2 Female life cycle patterns: cross-national comparisons………………………..55
4.1 Japan: the four major islands, and three largest metropolitan areas……………58
4.2 Prefectures and regional divisions……………………………………………...60
4.3 Total population in each prefecture…………………………………………….61
4.4 Total labor force in each prefecture…………………………………………….63
4.5 Prefectures that comprise the Pacific Urban-Industrial Belt (PUIB)……………………………………………………………………..65
4.6 Change in secondary sector employment: 1970-2000………………………….67
5.1 Women’s concentration in the secondary sector: 1970, 1985, and 2000 location quotients………………………………………………81
5.2 Case study prefectures…………………………………………………………..86
6.1 Women’s concentration in the tertiary sector: 1970, 1985, and 2000 location quotients……………………………………………………..100
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6.2 Women’s concentration in selected occupational categories: 2002 location quotients (A)…………………………………………………105
6.3 Women’s concentration in selected occupational categories: 2002 location quotients (B)………………………………………………….108
6.4 Women’s concentration in paato and temporary forms of nonstandard employment: 2002 location quotients……………………….114
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CHAPTER 1
INTRODUCTION AND RESEARCH OBJECTIVES
1.1 Introduction
As an advanced industrial economy yet with a distinctly non-Western historical and cultural background, Japan has been an object of interest in the post-Second World War
social science literature.1 In investigating its particular trajectory of economic and social change, researchers have offered several explanations for the “economic miracle” of the
1960s, 70s, and 80s, ranging from cultural factors, to social and economic ones such as the developmental state, lifetime employment practices, and the evolution of just-in-time
production techniques. Throughout the 1990s and into the next century, moreover, the
Japanese economy continued to be addressed, but attention turned to the reasons behind the recessionary conditions that persisted throughout the decade (e.g., Katz 1998).
The postwar Japanese economy was also underpinned by the substantial contributions made by women in the labor force—an issue that has not received the academic attention relative to its importance. At a broad level, the pattern of female labor force participation that unfolded in Japan has similarities to in Western industrial economies, with, for instance, expanding secondary and tertiary sectors drawing increasing
1 In this dissertation the use of the term postwar always refers to the Second World War.
1 numbers of women into paid employment outside the home. There is another key
similarity, however, though unfortunate for women: increasing involvement of female
employees in several industries and occupations in Japan, as elsewhere, has not necessarily
corresponded with elimination of gender inequality, as indicated by female/male wage gaps, strongly-delineated sex roles, etc. (Brinton 1993).
That being noted, Japan departs from North America/Western Europe in that the contrasts between female and male labor in the former is arguably greater than in the latter—thus making the Japanese case particularly interesting as a case study. This claim is supported when comparing Japan to other countries in terms of factors such as the relative absence of women in managerial positions and in certain occupations, or the strong labor force barriers to middle-aged women (Brinton 1993; Kawashima 1995;
French 2003). Illuminating the reasons behind such a stratified pattern thus necessitates analysis (part of this dissertation) of labor force characteristics specific to Japan.
Existing research on women and work in Japan has approached this issue from several perspectives. This includes broad, national-level overviews of the postwar female labor force (e.g., Saso 1990; Brinton 1993; Kawashima 1995; Kumazawa 1996), while other studies focus in on women in particular industrial or occupational settings—for example, in clerical “pink collar” employment; in blue collar work in electrical machinery factories, textile mills, or other types of manufacturing; or in technical or managerial jobs
(e.g., Fujita 1991b; Lam 1992; Roberts 1994; Ogasawara 1998; Wirth 2001; Macnaughtan
2005). Other analyses center on proliferation in recent decades of nonstandard employment, which is disproportionately comprised of women (e.g., Houseman and
Osawa 1995; Gottfried and Hayashi-Kato 1998; Weathers 2002); or on equal employment
2 opportunity-related and other legislation that has unfortunately lacked “teeth” (at least until recently) in enforcing greater workplace equality (e.g., Lam 1993; Nakano 1996;
Kumamoto-Healey 2005).
While the above perspectives advance understanding of female labor in Japan, with few exceptions (e.g., Kamiya and Ikeya 1994; Nakagawa 2006) studies that concern geographic aspects of the gender division of labor are all but absent. This is surprising in light of significant regional variations in women’s employment experiences as revealed in recent North American-based studies (e.g., Abrahamson and Sigelman, 1987; Kodras and
Padavic, 1993; Jones and Rosenfeld, 1989; Brown, et al., 2001). In the US context, these analyses found that, in a given sub-national area, macro-level forces (i.e., national, global) interact with local labor supply and demand processes to create substantial differences in women’s work experiences. In the case of Japan, there is little reason why this would not also be the case as well, given its diverse economic geography (e.g., Harris 1982;
Kornhauser 1982; Karan 2005).
1.2 Research objectives and organization of dissertation
This research contributes to the body of research concerning the impacts of economic transformations on the gendered spatial division of labor by using Japan as a case study. Doing so allows analysis of how these processes unfold in the context of a nation-state with a distinctive non-Western cultural and historical background—and with a particularly disadvantaged labor force position for women. Moreover, by addressing spatial variation in different subnational regions throughout Japan, this dissertation serves as a meso-level “bridge” between existing approaches; again, these are typically either
3 broad, national-level analyses, or case studies of women in particular industrial or occupational contexts (Kodras and Padavic 1993). Finally, inclusion in this research of areas well outside Japan’s main urban-industrial areas avoids the “urban,” or even “Tokyo
bias,” of previous research—an issue returned to in the conclusion of this dissertation.
Specifically, the goal of this research is stated as follows:
To investigate how the trajectory of social and economic changes in the postwar Japanese economy have impacted the form and extent of female labor force participation, with particular focus on how these changes have manifested themselves geographically.
This is accomplished in the following manner.
As a background for specific analysis of female labor, Chapter 2 identifies broad historical trends in the Japanese postwar economy. The first section, 2.1, identifies international and domestic factors that underpinned wartime recovery and the subsequent high-speed economic growth era (1945-1971). Section 2.2 explains how the Japanese economy underwent considerable restructuring in the 1970s and 1980s in response to developments such as oil shocks, international geopolitical pressures, and a changing global economic environment. Bolstered by growth in the automobile and electronics industries, together with tertiary sector expansion, growth was eventually restored, but at a more moderate pace compared to the earlier era. In Section 2.3, the recessionary conditions of the 1990s are discussed, a period characterized by absence of any lasting recovery, and some years of negative growth. Finally, Section 2.4 includes a chapter summary as well as brief comparison of Japan to the United States concerning the extent to which the Fordist to post-Fordist transition, argued to have occurred in Western contexts, is applicable to the Japanese case.
4 The trajectory of change in the postwar Japanese economy resulted in a pattern of female labor force participation specific to Japan, discussed in a national-level overview in
Chapter 3. Section 3.1 includes discussion on different forms of labor in which women
have been engaged, including family enterprise work, self-employment, and paid
employment outside the home (3.1.1-2). Next, Section 3.1.3 explains how females in postwar Japan comprised a disproportionate share of jobs with nonstandard employment contracts, in contrast to (primarily) males working under lifetime employment. Female labor participation in Japan, moreover, has taken a distinctive M-shape life cycle pattern
(Section 3.1.4). Section 3.2 examines the changing industrial and occupational
composition of the labor force between 1970 and 2000, with emphasis on females.
Attention is focused on sectors, industries, and occupations where women are concentrated, and where change from 1970 to 2000 is relatively large or small. Finally, Section 3.3
includes a chapter summary and brief comparison of female labor force conditions in
Japan to other countries.
As a prelude to addressing spatial variation in female labor in Chapters 5 and 6,
Chapter 4 serves as an overview of Japan’s changing economic geography in the postwar period, especially since 1970. Serving as background, the first three sections (4.1-3) describe regional classifications for Japan, population distribution, and distribution of the overall labor force. Section 4.4 then identifies continuities as well as shifts in economic activity over time, including a continued presence of a distinctive core manufacturing belt despite some degree of spatial decentralization to rural areas.
Chapter 5 focuses on the spatial pattern of female labor in the secondary sector— likely to be varied given Japan’s diverse and changing industrial geography. For the
5 secondary sector, years 1970, 1985, and 2000, Section 5.1 uses location quotients and cartographic analysis to identify prefectures in which women are under- or over- represented in the labor force relative to Japan as a whole. Section 5.2 then focuses on manufacturing industries in selected prefectures as case studies to examine relationships between localized industrial structure and female participation—the latter as indicated by location quotients in Section 5.1.
Emphasis in Chapter 6 is on women in the tertiary sector—indeed a worthy topic as it is this part of the Japanese economy that holds a majority and ever-increasing portion of the female labor force. Paralleling Section 5.1, analysis in Section 6.1 uses location quotients and map display, but the results show virtually no spatial variation. Accordingly,
Section 6.2 maintains focus on spatial variation by prefecture but turns away from analyzing broad economic sectors. For 2002, Japanese Employment Status Survey data by certain occupations and by paato and temporary types of nonstandard employment provide an alternative perspective. Analysis is in three parts. First, in Section 6.2.1 location quotients are calculated for several occupational groups commonly used in Japanese statistics, ones comprised primarily of tertiary sector occupations; this extends the analysis from 6.1. Second, data by prefecture on women in engineering/technical and managerial occupations are examined as an indicator of female advancement in the labor force
(Section 6.2.2). Finally, to illuminate spatial distribution of non-standard employment,
Section 6.2.3 analyzes the female labor force in paato- and temporary-type jobs.
Findings in Chapters 5 and 6 are interpreted in the context of broad changes in the economy, and literature on female workers in Japan. Supplementary social, economic, and demographic data from Appendix B also contribute to analysis, especially in Chapter 6.
6 Chapter 7 is the conclusion of this research, which summarizes and interprets key findings.
1.3 A note on economic sectors
In addressing this study it is important to clarify how Japanese statistics and other
sources define these sectors differently from in other advanced industrial economies (the
United States will be used for comparison). Table 1.1 shows the widely-used Standard
Industrial Classification System in Japan by economic sector and 13 major industrial groups. In the US, a similar scheme is the North American Industrial Classification
System (NAICS), with twelve major industrial groups—termed industry “super sectors.”
The way in which primary and secondary sector groups in Japan are classified parallels the North American Industrial Classification Scheme (NAICS) except for mining, listed as a primary sector activity in the American case (Table 1.1). Differences appear, however, with respect to the services industrial group in the tertiary sector. NAICS major industrial groups include those that were once classified under the services heading: information, financial activities, professional and business services, education and health, and leisure and hospitality. Establishment of these separate categories was in response to their increasing presence in the overall North American economy (National Association of
Business Economics 2005). In contrast, in the Japanese statistics (related to economic sector) used in this dissertation for years 1970, 1985, and 2000, these activities, except for finance, remain grouped under services. To compensate for this over-aggregation, in
Chapter 6 (tertiary sector analysis) examples from the literature on the Japanese labor force that provide a more nuanced view of services will be drawn upon when appropriate.
7 Japan United States (Standard Industrial Classification System) (North American Industrial Classification System) Primary sector Primary sector
A. Agriculture A. Natural resources and mining B. Forestry (includes agriculture, forestry, and fishing) C. Fisheries Secondary sector Secondary sector
A. Mining A. Construction B. Construction B. Manufacturing C. Manufacturing Tertiary sector Tertiary sector
A. Utilities A. Transportation and utilities B. Transport and communications B. Wholesale and retail trade C. Wholesale and retail trade, eating and C . I n f o r m a t i o n drinking places D. Finance D. Finance and insurance E. Professional and business services E. Real estate F. Education and health services F. Services G. Leisure and hospitality G. Government H. Other services I. Government
Table 1.1: Industrial classification systems in Japan and the United States (Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications, Japan 2000a; US Department of Labor 2005)
Chapter 6 also includes recent Employment Status Survey data by occupation (for 2002) on female labor by prefecture in education, health, professional/technical, and other
categories—again to provide more in-depth analysis of services.
8
CHAPTER 2
HISTORICAL OVERVIEW OF THE POST-SECOND WORLD WAR JAPANESE
ECONOMY
As a background for subsequent analysis of female labor, Chapter 2 is an overview of economic and social factors that shaped postwar Japan, explaining its economic trajectory in terms of three distinct periods. Organized as follows, Section 2.1 identifies international and domestic factors that underpinned wartime recovery and subsequent high-speed economic growth era (from 1945 to 1971). Section 2.2 then explains how the
Japanese economy underwent considerable restructuring in the 1970s and 1980s in response to developments such as oil shocks, international geopolitical pressures, and a changing global economic environment. Growth was eventually restored but took place at a more moderate pace compared to the high speed growth period.
In Section 2.3, the prolonged recessionary conditions of the 1990s are discussed, a period characterized by lack of any lasting recovery, and even years of negative growth.
Postwar factors that sustained the Japanese economy in previous decades were arguably no longer effective in maintaining growth. Finally, Section 2.4 is a chapter summary, followed by a brief cross-national comparison between Japan and the United States. This
9 concerns whether the Fordist to post-Fordist shift, argued to have occurred in the North
American context, also took place in Japan.
2.1 Postwar recovery and high growth: 1945-1971
For Japan, the end of the Second World War in 1945 involved military defeat by the Allied powers and the end of a decades-long period of colonialist expansion into areas of East and Southeast Asia.2 The war’s end also left the Japanese economy in a state of devastation, due in large part to sustained Allied bombing raids in wartime that had destroyed a significant percentage of the nation’s urban areas. Targeted areas included major industrial zones and port facilities in cities such as Tokyo and Yokohama (Allinson
1997). Economic problems in the immediate postwar period also included loss of capacity performance in industries due to insufficient upkeep and repair; this was caused by wartime shortages of component materials as well as accelerated production (Tsuru 1993).
As a result of such factors, the number of factories in production in 1945 was only 40 percent of the peak in the prewar period (Allinson 1997: 51). The economy, moreover, suffered from exclusion from external markets due to the destruction of its merchant marine, currency devaluation that made it of little value on international markets, and the inability to import raw materials. Finally, agricultural production was negatively impacted by low output and the destruction of marketing mechanisms (Allinson 1997).
Economic conditions were thus harsh for the Japanese population in the immediate postwar years, with high unemployment and frequent shortages of food and consumer goods being common (Hein 1993). However, the emerging postwar
2 Again, use of the term postwar in this research always refers to the Second World War.
10 international economic and geopolitical climate, together with country-specific economic
and social forms, would serve to underpin rapid economic recovery in Japan. One major
set of factors involved the economic and political influence of the occupying United
States.3 In the initial years, the US Occupation authorities adopted a punitive stance
towards Japan; American efforts to enforce peace and demilitarization resulted in
restrictions on rebuilding heavy industries, and isolation from international markets. The
onset of the Cold War by the late 1940s, however, led to a reassessment of US policy
towards Japan that would have the effect of expediting economic recovery. The new
policy, termed the “reverse course,” involved a shift away from war-related punitive
measures, as well as a reversal of prior efforts to encourage political democracy through,
for instance, a liberal stance towards labor unionization. This shift, reflecting the emerging
Cold War geopolitical environment, involved policies and reforms designed to encourage
economic rebuilding that would serve to refashion Japan as a geopolitical bulkhead and
ally against the perceived spread of communism (Allinson 1997; Flath 2000; Tsuru 1993).
American-influenced developments that aided postwar reconstruction included the
General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) and the International Monetary Fund.
These types of agreements maintained free-trade and capital movements across national
boundaries at a time when Japan was unable to negotiate such privileges for itself.
Moreover, US-led policy set a fixed exchange rate for the yen. Between 1949 and 1971, the yen was pegged at 360 yen to US $1; this undervaluing (of the yen) was intended to stimulate Japan’s export sector (Hein 1993). This exchange rate stability and weak yen, together with booming international demand, helped the economy (notably from the 1960s)
3 The US occupation of Japan lasted from the end of the war in 1945 to 1952.
11 by allowing Japanese exports to be increasingly competitive on the world market (Hein
1993; Itoh 1994). Other developments included the ease at which Japanese industries could obtain, especially from the US, low-priced raw materials needed for industries as well as new technologies. Concerning the latter, this process included complex interactions among American and Japanese private groups and government agencies to upgrade the quality of Japanese goods (Hein 1993). Finally, the outbreak of the Korean
War in 1950 further bolstered the Japanese economy as the US decided to use Japan as a
procurement site for military goods for the war effort (Itoh 1994). American military
orders were placed with Japanese firms such as those in the automobile, steel, construction and textile industries. These firms then used profits to invest in new factories (Allinson
1997).
Factors that supported Japan’s postwar high economic growth also included those related to the labor force. First of all, despite setbacks due to wartime economic devastation, Japan had prior experience of over a half century of industrialization4, initially in textile production, and then in heavy and chemical industries (Itoh 1990). Japan thus had an existing experienced labor force comprised of a significant number of industrial workers and white-collar managers. Another factor was the sheer abundance of available labor from rural areas. While a large percentage of the Japanese labor force at the war’s end was engaged in agriculture in rural areas, a rapid influx of labor into cities occurred in
4 Industrialization in Japan had its beginnings with the Meiji Restoration of 1968. This event began with a revolution by a small group of nobles and former samurai who toppled the Tokugawa shogunate, marking the end of feudalistic rule. The Japanese emperor was “restored” by the new government as a focus of national loyalty, and the country began to be transformed into a modern state with adoption of Western- inspired political and economic forms. As a result, Japan was the first non-Western country to industrialize; early industries included textiles, and munitions for an expanding military.
12 the 1950s and 1960s. Large numbers of these workers found employment at small and medium sized firms in growing urban-based secondary and tertiary sector industries
(Allinson 1997).
Other labor force-related factors that would prove beneficial for capital accumulation included those related to labor unions. As explained above, the occupying
American authorities initially took a pro-labor stance after the war. Emerging Cold War-
related concerns in the late 1940s, however, led to enactment of measures to quell what
was perceived as militant unionism. One notable instance was General Douglas
MacArthur’s imposition of a ban on government workers’ right to strike in 1947 as a result of an anticipated strike in which 2.6 million workers were expected to join (Brenner 1998:
78).5 With time, the more radical unions characteristic of the immediate postwar era were increasingly challenged over time by weaker, enterprise-based unions that were generally more cooperative and worked with management to restructure production (Gordon 1993).
The nature of industrial organization in postwar Japan is also cited as a major pillar responsible for growth during the 1950s and 1960s (and in subsequent years). Industrial groups such as financial and capital keiretsu played a major economic role (see Dore 1987;
Sayer and Walker 1992; Brenner 1998). Although they comprised less than one percent of all firms, they employed about 17% of the total workforce and produced about 26% of value added in Japan between 1955 and 1974 (Allinson 1997: 105). Horizontally- integrated financial keiretsu were, and still are, groups of major firms from different sectors. Each group has a bank, a trading company, and various types of firms—typically
5 Douglas MacArthur was the Supreme Commander of the Allied Powers during the US Occupation (1945- 52).
13 a steel firm, an automobile firm, a chemicals firm, and so forth. Advantages of this form
of industrial organization include: the benefit of low interest loans from the main bank; the
ability for (company) members to confer constantly over strategy (Sako 1989); and
preferential treatment in trade and industry relations among members. This type of
industrial organization also serves to protect member firms from takeover and to spread
risk by giving each firm a stake in the survival of the others. In contrast, vertically-
integrated capital keiretsu are comprised of major firms and their dependent supplier and subcontractor firms. The latter are organized in three or sometimes more tiers (Sayer and
Walker 1992). The capital keiretsu grouping of the Matsushita Corporation, for instance, had more than 600 firms in the 1980s (Aoki 1984).
Also of importance for the economy in the high growth and subsequent periods has
been the small and medium enterprise sector (SMEs).6 Employing a majority of the industrial labor force, SMEs are diverse in makeup. On one hand, there are numerous small workshop-style establishments throughout Japan that employ a few workers and exist at the bottom tiers of subcontracting hierarchies. Although the number of such firms—those with four or fewer employees, for instance—has shown some decline over time, they remain a prominent part of the overall economy (Whittaker 1997) (Table 2.1).
On the other hand, there are larger SME establishments that have greater numbers of workers and a high degree of production technology, managerial skill, and profitability.
Examples of these include automobile and electronics parts firms that are in the middle rungs of subcontracting hierarchies. It should be noted, moreover, that not all SMEs are
6 Japanese government statistics commonly define an SME as having fewer than 300 workers or 100 million yen in capital in manufacturing (Whittaker 1997).
14 Employees 1981 1986 1991 1996 1999 1-4 4360 4434 4221 4086 3907 5-9 1061 1123 1221 1236 1161 10-29 645 710 831 892 843 30-39 185 200 234 252 239 100-299 33 37 42 46 43 Over 300 7 8 9 10 9
Table 2.1: Size of business establishments by numbers of employees (1000s) 1981-1999 (Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications 2002a)
subcontractors to larger firms; independent enterprises existing in horizontally linked industrial districts have also been a part of the economic landscape in postwar Japan
(Whittaker 1997).
Finally, any account of Japan’s high growth era is not complete without acknowledging the role of active government intervention in shaping the economy
(Johnson 1982; Fujita and Hill 1995a). The government played a significant financial role, for example, through ensuring adequate resources in support of heavy industries. In some instances the state provided loans for investment directly to certain industries. In the case of steel, coal, electric power, and petrochemical industries in the 1950s, the government provided close to 40% of loans (Brenner 1998: 54). The state also provided funding indirectly through banks via a fiscal investment and loan program, or through government ministries that channeled money from postal savings accounts maintained by households— through the Export-Import Bank and the Japan Development Bank—and into favored industrial and infrastructural projects (Okazaki 1995). Other examples of state intervention included the government’s enormous investments in infrastructure such as
15 roads, railways and port facilities, not to mention the “income doubling plan” under the
Ikeda administration. Concerning the latter, in late 1960, then Prime Minister Ikeda announced a plan with the objective of eventually doubling citizens’ per capita income; this was to be accomplished through a goal of 7.8% annual overall economic growth throughout the 1960s. Government economic planning aimed at expanding the industrial base played a major role in ensuring the plan’s success, and by 1968 per capita incomes had doubled, achieving an average annual growth rate of 10% (Tsuru 1993: 120).
The above-described factors thus contributed to the high economic growth period in Japan which took place after 1955 and continued until the early 1970s (Allinson 1997:
Fujita and Tabuchi 1997). As shown in Table 2.2, between 1956 and 1960, real GNP grew at an average of 8.8% annually, and this figure was 10.2% for the 1960s. This high economic growth was accompanied by significant changes in Japan’s industrial structure.
Common to other countries undergoing industrialization, Figure 2.1 indicates a steady decline in the primary sector, coinciding with expansion in secondary and tertiary sector activities. By 1970, these latter two sectors occupied a 34% and 46.6% share of the labor force, respectively.
Concerning specific industries, agriculture and light consumer goods such as textiles and food were dominant at the start of the high growth period. From the mid-
1950s, however, heavy industry rose in importance, including fabricated metals and general machinery; iron, steel, and nonferrous metals; and electric and transport machinery
(Allinson 1997). Over time, moreover, these increasingly took on an export orientation, encouraged by state policies related to subsidizing and protecting domestic export-oriented
16 Year % Year % Year % Year % 1956 7.2 1961 11.6 1971 4.3 1981 3.4 1957 7.6 1962 8.7 1972 8.7 1982 3.4 1958 6.5 1963 8.4 1973 7.6 1983 2.8 1959 9.2 1964 11.3 1974 -0.8 1984 4.3 1960 13.1 1965 5.8 1975 2.9 1985 5.2 1966 10.4 1976 4.2 1986 2.6 1967 11.0 1977 4.8 1987 4.3 1968 12.2 1978 5.0 1988 6.2 1969 12.1 1979 5.6 1989 4.8 1970 10.2 1980 3.5 1990 4.3 Average 8.8% Average 10.2% Average 4.6% Average 4.1%
Table 2.2: GNP growth in Japan, 1956 to 1990 (from Itoh 1994)
Figure 2.1: Changes in the percent of the labor force in the primary, secondary, and tertiary sectors, 1950-1999 (from Japan Institute for Labour Policy and Training 2003).
17 industries. This helped heavy manufacturing industries to acquire competitive advantages, and thus capture a growing share of the world market (Brenner 1998). By 1960, for instance, the share of manufacturing exports in total manufacturing output had increased to
28% (Itoh 1994: 46).
2.2 Era of Slower Growth: 1971-1991
The high growth era in Japan would not continue indefinitely; rather, it came to an
end by the early 1970s due to the culmination of several developments. One contributing factor was the adoption by the United States of an increasingly harsh posture towards
Japan in response to Japanese expansion of exports during the high growth period. In
response to Japan’s large trade surplus that had been developing with the US throughout
the 1960s, the Nixon administration in August 1971 unilaterally devalued the American dollar relative to the yen by 17 percent (Hein 1993: 116). This shift to a floating exchange rate had the result of making Japanese exports more expensive abroad (Brenner 1998).
Moreover, oil crises that occurred in 1971 and 1979 had a significant impact on the
Japanese economy (Dower 1993). During the first crisis of late 1971, for instance, oil prices increased four times in less than six months. Due to its heavy dependency upon imported oil for the steel, petrochemical, and other industries that had been key sectors during the high growth era, the crisis severely affected Japan and greatly increased the rate of inflation (Itoh 1994). Finally, the economic downturn was influenced by the fact that the growth-stimulating effects of temporary postwar factors, including the ease at which
Japanese industry could acquire technologies from the US, had largely been taken advantage of by the early 1970s (Tsuru 1993).
18 Japan from the early 1970s was thereafter unable to achieve the sustained rates of
growth that had occurred in the 1950s and 1960s. While economic growth throughout the
1960s averaged 10.2%, it slowed to 4.6% in the subsequent decade (see Table 2.2 above).
This slowdown encouraged Japanese industry to implement several restructuring strategies,
including those related to the achievement of employment flexibility. A major strategy of
firms was to avoid mass employee layoffs in that employment security was a major
concern for the unions, and the threat of radical unionism—characteristic of the immediate
postwar days—still remained in the minds of Japanese management. To do this, industry sought other methods to achieve employment flexibility, including extreme adjustments in
the amount of overtime, sharply reducing the practice of mid-career recruitment, restricted hiring of new recruits, and forced early retirements. Another way to adjust the size of the workforce involved dispatching excess workers to other firms within the same keiretsu
(Brenner 1998). Coinciding with such measures was firms’ practice of preserving their full-time, core labor forces (notably male); during the downturn, less than 10% of Japanese manufacturing firms dismissed full-time employees (Brenner 1998: 62).
Many of the key industries of the 1950s and 1960s underwent structural adjustment in the post-high growth era, although this was softened by government assistance, specifically wage subsidies, retraining and relocation expenses for laid off workers, and support for diversifying into other fields. Growth in other industries, however, compensated enough to produce overall higher growth than most other OECD economies at the time, while avoiding their high unemployment rates. In Japan’s secondary sector, the automobile industry in particular achieved considerable success by cost cutting and increasing energy efficiency, and through developing lighter and more
19 economical vehicles that were competitive on the world market (Allinson 1997; Tsuru
1993). “Rising stars” also included the computer, semiconductor, and other technology and information-intensive industries. Between 1975 and 1981, for instance, investment levels in these industries increased by 42% (Brenner 1998:132).
The post-high growth period in Japan also witnessed an increase in scope and importance of the tertiary sector—paralleling the case of other advanced industrial economies in recent decades. Economic recovery after the 1970s shocks was aided by growth, for instance, of lower order services throughout the country, as in the case of retail,
supermarket and convenience store chains (Allinson 1997). The onset of the 1980s, moreover, coincided with trends including: so-called “informationalization” of the
Japanese economy, involving an increase in software consulting and information services; proliferation of financial services; the rise of health care and geriatric services; and increasing customer sophistication, which created a diversity of new business types, notably in labor intensive distribution and service industries (Edgington 1993: 524). As such, higher order, producer service industries assumed an increasingly prominent role within the overall economy, although these tended to be spatially concentrated in larger metropolitan areas, especially the Tokyo core (Fujita and Tabuchi 1997)—a topic addressed in Chapter 4.
Recovery was aided by rising dollar values on world currency markets that had resulted from the US Reagan-era economic recovery; this made Japanese exports more
competitive, notably in the US market (Itoh 1994). However, the high numbers of these
exports flooding into American markets became a political flashpoint. As a result, the US
government and the other G5 nations mounted a “geo-economic offensive” against Japan
20 by enacting the 1985 Plaza Accord, under which they agreed to devalue the US dollar in
relation to the Japanese yen. The resulting endaka (“strong yen”) phenomenon, where the
yen rapidly appreciated against the dollar, had a number of impacts, including those on export competitiveness. One response was for firms to increasingly relocate facilities abroad, such as in the case of electronics and motorcycle production in Southeast Asia
(Edgington 1992). Moreover, endaka was a major factor for the establishment, from the early 1980s, of the Japanese automobile industry in North America, including in Ohio and adjacent states (see Florida and Kenney 1991; Mair, Florida and Kenney 1988).
2.3 Prolonged economic downturn: 1991 to 2000
Whereas the previous two postwar eras can be characterized in terms of
“growth”—whether “high speed” or “slower”—it would be difficult to describe the 1990s
in such terms; the Japanese economy suffered during that time from prolonged
recessionary conditions, and the lack of any lasting recovery. This downturn was brought
upon as a result of several developments during the latter half of the 1980s. Then, besides
the difficulties posed by the strong yen (explained above), the economy was negatively
impacted by recessionary conditions in the leading industrial nations, continuing problems
with protectionism, and low-priced competition from Southeast Asia and other regions
(Allinson 1997). In response to these problems, the Japanese government instituted cheap
money policies designed to spur domestic demand and help corporations respond to a more competitive international environment. The resultant easy access to money marked the era of Japan’s version of the bubble economy, characterized by rapid asset inflation, and
wild speculation in the stock market in land (Edgington 1992). Residential and
21 commercial property values doubled between 1986 and 1989, and share prices on the
Tokyo Stock Exchange reached historic highs by the end of 1989 (Brenner 1998).
While the bubble economy served as a temporary fix that enabled significant
growth for a short period in the late 1980s, its “bursting” in 1991 was a major trigger of the
prolonged downturn that followed. The bubble’s collapse occurred when the federal
government tightened its monetary policies in mid-1989 to suppress the rise that had been
taking place in the value of land and other assets. This measure created higher interest
rates which in turn led to a sharp drop in stock prices. By the end of 1990 the Tokyo Stock
Market had taken a major fall (Flath 2000). Firms that had borrowed on inflated equity
values were forced to repay loans with severely deflated assets, while investment rates
declined significantly because restrictions and debt problems required that many firms
restore their financial well-being before pursuing new investments (Ministry of Internal
Affairs and Communications 2002b).
The propulsive industries of the 1980s, including automobile, electronics, and
high-tech computer firms, were negatively impacted by the economic downturn (Allinson
1997). As in the case of previous periods of recession, firms responded with various
restructuring strategies, including acceleration of the already existing trend of exporting
production overseas through building facilities in low-waged countries. Nearly half of
manufacturing firms were engaged in this practice by 1995. The 1990s, moreover,
witnessed a continuation of Japanese manufacturing moving into higher value-added
production, and stepping up exports of such goods. Pressure on subcontractors to lower
production costs also increased (Brenner 1998). With respect to employment restructuring,
firms continued to seek flexibility by increasing temporary and part-time workers,
22 providing incentives for early retirement, and so forth—not to mention through especially severe employee layoffs. In 2001, for instance, electronics manufacturer Toshiba
announced a cut of 14,000 domestic jobs (together with 6,000 additional cuts worldwide), while Matsushita Electric decided to eliminate 5,000 jobs (Conachy 2002).
Changes in employment in the secondary and tertiary sectors in the 1990s are illustrated in Figure 2.2. Reflecting the impacts outlined above, in the secondary sector the
number of manufacturing employees fell every year from 1992. On the other hand, modest growth occurred in construction industry employment (at least until 1998) due in part to the federal government’s passage of stimulatory public-works spending packages underwritten by an increased issue of construction bonds. In the tertiary sector, activities
such as wholesale and retail, and food/beverages showed modest employment growth
(except for in 1994 and 2000), while considerable growth occurred in the services category.
In the case of the latter, this is illustrative of the continued growth in importance—despite general recession—of certain industries that are lumped into the category of services, including information services and research, medical and other health services, and government services (Japan Institute for Labour Policy and Training 2003).
The recessionary conditions of the 1990s can be distinguished as being worse in extent than those in the 1970s because of factors such as the severity of employment layoffs—and subsequent high unemployment. Another distinction relates to the lack of any lasting recovery throughout the decade, and even years in which negative growth occurred. For instance, while there was some short-term improvement in the economy in
1995 and 1996 due to a decrease in the value of the yen, together with increased demand due to recovery efforts after the devastating Kobe earthquake, in 1997 several factors
23
Figure 2.2: Changes in employment in selected secondary and tertiary sector categories during the 1990s (from Japan Institute for Labour Policy and Training 2003)
24
worsened the recession. These included an increase in the consumption tax rate, lowered
government public works spending, and bankruptcies in major financial institutions.
Concerning the latter, already burdened with bad debt and negatively impacted by continued falling land prices, financial institutions tightened lending policies, resulting in industries reducing expenditures in plant and equipment. These developments, exacerbated by declining exports caused by the Asian economic crisis, led to lower overall profits, while a fall in employee wages reduced consumer spending. All of these factors led to the Japanese economy witnessing negative growth in 1998 (Ministry of Foreign
Affairs 2004a).
2.4 Summary and interpretation
2.4.1: Chapter summary
The goal of this chapter was to provide an overview of major trends in the post-
Second World War Japanese economy; this serves as background in understanding the issue of female labor and its spatial dimensions. The postwar economy was characterized as having three distinct periods: initial recovery, followed by high speed growth in the late
1950s and during the 1960s (1945-1971); crisis during the 1970s, after which growth was restored though at a slower rate than previously (1971-1991); and prolonged recessionary conditions throughout the 1990s (1991-2000). During the first period, one major factor underpinning rapid growth was the postwar international economic and geopolitical climate, notably the US-led role in refashioning Japan as a Cold War bulkhead. Japan- specific factors included a preexisting industrial labor force, keiretsu industrial groupings,
25 and active government intervention in the economy. High speed growth coincided with a shift away from agriculture and light consumer goods to heavy industries such as fabricated metals, petrochemicals, and electric and transport machinery.
During the second period, economic growth slowed due to oil shocks, international geopolitical pressures, and other developments. In response, industry implemented various restructuring strategies, including increased employment flexibility through use of part-time and temporary workers in the attempt to preserve core labor force segments—largely male, full time workers. Many of the key, energy-intensive heavy industries of the previous period underwent structural adjustment, while others, notably automobiles and electronics, experienced considerable growth. Growth in the latter two, together with large-scale expansion of the tertiary sector, compensated enough to produce higher overall growth than in other industrialized nations during this time.
While growth occurred in the 1980s, strong yen issues, continuing problems with protectionism, and the fragile basis of the bubble economy were factors that contributed to
the economic downturn of the following decade. After the collapse of the bubble economy in the early 1990s—serving as the trigger for the prolonged recession that followed— firms’ response was to accelerate existing restructuring strategies, such as exporting production off-shore (resulting in employment decline), and employment flexibility/adjustment. The extent and severity of restructuring was evidenced by extreme employment layoffs that occurred in certain instances, uncharacteristic of previous eras.
Government attempts to stimulate the economy, including increased public works spending, failed to produce any long term effects. Other factors, such as continued
26 problems in the financial sector and falling exports due the Asian economic crisis, contributed to the prolonged recession.
While this chapter included analysis of key factors that underpinned the postwar
Japanese economy, yet to be addressed, however, is the key role of female labor. While postwar growth resulted in a large-scale shift of females into paid employment in expanding secondary and tertiary sector industries, most found themselves in a disadvantaged labor force position in terms of factors such as wages, job responsibilities, and opportunities for promotion. While women’s skills, talents, and education thus went underutilized, this situation also in a sense buttressed the postwar economy, as females by default assumed the bulk of domestic responsibilities, thus enabling their “primary breadwinner” spouses to work long hours. Such issues will be addressed in Chapter 3, which is a national-level analysis of the form and extent of postwar female labor force participation.
Before turning to next chapter, however, the remainder of Section 2.4 will use the preceding summary of the postwar Japanese economy as a basis to draw, briefly, cross national comparisons with the US—particularly with respect to the issue of whether the
Fordist to post-Fordist transition, argued to have occurred in Western contexts from the
1970s, also applies to Japan.
2.4.2: The Fordist to post-Fordist transition: the Japanese versus US experience
Substantial research in economic geography characterizes the United States and certain other Western industrial economies as undergoing a post-World War Two growth phase, called the Fordist period, crisis in the early 1970s, and then a shift towards post-
27 Fordism or flexible specialization (e.g., Aglietta 1982; Piore and Sabel 1984; Harvey 1989;
Tickell and Peck 1992).7 A smaller number of studies address the extent to which Japan—
an industrialized country yet with a distinctively different cultural and historical background—mirrors that of the Western context (e.g., Sayer and Walker 1992; Peck and
Miyamichi 1994).
Comparing Japan (from analysis this chapter) to the US, some similarities can be noted. For instance, in a broad sense both countries experienced a postwar high growth period, crisis in the late 1960s/early 1970s, a subsequent slower growth era characterized
by massive restructuring, and so forth. This being acknowledged, in-depth analysis of each national context reveals substantial differences. In Japan’s high growth era, for example, federal government intervention in the economy played a large role, while the success of the US was due in significant part to Keynesian macroeconomic policies.
Furthermore, the crisis period in Japan was caused by factors including inflationary pressures due to export increases in the late 1960s; the dollar devaluation caused by the
Nixon shock; and heavy dependency upon imported oil being negatively impacted by the oil shocks (arguably more so than in the US because of insignificant domestic production).
In contrast, crisis in the US was due to the culmination of trends such as declining productive investment in the context of rising wages, intensified capital-labor struggles, and increased international competition—including that from Japan (Brenner 1998).
It should also be noted that while both Japan and the US were characterized in the post-high growth era by increased flexibility in various guises, differences existed
7 It should be acknowledged though that some researchers question the “binary” categories of Fordism and post-Fordism: see Sayer and Walker 1992; Cox 1996.
28 concerning the specific manner to which this unfolded. Both Japanese and American
industries, for instance, were interested in achieving greater labor flexibility by making use
of nonstandard labor, but the Japanese arguably placed more emphasis on retaining their
core workers, at least until the recessionary 1990s (Brenner 1998; Conarchy 2001).
Furthermore, in both the Japanese and US economies, within the longer periods (high growth, crisis and slower growth era, etc.) the timing of boom and bust cycles was different. The US, for instance, underwent a recession at the beginning of the 1980s; modest growth during the Reagan years; recession at the start of the 1990s; and a general upturn in the Clinton years. In contrast, Japan witnessed a moderate upturn in the first half of the 1980s, the asset inflation of the bubble economy between 1985 and 1990, and prolonged recession from 1991 to present (Brenner 1998).
29
CHAPTER 3
THE FEMALE LABOR FORCE IN JAPAN: 1970-2000
With Chapter 2 outlining the broad trajectory of the postwar Japanese economy and its underpinning factors, Chapter 3 focuses specifically on the accompanying pattern of female labor force participation. As mentioned in the introduction, while Japan with respect to women and work can be said to resemble the experience of other industrial economies in a broad sense—with changes in the postwar economy, for instance, resulting in greater numbers of females engaged in paid employment outside the home—in-depth analysis of a given national context is likely to reveal that women are not absorbed into the economy in the same manner in every society (see Brinton 1993; Sayer and Walker 1992).
This necessitates analysis on the country-specific pattern of Japan, including the industries and occupations in which females are concentrated; the specific types of labor common to women, such as “part-time” and temporary; and social norms and practices that shape their experience in the labor force.
As a national-level overview of female labor, serving as a basis from which to examine its spatial aspects (to follow), Chapter 3 is organized as follows.8 First, Section
3.1 addresses several salient features of the Japanese female labor force, including
8 For basis of comparison, male labor is also referred to at certain points.
30 different forms of labor that women have historically occupied; large numbers of females have been engaged in family enterprise work and self-employment (3.1.1). Recent decades, however, have witnessed a substantial increase of females in paid employment outside the home (3.1.2).
Next, Section 3.1.3 explains how women have comprised a disproportionate share of jobs with nonstandard employment contracts, which lack the wages, promotions, and long-term security characteristic of (primarily) males working under what is often referred to as lifetime employment. Moreover, hiring of women in nonstandard employment has proliferated since the end of high growth era as a key restructuring strategy. Section 3.1.4 then describes how female labor takes a distinctive M-shape life cycle pattern, characterized by an extended absence from the labor force, beginning in one’s late twenties, to focus primarily on childrearing responsibilities. Many women resume work (in their
30s or 40s) once children are in school, but face a different set of labor force experiences than before. Finally, Section 3.1.5 addresses legislation that has impacted women.
Section 3.2 extends analysis by examining the changing industrial and occupational composition of the Japanese labor force for 1970, 1985, and 2000, with emphasis on segments that are more central to female employment. Analysis is broken down by primary, secondary, and tertiary economic sectors; industries within each sector
(e.g., agriculture, manufacturing, services); and occupation (clerical, professional and technical, etc.). Particular attention is given to sectors, industries, and occupations where females are concentrated, and where change from 1970 to 2000 is relatively large or small.
31 Finally, Section 3.3 includes a chapter summary as well as a section that briefly
outlines cross-national differences between the female labor force pattern in Japan and
other countries.
3.1 Overview of female labor
Illuminating the country-specific factors that shape Japan’s particular pattern on
female labor force participation includes analysis of concentration in type of labor (for
instance, employees, self-employed, and temporary) within economic sectors, and in
occupational categories. Specifically, Tables 3.1-4 show type of labor, economic sector, or
occupational category for 1970, 1985, and 2000, indicating for each the percent of the total
female and male labor force PCTLF. Moreover, a concentration index CI is provided that
shows under- or over- representation of women in the labor force in relation to males.
Each concentration index CI is derived as follows:
CI = (Fit/Mit)/(FTt/MTt)
where F and M represent Japanese females and males in type of labor, industry, or
occupation i during year t, and FTt/MTt indicates the total proportion of females to males in the labor force in Japan in a given year. An index of 1.0 would indicate that a female- to-male ratio is in proportion to what would be expected in the overall labor force.
Accordingly, CI values of greater than 1.0 show types of labor, industries, or occupations in which female labor force is over-represented, and indices of less than 1.0 indicate
32 disproportionately low levels of participation. In this analysis, CI values of 0.85-1.2 will be taken to indicate an average (AVG) proportion; less than 0.85 for low (LO: under- representation); and greater than 1.2 for high (HI: overrepresentation). Tables 3.1-4 also indicates the trend in proportions (CI) over time, as indicated by EVEN (i.e., little change),
DOWN, or UP.
Data are from the Japanese Labor Force Survey.
3.1.1 Unpaid family enterprise work, and self-employment
Today, the majority of Japanese work as paid employees (discussed in detail in
Section 3.1.2 below), defined as persons employed for a wage by a company, organization, shop, government agency, etc. (Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications, Japan
2002c). However, historically a significant percentage of the labor force was engaged in other types of labor. As defined by the Japanese Population Census (2000), these are: self- employment, including persons doing home-based assembly work; and unpaid family workers who work on a farm or in a business, trade, or professional enterprise operated by a member of the household in which they live.
Table 3.1 shows how, in 1970, over 20% of the male labor force was considered self-employed, with a small percentage classified as family enterprise workers; the majority of men, however (72%), worked as paid employees. Between 1970 and 2000, male PCLTF in the former two categories declined as the proportion of paid employees increased, the latter comprising 84% of the male labor force in 2000.
Women categorized as self-employed made up 14% of female PCTLF in 1970, with a CI value (LO) indicating that they were underrepresented in this type of labor. Self-
33 1970 1985 2000 Fem. Male CI Fem. Male CI Fem. Male CI Self-employed 285 692 0.64 288 628 0.70 204 527 0.56 workers (14%) (22%) (13%) (18%) (8%) (14%)
UP/DOWN LO PARTIC Family enterprise 619 186 5.14 461 99 7.08 278 63 6.41 workers (31%) (6%) (20%) (3%) (11%) (2%)
UP/DOWN HI PARTIC Paid employees 1096 2210 0.77 1548 2764 0.85 2140 3216 0.97 (55%) (72%) (67%) (79%) (82%) (84%) UP LO/AVG PARTIC **PCTLF for females and males, respectively. For instance, females in 1970: 14%+31%+55%=100%.
Table 3.1: Self-employment, family enterprise work, and paid employment, 1970-2000: numbers (1000s), PCTLF, and concentration indexes CI (Source: Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications 1970b; 1985b; 2000b).
employment for females includes home-work, such as assembling electronic parts at home
for a subcontractor in the manufacturing industry. Other women own small businesses,
including clothing shops or beauty salons, not to mention nightclub-type establishments
called “snack pubs.” These are small bar-like places where the female proprietor serves
(largely male) customers alcohol and snacks, often entertaining them with conversation and karaoke.
Female PCTLF in self-employment showed little change from 1970 to 1985, and then decreased to 8% in 2000. While there was a slight upward (to 1985) and then downward trend in CI, women remained underrepresented for all years.
Concerning family enterprise work, in contrast to only of 6% males nearly one- third of females in the labor force in 1970 were in this category, with the majority engaged
34 in agriculture, working on the small farms of their husbands. The unusually high CI in this category is influenced by the fact that in 1970 greater numbers of men than women in agricultural households were reported in Japanese census sources as working mainly or entirely off the farm—i.e., classified other than in family enterprise labor. These males sought work in secondary sector construction, manufacturing, or other jobs to compensate for insufficient income (to maintain a household) from agriculture (Brinton 1993).
While CI in family enterprise work remained high between 1970 and 2000 (with an upward/downward trend) female PCTLF declined significantly. This was due to the continuing shift of women out of this type of labor and into paid employment—the focus of the next section.
3.1.2 Paid employment
Despite the rapid industrialization that characterized the high growth era, in 1970 only 55% of women in the labor force was engaged in paid employment, and they were underrepresented in relation to men (i.e., a LO CI).9 This is due to the historical
prevalence of family enterprise labor and self-employment and female participation in
them, especially with respect to family enterprise work in agriculture (Brinton 1993;
Kawashima 1995). This pattern, however, was to change dramatically in subsequent years; whereas 55% of women worked as paid employees in 1970, this figure increased to 82% by 2000, and reached a near 1.0 CI value.10
9 This is in contrast to the case of the United States and other industrial economies at this time, where the majority of women (and men) were paid employees (see Brinton 1993). 10 It should be noted that while the shift into paid employment also occurred for males, from 72% PCLTF in 1970 to 84% in 2000 (Table 3.1). However, it is in the case of women in the labor force that this shift has
35 Several supply and demand factors contributed to this phenomenon. Supply-side reasons include the new aspirations that arose for a middle-class standard of living, and the necessity for dual incomes because of increased living costs, pushing women into paid employment outside the home (Kawashima 1995). Also relevant was the mechanization of some domestic tasks through household appliances, making it easier for women to work outside the household (Kumazawa 1996).
On the demand side, the automation of manufacturing processes into simple, repetitive tasks reduced the need for skilled labor, and many such jobs were filled by unskilled, female labor (1995). In the tertiary sector, increasing numbers of women engaged in low-paid service or clerical jobs—in restaurants and retail stores, for instance, or in secretarial work (Kumazawa 1996). All in all, paid employment for most women
was lacking not only in terms of wages, but also in promotions and long-term security—in contrast to a significant percentage of the male labor force. This nonstandard type of employment is addressed in the next section.
3.1.3 Nonstandard employment: regular nonstandard, temporary, arubaito, and paato workers
Analyses of the success of the contemporary Japanese economy often cite the system of lifetime employment (LTE) as a large contributing factor. Coming into prominence after World War Two, this is an employment practice of rewarding continuous service in one firm (Brinton 1993; Osako 1978). Also referred to as standard employment, it involves being employed full-time for a long duration with the same company (Gottfried been the most pronounced.
36 and Hayashi-Kato 1998). Considerable emphasis is placed upon extensive on-the-job
training from the time of hire (usually after high school or college), and wage increases
and promotions that are tied to seniority (Brinton 1993). While this type of employment
has been a key element of the postwar economy, it has typically been extended only to
native males in larger firms (Gottfried and Hayashi-Kato, 1998). Largely excluded have been males in small establishments (Whittaker, 1997), and females in firms of any size
(Brinton, 1993).
Another major pillar of the Japanese economy, and arguably one on which the maintenance of lifetime employment depends—is peripheral labor (Chalmers 1989;
Gottfried and Hayashi-Kato 1998; Lam 1992). This refers to workers who are disadvantaged in terms of factors such as wages, working conditions, and employment contracts; they do not receive the benefits and advantages typical of LTE. Moreover,
women make up a disproportionate share of this type of labor. In this research, peripheral labor will be referred to as those working under nonstandard, as opposed to standard,
LTE-type contracts (Gottfried and Hayashi-Kato 1998).
In distinguishing between the different types of labor found in Japan, it is important at the outset to define what is meant by regular employment. A large percentage of the labor force is classified under this heading, defined as those employed for an unlimited duration, and classified as other than part-time, temporary, etc (Houseman and Osawa 1995). It should be noted that the regular employment category includes both workers with LTE-type arrangements, and those without; government documents fail to classify these groups separately. In the case of men, research on LTE indicates that significant numbers of male regular employees fall into the LTE category (e.g. Gottfried
37 and Hayashi-Kato 1998). Again, though, LTE arrangements are absent for a large
percentage of men working in small establishments (Whittaker 1997).
For females, being a regular employee is usually not synonymous with LTE.
While some companies do offer lifetime employment-type contracts to females, responding to government legislation encouraging reform in hiring practices, many, if not most do not accept. Doing so means they will be subjected to the same harsh working conditions as men in a system that links promotion to length of service with the company, and the possibility of long-term transfer (Saso 1990). Many women instead choose the other contract option that these companies offer: a secondary employment track with less responsibility than otherwise, limited opportunities for promotion, and expectation that length of service will not last more than a few years—usually until marriage and/or childbirth (Kawashima 1995; Lam 1993; Gottfried and Hayashi-Kato 1998). In this dissertation, this non-lifetime employment but otherwise regular, full-time type of labor will be called nonstandard regular employment.
Temporary job holders in Japanese statistics are defined as workers hired for a short duration, usually less than one year. A major subset of this category are those employed through a temporary help agency, such as Manpower, and dispatched to a given organization(s). Called haken rodosha, or dispatched workers, the majority are women
(Weathers 2002). While in the past this type of employment was restricted by law to a few categories, legislative changes in 1986 and 1999 allowed dispatched workers to work in all but a few occupational categories such as dockyards, construction, security, and manufacturing (Houseman and Osawa 1995: Gottfried and Hayashi-Kato 1998).
38 Arubaito are typically short-term, minimum wage-type jobs for young labor
market entrants and usually held by high school or college students. As defined in
Japanese statistics, these are usually jobs taken by those either in school or with regular employment somewhere else—what might be considered part-time in the United States
(Houseman and Osawa 1995). However, in the tight labor markets of recent years, some college graduates, especially female, have been known to combine several arubaito jobs while they wait for more substantial employment (Gottfried and Hayashi-Kato 1998).
While paato is a literal translation of part-time, the nature of such employment differs in several ways from the North American context. First of all, virtually all paato jobs are held by females, with a tendency for these women to be married and middle-aged.
Second, paato status does not necessarily mean fewer working hours than being employed full-time. In the early 1990s, for instance, 12% of paato employees had approximately the same hours as full-time workers, while 14% only worked 10% fewer hours than full-timers
(Gottfried and Hayashi-Kato 1998: 31). Finally, employment contracts are typically short- term (Roberts 1994). A significant percentage of female paato job holders in large firms, for instance, have employment contracts specified for two months or less (Brinton 1993:
137), and in all firms, less than 10% of contracts for women are for one year or longer
(Gottfried and Hayashi-Kato 1998: 31).
3.1.4 Shift of female workers from regular nonstandard labor to other types, notably paato
The purpose of this section is to examine the changing composition of nonstandard labor in recent years with respect to the categories described above: nonstandard regular, temporary, arubaito, and paato.
39 Table 3.2 shows how the vast majority of males (95%) worked as regular employees in 1985. Over the next 15 years, there was only a small shift into other
employment types. In the case of women, in 1985 80% were classified as regular employees, and 15% as paato, while female PCTLF in the arubaito and temporary categories was relatively small. Females were underrepresented (LO CI) in regular and temporary employment, and overrepresented in the arubaito and especially paato categories.
The most significant change from 1985 to 2000 in these types of employment was the significant decline in regular employment (from 80% to 65%: CI remained LO), corresponding with a large increase in paato employees. The latter reached 25% of the female labor force by 2000. Furthermore, CI for paato decreased, due to a small shift of men into this type of labor (from <1% to 1% male PCTLF). Nonetheless, with a 2000 CI of 17.2 women remained highly overrepresented.
One reason for this shift of female labor out of regular employment into other types
(largely paato) in the post-high growth era is because industry sought numerical flexibility in employment, while at the same time attempting to preserve lifetime employment for core workers. This restructuring strategy, among others, helped firms become more competitive, enabling them to respond more quickly to market and technological changes throughout the 1970s and 1980s (Kawashima 1995: Gottfried and Hayashi-Kato 1998).
Throughout the 1990s, moreover, the use of paato and on a smaller scale temporary
40 1985 2000 Fem. Male CI Fem. Male CI Regular employees* 1831 3306 .84 1693 3460 .71 DOWN (80%) (95%) (65%) (91%) LO PARTIC Temporary, 51 100 .76 88 105 1.22 including (2%) (3%) (3%) (3%) dispatched workers UP LO/HI PARTIC Arubaito 71 66 1.63 181 174 1.51 DOWN (3%) (2%) (7%) (5%) HI PARTIC Paato 342 15 34.6 653 55 17.2 DOWN (15%) (<1%) (25%) (1%) HI PARTIC Total 2295 3487 2615 3794
*Estimated from Japan Labor Force Survey data HI CI values in bold
Table 3.2: Regular, temporary, arubaito, and paato types of labor in Japan, 1985 and 2000: numbers (1000s), PCTLF, and concentration indexes CI (Source: Ministry of Health, Labor, and Welfare 2002; Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications 1985b, 2000b)
workers, accelerated even further with the onset of prolonged recessionary conditions
(Gottfried and Hayashi-Kato 1998).11
As noted, paato labor was (and is) not only largely female, but also disproportionately married and middle-aged (Kawashima 1995). Industry found a readily
available pool of labor in this population of women. Many, if not most, were labor
forcereentrants, beginning employment again after a prolonged absence (see discussion
below in Section 3.2). They were willing to accept the low pay, security, and
11 During the 1990s, the lifetime employment system itself has come under strain due to the severity of recession; examples include forced early retirements, and even outright lay offs of core workers (see discussion in Chapter 2).
41 responsibility of paato work for reasons such as the need to earn supplemental income for
children’s education, or to contribute towards home mortgage payments (Kumazawa 1996).
Many paato jobs for women have been in the tertiary sector, such as in
neighborhood supermarkets or small retail stores. Others have worked in manufacturing industries such as in electrical machinery and metal products, where they have often been used as a numerically-flexible buffer. That is, beginning in the early 1980s these industries
drastically increased or reduced the number of middle-aged and older female employees
over short periods of time in response to boom and bust cycles. In essence, these older
female workers were primarily used as a safety valve to minimize the fluctuations in the
employment of males (Osawa, 1992: Upham 1993).
3.1.5 The life cycle of the Japanese labor force
Understanding the issue of women and work in Japan is also furthered through examining the life cycle of labor force participation. This section explains how in postwar
Japan this has taken an M-shaped pattern for women.
Figure 3.1 shows life cycle patterns for males and females for 1993 and 2003, though characteristic of the overall postwar period. For men, the pattern is that of an inverted U-shape, indicating high and consistent rates of labor force participation from the late teens or twenties until retirement age. The case of women, however, is different.
Corresponding with the movement of women into paid employment, the female
pattern that emerged in postwar Japan took a distinctive “M-shape”. This life cycle is
42
Figure 3.1: Life cycle/labor force participation patterns for males and females, 1993 and 2003 (from Ministry of Health, Labor, and Welfare 2004b)
characterized by school attendance until one’s late teens or early twenties, employment for a few years, and a sharp drop in the middle to late twenties as women quit working for marriage and child rearing. It is then common for females to re-enter the labor force in their thirties and forties once their children are in school (Shibayama 1990: Iwao 1993).
Japanese women’s labor force experiences can vary considerably depending on whether they are at the first or second “peak” of the M-shape. The first peak is characterized by young, unmarried women working under regular employment contracts
(keeping in mind that this is mostly nonstandard employment), typically in service, clerical, and professional/technical occupations. However, the nature of employment changes during the second peak of the life cycle. Here, available jobs for women, many of whom are re-entrants into the labor force, tend to be in smaller firms, and (again) low in terms of
43 status and wages. Moreover, it is at this point in the life cycle that large numbers of females find themselves in paato jobs (Kawashima 1995: Sakato 2000).
Finally, Figure 3.1 shows that in 2003 the first drop off in labor force participation for females occurred at a later point than in 1993, and is not as sharp a decline. This is
due to the increase in the average age at which women get married (thus exiting the labor force for childrearing), while others choose to remain employed. The general M-shape
pattern remains similar, however, for both time periods (Brinton 1993).
3.1.6 Legislation affecting women
Another area in which the case of Japan deserves attention is the issue of state
policies that impact women in the labor force. One widely-documented policy was the
1985 Equal Opportunity Employment Law (EEOL) (see Brinton 1993; Kawashima 1995;
Lam 1993; Gottfried and Hayashi-Kato 1998). While the objective of this legislation was to encourage greater gender equality in working conditions, its impact was weak as it only offered suggestions for companies concerning women: no penalties were imposed if firms did not actually conform. (There are, however, indications in the past few years that the
EEOL is beginning to have legislative “teeth”: see Chapter 7.) After passage of the EEOL, moreover, one practice that many Japanese companies put into place was to offer the two specific tracks for new female hires described above—a non-career track one for most women, and a career-track contract to a few. This way, companies could appear to promote gender equality by offering career-track positions to women; many, if not most, however, chose not to accept—as, again, they would be subject to same harsh working conditions as men (Saso 1990).
44 Legislation in the 1990s included the Part-Time Labor Law, which was a set of guidelines to encourage employers to provide childcare and leave, improved working conditions, overtime, flexibility in scheduling, pro-rated paid vacations, and specific written contracts specifying wages and hours. Enactment of this legislation was due to government concern for worsening labor shortages related to falling birthrates, as well as the general “graying” of the population phenomenon. To alleviate such problems, the state suggested that nursing care be increasingly privatized, with women filling the role of part- time employees and unpaid caregivers (Gottfried and Hayashi-Kato 1998). In sum, while this legislation did aim to improve working conditions for women, it served to maintain a supporting role as part-time employee, and attempted to shift a larger role of caring for the aged upon the unpaid labor of women, rather than the state assuming greater responsibility in this matter (Upham 1993).
3.2: The changing industrial and occupational composition of the female labor force:
1970-2000
This section furthers understanding through analysis by primary, secondary, and tertiary economic sectors; industries within each sector (e.g., agriculture, manufacturing, services); and occupation (clerical, professional and technical, etc.). A major goal is to identify sectors, industries, and occupations where females are concentrated, and where change from 1970 to 2000 is relatively large or small.
45 3.2.1 Industrial composition
Table 3.3 shows economic sectors and major industrial categories (explained in
Section 1.3) from the Standard Industrial Classification of Japan (Ministry of Internal
Affairs and Communications 2000a). The classification scheme used in this dissertation is identical to the Japanese SIC with two exceptions. First, the primary sector includes mining along with agriculture, forestry, and fisheries, as it is an extractive activity. Second, utilities and transport/communications are placed in the secondary sector—as these activities provide a central supporting role to the manufacture of goods. Concentration indexes are calculated in the same manner as in Section 3.1.
Table 3.3 indicates significant presence of female labor in terms of PCTLF and concentrations (CI) in certain industrial groups within the primary, secondary, and tertiary sectors. In the primary sector for 1970, the vast majority of women (96%) fell in the agriculture and forestry category (with relatively few in forestry). The high CI value is likely influenced by the fact that, as discussed in Section 3.1.1, most Japanese women in agriculture worked as unpaid labor on the small farms of their husbands, while the males were classified as working primarily off the farm (Brinton 1993).
Between 1970 and 2000, that female (and male) PCLTF in the agriculture and forestry category decreased substantially is of no surprise, as the agricultural sector in
Japan was in constant decline throughout the postwar era. This coincided with a shift of
women out of unpaid family enterprise labor into paid employment in other economic
sectors (Brinton 1993: Allinson 1997). By 2000, female PCLTF had declined to 5% (4%
for males), while CI decreased but remained high (Table 3.3).
46
1970 1985 2000 Industry Fem. Male CI Fem. Male CI Fem. Male CI Agriculture and Forestry 442 401 1.70 231 233 1.51 137 160 1.24 DOWN; HI PARTIC (22%) (13%) (10%) (7%) (5%) (4%) Fisheries 9 35 0.40 13 32 0.62 8 21 0.55 UP/EVEN; LO PARTIC (1%) (1%) (1%) (1%) Mining 3 17 0.27 1 7 0.22 1 5 0.29 DOWN/UP; LO PARTIC (1%) Construction 53 341 0.24 76 454 0.25 98 555 0.26 EVEN; LO PARTIC (3%) (11%) (3%) (13%) (4%) (15%) Manufacturing 518 859 0.93 574 879 0.99 461 860 0.78 UP/DOWN; AVG/LO PARTIC (26%) (28%) (25%) (25%) (18%) (23%) Utilities 3 25 0.19 4 29 0.21 5 30 0.24 EVEN; LO PARTIC (1%) (1%) (1%) Transport and communications 42 282 0.23 44 299 0.22 78 337 0.34 EVEN/UP; LO PARTIC (2%) (9%) (2%) (9%) (3%) (9%) Wholesale and retail trade, eating 465 547 1.31 625 693 1.37 757 717 1.53 and drinking places (23%) (18%) (27%) (20%) (29%) (19%) UP; HI PARTIC Finance, insurance, and real estate 61 71 1.33 97 119 1.24 116 132 1.27 DOWN/EVEN; HI PARTIC (3%) (4%) (3%) (4%) (3%) Services 379 372 1.57 595 578 1.56 907 811 1.62 EVEN/UP; HI PARTIC (19%) (12%) (26%) (17%) (35%) (21%) Government 25 136 0.28 35 164 0.32 47 166 0.41 EVEN/UP; LO PARTIC (1%) (4%) (2%) (5%) (2%) (4%) Primary total 454 453 1.55 245 272 1.37 146 186 1.14 DOWN; HI/AVG PARTIC (23%) (15%) (11%) (8%) (5%) (5%) Secondary total 616 1507 0.63 698 1661 0.64 642 1782 0.52 EVEN/DOWN; LO PARTIC (31%) (49%) (30%) (48%) (25%) (47%) Tertiary TOTAL 930 1126 1.27 1352 1554 1.32 1827 1826 1.45 UP; HI PARTIC (46%) (36%) (59%) (44%) (70%) (48%) Total labor force 2000 3086 2295 3487 2615 3794 Values omitted if less than 1%. HI CI values in bold
Table 3.3: Industry: female and male employment (10,000s), PCTLF, and concentration indexes CI: 1970-2000 (Source: Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications 1970b; 1985b, 2000b).
47 In the secondary sector, the construction, utilities, and transport and communications industries were marked by low PCTLF and CI for 1970 (as well for all years). In contrast, female participation was significant in manufacturing, with 26%
PCTLF in 1970 (28% for males). This illustrates the prominence of heavy industries
during the high growth era, coupled with deskilling of production processes and other
factors that drew women into manufacturing. The 1970 CI of 0.93 (AVG), moreover, indicates that the level of female participation was slightly below would be expected given
the overall proportion of females to males in the labor force.
Female PCTLF in manufacturing remained even from 1970 to 1985, but CI
showed a modest increase, suggesting greater use of women nonstandard (notably paato) employees.12 In the 1985 to 2000 period, however, CI declined considerably. This shift of women out of manufacturing suggests that the practice of firms’ adjusting—in this case downward—this largely paato and middle-aged labor force was especially pronounced in the recessionary 1990s (see Osawa, 1992: Upham 1993).
The tertiary sector in 1970 was characterized by high CI values in all industrial groups (except for government). This is perhaps of no surprise; significant female presence in the tertiary sector in Japan has long been a reality, dating back to before World
War Two. Moreover, postwar expansion of clerical, service, and wholesale/retail activities resulted in further shifts of women into the tertiary sector (Kawashima 1995). Tertiary sector feminization has been influenced historically by the perception among employers that women cultivate “caretaking skills and sensibilities” throughout their lives. These are
12 Noting the considerable structural shifts that took place in manufacturing during this time—away from heavy industries and towards higher-tech activities such as electronics and automobile production.
48 perceived qualities considered to be assets in clerical, services or other jobs (Iwao 1993:
12).13
The post-1970 period was marked by continued feminization in services, or wholesale and retail trade/eating and drinking establishments. CI and PCTLF in these two categories showed further increases, so that by 2000 35% of the female labor force worked in the broad spectrum of jobs that comprise services, while 29% was in the latter.
3.2.1 Occupational composition
As a complement to analysis by economic sector/industrial group, Table 3.4
classifies the Japanese labor force by occupation. Discussion is omitted on the following:
agriculture, forestry, and fisheries; mining; and craftsman, manufacturing and
construction—as these categories are similar to those in Table 3.3. The layout of Table 3.4 is similar to others in this chapter, including PCTLF for females and males; data for 1970,
1985, and 2000; and a concentration index.
Results for Table 3.4 include the following. First, there was an average CI (1.01)
in professional and technical occupations for 1970, and this increased to 1.27 by 1985 before dropping slightly afterwards (but still marked by overrepresentation). This
indicates feminization of employment in these types of occupations, accompanied by female PCLTF increasing over time, reaching 15% in 2000. Such findings suggest that at least some women have made inroads into occupations other than low paid non-
professional services, or manual labor in manufacturing industries. It should be noted,
49
OCCUPATION 1970 1985 2000
Fem. Male CI Fem. Male CI Fem. Male CI Agricultural, forestry, and fisheries 449 431 1.61 241 261 1.40 139 182 1.11 DOWN; HI/AVG PARTIC (22%) (14%) (11%) (7%) (5%) (5%) Mining 1 11 0.14 0 4 - 0 3 - Craftsmen, manufacturing, and 463 1048 0.68 517 1171 0.67 415 1166 0.52 construction (23%) (34%) (23%) (34%) (16%) (31%) EVEN/DOWN; LO PARTIC Laborers 76 141 0.83 102 128 1.21 153 194 1.14 UP/DOWN; LO/HI/AVG PARTIC (4%) (5%) (4%) (4%) (6%) (5%) Transport and communication 22 210 0.16 11 216 0.08 11 210 0.08 DOWN/EVEN; LO PARTIC (1%) (7%) (6%) (6%) Professional and technical 117 178 1.01 245 293 1.27 381 475 1.16 UP/DOWN; AVG/HI/AVG PARTIC (6%) (6%) (11%) (8%) (15%) (13%) Managers and Officials 5 129 0.06 14 197 0.11 19 186 0.15 UP/EVEN; LO PARTIC (4%) (1%) (6%) (1%) (5%) Clerical and related 367 388 1.46 568 453 1.91 777 509 2.21 UP; HI PARTIC (18%) (13%) (25%) (13%) (30%) (13%) Sales 272 390 1.08 324 537 0.92 341 570 0.87 DOWN; AVG PARTIC (14%) (13%) (14%) (15%) (13%) (15%) Services and protective services 228 160 2.20 273 228 1.82 379 299 1.84 DOWN/EVEN; HI PARTI (11%) (5%) (12%) (7%) (14%) (8%) Total labor force 2000 3086 2295 3487 2615 3794
Values omitted if less than 1%. HI CI values in bold
Table 3.4: Occupation: female and male employment (10,000s), PCTLF, and concentration indexes CI: 1970-2000 (Source: Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications 1970b; 1985b, 2000b).
however, that the aggregated data in Table 3.4 mask the fact that women in professional and technical occupational categories are concentrated in a handful of occupations. For example, in 1995 96.2% and 93.1% of nurses and nursery school teachers, respectively, were female. But only 5.6% of accountants, 14.2% of veterinarians, and 20.2% of university faculty were women (Sakato 1998: 52-3).
50 Table 3.4 also shows a high CI and female PCTLF in clerical occupations. From an 18% PCTLF in 1970, a full 30% of the female labor force by 2000 was in this category.
This was accompanied by a large increase (reaching a 2.21 CI in 2000) from an already high CI value in 1970, illustrating that the movement of women into clerical work was faster than the overall shift of labor into this occupational category. The largely young, unmarried women who fill these jobs, often with the assumption that they quit upon marriage and/or childbirth, are often referred to as “OLs” (office ladies), or shokuba no hana (workplace flowers). These terms reflect the low-status, low-responsibility nature of such employment (Richardson and Riethmuller 1999).
Finally, while thus far discussion in this section has focused on industrial and occupational groups with a significant presence of women with respect to PCLTF and CI,
Tables 3.3 and 3.4 also illustrate the opposite case. That is, while feminization of employment is present in certain industrial/occupational categories, low participation and inertia existed in others. Low proportions (CI) and labor force percentages (PCTLF), with little change over time, existed in the transport and communications, utilities, and government industrial groups (Table 3.3); and in government occupations (Table 3.4).
This illustrates the presence of social perceptions that such jobs are “for men” (Reskin and
Hartmann 1986), not to mention institutional barriers such as employment practices that emphasize uninterrupted length of service for advancement. Again, Japanese women face a disadvantage in the hiring process because of employers’ tendency to assume that they will not stay more than a few years, usually until marriage and/or childbirth (Kawashima
1995; Lam 1993; Gottfried and Hayashi-Kato 1998).
51 3.3 Summary and interpretation
3.3.1 Chapter summary
The trajectory of change in the post-Second World War Japanese economy impacted women in various ways, such as drawing increasing numbers of women into work as paid employees outside the home in certain industrial and occupational settings in the secondary and tertiary sectors. While this phenomenon can be observed elsewhere, as
Japan had a particular social, economic, and historical, so too was its pattern of female labor force participation. Illuminating key characteristics of this pattern was thus the task of Chapter 3.
The first section (3.1) identified salient features of the female labor force. Section
3.1.1 described different forms of labor in which women have been engaged, including family enterprise work and self-employment (3.1.1). The postwar era, however, witnessed a substantial increase of females in paid employment outside the home in expanding secondary and tertiary sector industries. By 2000, most of the female labor force (84%) was classified as paid employees (3.1.2). Section 3.1.3 then explained how a key development after 1970 was the expansion in numbers and importance of flexible forms of employment, including paato, arubaito, and temporary jobs; females comprised a disproportionate share. In the case of women paato employees, working conditions in many instances resembled full-time in terms of working hours, but not with respect to salary, promotion prospects, or benefits. Large numbers of women in paato jobs worked in the tertiary sector, including wholesale and retail, while others were employed in manufacturing industries, where in certain instances they were used numerically-flexible buffer, adjusted upwards or downwards in response to boom and bust cycles.
52 Understanding female labor in the post-1970 era (and throughout the postwar period) also involved recognition of the M-shape pattern of female labor force participation, which illustrates how employment conditions change for women depending on age. The first peak was characterized by younger, unmarried women who are employed full-time, although not necessary in standard employment contracts. At the second peak, working conditions differ; available jobs for these married, middle-aged women tended to be in smaller firms, and with paato-type employment contracts (3.1.4). Likewise, it was important to realize the impact of legislation on female labor. While on the surface designed to improve women’s working conditions, legislation in recent decades (with the
Equal Employment Opportunity Law—EEOL—being a case in point) has tended to lack
“teeth” and maintain a supporting role for females in the economy.
Section 3.2 turned to analysis of the female labor by industrial groups within the primary, secondary, and tertiary sectors, and by occupational groups; the results revealed the following. First of all, while nearly one fourth of the female labor force in 1970 was in the primary sector, notably agriculture (and with a high concentration index CI), this percentage had been in steady decline since the end of World War Two. This occurred with shift of labor into the growing secondary and tertiary sectors as a result of factors including the need for a dual household income to meet rising costs, and deskilling of production and clerical tasks that reduced the need for skilled labor. Agriculture continued to decline over time, containing only a small % of female (and male) PCLTF in 2000.
In the secondary sector, another quarter of the female labor force was in manufacturing alone in 1970, with a nearly average CI. Between 1970 and 1985, CI showed a modest increase, suggesting greater use of women nonstandard, notably paato,
53 employees.14 In the 1985 to 2000 period, however, CI declined considerably. This suggests that firms’ in the recessionary 1990s were shedding non-standard female labor
while attempting to preserve core labor segments.
Finally, nearly half of the female labor force in 1970 was in the tertiary sector,
notably in wholesale and retail trade, eating and drinking establishments, clerical
employment, or services. Women were overrepresented in all of these industrial groups.
This reflects how the tertiary sector had expanded in the postwar era, incorporating more
and more females, albeit for the most part in certain “jobs for women” – filing clerks, retail store workers, waitresses, and so forth. Over time, there was continued movement of women into this sector of the economy, reaching 70% by 2000, and accompanied by further feminization (i.e. rising CI values). Of particular note were the dramatic PCLTF and CI increases that occurred in clerical and related, and services-type jobs.
3.3.2: Female labor: cross-national comparisons
Section 3.3 concludes by drawing brief cross-national comparisons between female labor force conditions in Japan and those in the United States and other national contexts. A number of points are noted as follows.
First of all, the presence of a distinctive M-shaped pattern of female life cycle participation in the Japanese case raises the question of whether patterns are similar or different elsewhere. Comparisons to other advanced industrial economies are shown in
Figure 3.2. Unlike Japan, Germany, France, and the US have high participation rates
14 Noting the considerable structural shifts that took place in manufacturing, i.e., away from heavy industries and towards higher-tech activities such as electronics and automobile production.
54
Figure 3.2: Female life cycle patterns: cross national comparisons (Source: Matsui et al. 2005).
from one’s 20s until close to retirement age, suggesting the absence, among other factors,
of social expectations that encourage long-term absence from the labor force. (However,
Japan is not unique with its M-shape: the case of neighboring South Korea is similar.
While this suggests overlap in females’ labor force experiences in both countries, the
factors that give rise to the M shape in each are to a large extent different: see Brinton
2001.)
Comparing Japan to the United States in particular, while there has been a shift of
females in both countries into paid employment, the significant percentage of Japanese
women who continue to be engaged in unpaid family and farm work, self-employment,
55 and informal work such as calligraphy and private tutoring, is notable (Saso 1990). In addition, the female share in unskilled/lower level manual work has been much higher in
Japan (Brinton 1993: Osawa 1992). Finally, Japanese women shifted into the service
sector, notably low-level, low-waged clerical type employment, later than the case of the
United States (Brinton 1993). A significant percentage of American women were
employed as clerical workers before the Second World War—about 40% in 1920—while
in Japan significant movement of female labor into such jobs did not occur until well into
the postwar period (Brinton 1993: 34).
Other cross-national differences include the fact that while employment flexibility
has been on the rise in several countries, the specific form that it has taken has varied.
For instance, as discussed, the reality of paato employment in the Japanese context can
be quite different than the term (“part-time”) implies, including working hours that often
approximate full-time. Another difference relates to managerial employment. Despite
such positions opening up in recent decades for at least some women (taken as an indicator of female advancement in the labor force overall), notably in Tokyo and other large urban areas, the movement of females into these careers has proceeded at a much
lower rate than in the US or other industrial economies. With the turn of the new century, only 9% of managerial workers were female in Japan, whereas this figure was
46% for American women, and 31% in the case of Sweden, for instance (French 2003).
With the previous two chapters providing a background of historical trends in the postwar Japanese economy, and the accompanying pattern of female labor force participation, the remainder of this dissertation turns to the spatial aspects of both.
56
CHAPTER 4
SPATIAL TRENDS IN THE POSTWAR JAPANESE ECONOMY
Having discussed major characteristics of the postwar economy (Chapter 2) and national-level trends in the labor force (Chapter 3), Chapter 4 analyzes Japan’s postwar economic geography, with emphasis on the 1970 to 2000 period; this serves as background for the specific focus on spatial aspects of female labor in Chapters 5 and 6. Organized as follows, Sections 4.1-3 briefly address regional classifications for Japan; population distribution; and distribution of the overall labor force. This is followed by an extended discussion in Section 4.4 of geographic shifts in economic activity. Spatial patterns that emerged in postwar Japan included: a core manufacturing belt that includes the Tokyo,
Nagoya, and Osaka metropolitan areas; secondary centers of industry in other certain other areas throughout the Japanese island archipelago; and growing concentration over time, relative to other urban areas, of secondary and tertiary sector activities in Tokyo and surrounding environs.
4.1 Regional classifications
Figure 4.1 shows the four main islands of Japan, which are Hokkaido, Honshu,
Kyushu, and Shikoku; and the three largest metropolitan areas—Tokyo, Nagoya, and
57
Figure 4.1: Japan: the four major islands, and three largest metropolitan areas
58
Osaka. Japan is also divided into sub-national administrative units called prefectures
(Figure 4.2). Tokyo, Osaka, and Kyoto are classified as being both metropolitan areas and separately administrated prefectures (in this research they will always be referred to as prefectures).
Figure 4.2 also shows how prefectures are classified into eight regional groupings:
Hokkaido, Tohoku, Kanto, Chubu, Kansai, Chugoku, Shikoku, and Kyushu. The rationale for this division is often attributed to perceived cultural characteristics such as regional dialect or cuisine (Lutzeler 1995). Moreover, social science and lay perceptions alike associate certain regions, such as Kanto and Kansai, as highly urbanized and industrialized, with others being the opposite (those in the Tohoku region, Shikoku region, etc.). In this research, socioeconomic changes are often discussed in terms of variation across these sub-national regional groupings.
4.2 Population distribution
Using data from the Japanese Population Census, Figure 4.3 provides population distribution by prefecture for 1970, 1985, and 2000. In 1970, the highest concentrations
were in the Pacific Ocean-adjacent and highly urbanized prefectures of: Tokyo, Kanagawa,
and Saitama in the Tokyo area; Aichi Prefecture (Nagoya metropolitan area); Osaka and
Hyogo prefectures (Osaka and environs); and Fukuoka Prefecture (Kyushu region) (see
Figure 4.2). In contrast, prefectures that had less than 1.5% of the total population included several in the Tohoku region; some along the Japan Sea on Honshu Island; and all
59
Figure 4.2: Prefectures and regional divisions (from Lutzeler 1995)
60
Figure 4.3: Total population in each prefecture (Source: Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications 1970; 1985b; 2000b).
61 in Shikoku and Kyushu except for Fukuoka Prefecture. Finally, while Hokkaido had 3-6% of the total national population, it is in fact sparsely populated. Its large size as compared
to other prefectures must be taken into account.
The spatial distributions in 1985 and 2000 (Figure 4.3) were identical to the one in
1970 except that considerable population growth took place over time in Chiba and
Kanagawa Prefectures, both adjacent to Tokyo Prefecture.
4.3 Distribution of labor force
Figure 4.4 indicates the percent of the total labor force in each prefecture for 1970,
1985, and 2000, respectively.15 For all three time periods, the spatial pattern is similar to that of total population. This similarity is confirmed statistically; correlation analyses between total population and the total labor force for all years reveal values of .996 or greater.
As in the case of total population, between 1970 and 2000 the labor force
distribution did not change in a majority of prefectures (Figure 4.4). Exceptions, however, included areas in the Kanto (Tokyo) region. From 1970 to 1985, the labor force in Chiba
Prefecture increased significantly, as was the case of Kanagawa Prefecture between 1985 and 2000. Both cases reflect the postwar large-scale industrial and residential sprawl that occurred in these outlying areas of the Tokyo Core. In contrast, the labor force in
Kumamoto and Kagoshima Prefectures (Kyushu region) decreased after 1970, suggesting the rural drain phenomenon that occurred in many peripheral areas in the postwar era (see
Chapter 2).
15 15 years and over.
62
Figure 4.4: Total labor force in each prefecture (Source: Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications 1970; 1985b; 2000b).
63 4.4 Regional shifts
This section identifies major spatial shifts in economic activity in post-Second
World Two Japan. These include the formation of a “core” manufacturing belt; industrialization in peripheral areas; and the increasing economic primacy of the Tokyo area relative to other sub-national regions.
4.4.1 Formation of the Pacific-Urban Industrial Belt
Similar to the “industrial Midwest” or “manufacturing belt” in the United States, researchers have identified in the Japanese context a region known as the “Pacific Urban-
Industrial Belt” (PUIB) (Harris 1982; Kornhauser 1982; Fujita and Tabuchi 1997). This consists of the highly urbanized Tokyo, Nagoya, and Osaka industrial “cores” and their hinterlands, and other prefectures with high concentrations of manufacturing industries
(Figure 4.5).16 The PUIB stretches southwest from Tokyo to Osaka on the Pacific Ocean side of Honshu Island, and extends southwest to include Hiroshima Prefecture and areas in northern Kyushu. For this research, the prefectures (shown in Figure 4.5) that comprise this region are as follows: Saitama, Chiba, Tokyo, and Kanagawa (Tokyo Core); Shizuoka;
Aichi (Nagoya Core); Osaka and Hyogo (Osaka Core); Hiroshima; and Fukuoka. In this dissertation, PUIB prefectures are defined as those that have 500,000 or more secondary sector employees in 1970 (more than 2.7% of total secondary sector labor force), and are oriented towards the Pacific Ocean or Inland Sea.
16 Corresponding to the three largest metropolitan areas in shown in Figure 4.1.
64 Pacific Urban-Industrial Belt (PUIB) prefectures Tokyo Core: (1) Saitama; (2) Chiba; (3) Tokyo; (4) Kanagawa Nagoya Core: (5) Shizuoka; (6) Aichi Osaka Core: (7) Osaka; (8) Hyogo Other: (9) Hiroshima; (10) Fukuoka
Figure 4.5: Prefectures that comprise the Pacific Urban-Industrial Belt (PUIB)
65 The emergence of the Pacific Urban-Industrial Belt coincided with rapid postwar industrialization and large-scale rural-to-urban migration during the high growth era
(1955-1973). In the early 1950s industrialization was centered in the bipolar “Tokyo-
Osaka regional system,” and expanded in late 1950s and throughout the 1960s to include
the other areas listed above (Fujita and Tabuchi 1997). By the mid-1960s this region’s
industrial structure was as follows.
In the Tokyo Core, the electric, machinery, and iron and steel industries were
prominent, while the Nagoya Core was known for automobiles and shipbuilding. In other
areas, key industries included: petrochemicals, iron and steel, and machinery in the Osaka
Core; machinery, paper and pulp, and transportation equipment in Shizuoka; and steel in
Fukuoka (Trewartha 1965). All in all, 58% of all secondary sector employees in Japan in
1970 was concentrated in the ten prefectures of the PUIB (Table 4.1). Moreover, Table
4.1 indicates that the four prefectures that comprised the Tokyo Core made up nearly half this figure (27%), thus indicating the dominance of this area within the larger region.
As explained in Chapter 2, in the early 1970s oil shocks, yen realignments, and other developments led to the end of rapid economic growth. The restructuring that occurred subsequently created differential spatial impacts within the Pacific Urban-
Industrial Belt. The Osaka Core, for instance, experienced considerable difficulty in coping with the post-1970 changes (Figure 4.6). The secondary sector in Osaka and
Hyogo Prefectures, comprising the Osaka Core, experienced decline throughout the 1970 to 2000 period, as indicated in both in terms of share (Table 4.1) and percentage change
(Table 4.2) of employment. Compared with other cores, the Osaka Core lacked factors
that would sustain growth in the post high growth era, such as Tokyo’s high concentration
66 Change in secondary sector employment: 1970-2000
Negative growth Below average growth: less than 25% 25%-50% growth Above 50% growth
Figure 4.6: Change in secondary sector employment: 1970-2000 (Source: Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications 1970; 1985b; 2000b)
67 Emp % Emp. % Emp. % 1970 Total 1985 Total 2000 Total Region/Core Prefecture (1000s) Emp. (1000s) Emp. (1000s) Emp. Hokkaido 1 Hokkaido 744 0.04 767 0.04 761 0.04 Tohoku 2 Aomori 144 0.01 181 0.01 213 0.01 3 Iwate 152 0.01 213 0.01 241 0.01 4 Miyagi 223 0.01 321 0.02 369 0.02 5 Akita 133 0.01 187 0.01 196 0.01 6 Yamagata 155 0.01 218 0.01 233 0.01 7 Fukushima 268 0.01 378 0.02 398 0.02 Kanto 8 Ibaraki 316 0.02 480 0.02 550 0.03 9 Tochigi 264 0.01 365 0.02 395 0.02 10 Gumma 293 0.02 371 0.02 396 0.02 (Tokyo Core 11 Saitama 807 0.04 1121 0.05 1,244 0.06 in bold) 12 Chiba 579 0.03 838 0.04 913 0.04 13 Tokyo 2,271 0.12 1928 0.09 1,610 0.08 14 Kanagawa 1,346 0.07 1498 0.07 1,407 0.07 Tot.Tokyo 5,003 0.27 5385 0.26 5174 0.25 Chubu 15 Niigata 357 0.02 463 0.02 464 0.02 16 Toyama 207 0.01 240 0.01 246 0.01 17 Ishikawa 175 0.01 196 0.01 209 0.01 18 Fukui 146 0.01 171 0.01 168 0.01 19 Yamanashi 101 0.01 140 0.01 158 0.01 20 Nagano 356 0.02 435 0.02 437 0.02 21 Gifu 349 0.02 406 0.02 418 0.02 (Nagoya Core 22 Shizuoka 626 0.03 757 0.04 804 0.04 in bold) 23 Aichi 1,268 0.07 1375 0.07 1,473 0.07 Tot. Nagoya 1,894 0.10 2132 0.10 2,277 0.11 Kinki 24 Mie 282 0.02 345 0.02 365 0.02 25 Shiga 176 0.01 238 0.01 276 0.01 26 Kyoto 416 0.02 398 0.02 384 0.02 (Osaka Core 27 Osaka 1,739 0.09 1569 0.08 1,413 0.07 in bold) 28 Hyogo 1,007 0.05 930 0.05 899 0.04 Tot. Osaka 2,746 0.15 2499 0.12 2,312 0.11 29 Nara 148 0.01 190 0.01 205 0.01 30 Wakayama 169 0.01 150 0.01 145 0.01 Chugoku 31 Tottori 84 0.01 101 0.01 102 0.01 32 Shimane 99 0.01 133 0.01 122 0.01 33 Okayama 329 0.02 359 0.02 344 0.02 34 Hiroshima 500 0.03 506 0.03 478 0.02 35 Yamaguchi 270 0.02 273 0.01 258 0.01 Shikoku 36 Tokushima 117 0.01 125 0.01 120 0.01 37 Kagawa 150 0.01 171 0.01 168 0.01 38 Ehime 216 0.01 238 0.01 229 0.01 39 Kochi 91 0.01 97 0.01 97 0.01 Kyushu 40 Fukuoka 647 0.04 655 0.03 678 0.03 41 Saga 104 0.01 126 0.01 131 0.01 42 Nagasaki 171 0.01 184 0.01 188 0.01 43 Kumamoto 161 0.01 227 0.01 243 0.01 44 Oita 132 0.01 167 0.01 176 0.01 45 Miyazaki 111 0.01 144 0.01 156 0.01 46 Kagoshima 143 0.01 212 0.01 229 0.01 Totals 28,185 (100.0) 20,587 (100.0) 20,709 (100.0) Pacific Urb-Ind. Belt Tot. 0.58 0.54 0.53
Table 4.1: Secondary sector employees and percent of total labor force: 1970-2000 (Source: Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications 1970; 1985b; 2000b)
68
Emp 1970 Emp. 1985 % Chg Emp. 2000 % Chg Region/Core Prefecture (1000s) (1000s) 1970-85 (1000s) 1985-00 Hokkaido 1 Hokkaido 744 767 0.03 761 -0.01 Tohoku 2 Aomori 144 181 0.26 213 0.18 3 Iwate 152 213 0.40 241 0.13 4 Miyagi 223 321 0.44 369 0.15 5 Akita 133 187 0.41 196 0.05 6 Yamagata 155 218 0.41 233 0.07 7 Fukushima 268 378 0.41 398 0.05 Kanto 8 Ibaraki 316 480 0.52 550 0.15 9 Tochigi 264 365 0.38 395 0.08 10 Gumma 293 371 0.27 396 0.07 (Tokyo Core 11 Saitama 807 1121 0.39 1,244 0.11 in bold) 12 Chiba 579 838 0.45 913 0.09 13 Tokyo 2,271 1928 -0.15 1,610 -0.16 14 Kanagawa 1,346 1498 0.11 1,407 -0.06 Tot.Tokyo 5,003 5385 0.08 5174 -0.04 Chubu 15 Niigata 357 463 0.30 464 0.00 16 Toyama 207 240 0.16 246 0.03 17 Ishikawa 175 196 0.12 209 0.07 18 Fukui 146 171 0.17 168 -0.02 19 Yamanashi 101 140 0.39 158 0.13 20 Nagano 356 435 0.22 437 0.00 21 Gifu 349 406 0.16 418 0.03 (Nagoya Core 22 Shizuoka 626 757 0.21 804 0.06 in bold) 23 Aichi 1,268 1375 0.08 1,473 0.07 Tot. Nagoya 1,894 2132 0.13 2,277 0.07 Kinki 24 Mie 282 345 0.22 365 0.06 25 Shiga 176 238 0.35 276 0.16 26 Kyoto 416 398 -0.04 384 -0.04 (Osaka Core 27 Osaka 1,739 1569 -0.10 1,413 -0.10 in bold) 28 Hyogo 1,007 930 -0.08 899 -0.03 Tot. Osaka 2,746 2499 -0.09 2,312 -0.07 29 Nara 148 190 0.28 205 0.08 30 Wakayama 169 150 -0.11 145 -0.03 Chugoku 31 Tottori 84 101 0.20 102 0.01 32 Shimane 99 133 0.34 122 -0.08 33 Okayama 329 359 0.09 344 -0.04 34 Hiroshima 500 506 0.01 478 -0.06 35 Yamaguchi 270 273 0.01 258 -0.05 Shikoku 36 Tokushima 117 125 0.07 120 -0.04 37 Kagawa 150 171 0.14 168 -0.02 38 Ehime 216 238 0.10 229 -0.04 39 Kochi 91 97 0.07 97 0.00 Kyushu 40 Fukuoka 647 655 0.01 678 0.04 41 Saga 104 126 0.21 131 0.04 42 Nagasaki 171 184 0.08 188 0.02 43 Kumamoto 161 227 0.41 243 0.07 44 Oita 132 167 0.27 176 0.05 45 Miyazaki 111 144 0.30 156 0.08 46 Kagoshima 143 212 0.48 229 0.08 Totals 18,542 20587 0.11 20,709 0.01 Pacific Urb-Ind. Belt Tot. 9,643 10,016 0.04 9,763 -0.02
Table 4.2: Secondary sector employees and percent change in total employment: 1970-2000 (Source: Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications 1970; 1985b; 2000b) 69 of central management functions, or the Nagoya Core’s competitive motor vehicle industry
(Fujita and Hill 1995b; Edgington 1990, 1992) (discussed below).
In contrast to the Osaka core, a large degree of PUIB secondary sector growth occurred in certain areas of the Tokyo Core in the 1970-2000 period (Figure 4.6). While
Tokyo Prefecture underwent secondary employment decline over time (Table 4.2), reflecting pressures such as high land prices and strict environmental controls to displace secondary by tertiary sector activities (Edgington 1994), neighboring Saitama and Chiba grew considerably both in terms of employment growth (Table 4.2) and share of total employment (Table 4.1), especially between 1970 and 1985. Growth in these areas on the fringe of the Tokyo metropolis was due in significant part to the growing concentration of microelectronics industries there—one of the propulsive sectors of the post-high growth era. By the late 1980s, between 70% and 90% of factories nationwide that assembled and finished products such as industrial robots, computers, medical equipment, and aircraft/spacecraft equipment were located in the Tokyo Core (Murata and Takeuchi 1987:
213-239). Moreover, secondary sector employment growth continued in Saitama and
Chiba Prefectures during the 1990s as indicated in Figure 4.2— although at a slower rate than previously—despite 1990s recessionary conditions in the overall economy.
Within the Nagoya Core and in Shizuoka Prefecture, the secondary sector remained vibrant in terms of total secondary sector employment share and growth (Tables
4.1-2) after 1970, bolstered by the large presence of the motor vehicle (notably automobiles and motorcycles) industry which rose to prominence throughout the 1970s and 1980s with increased sales, domestically and abroad, of fuel-efficient and well-
70 designed vehicles (Humphrys 1995).17 A major component of Aichi Prefecture’s industrial
structure was the Toyota Corporation’s sprawling network of automobile production plants and related subcontracting firms in and around Toyota City (Fujita and Hill 1993:
Edgington 1992). Besides automobiles, production in neighboring Shizuoka Prefecture included motorcycles, including those manufactured by the Yamaha Corporation
(Yagasaki 1997).
Finally, Table 4.1 shows that the ten prefectures of the Pacific Urban-Industrial
Belt overall declined between 1970 and 2000 in terms of shares of total secondary employment, reflecting dispersal of industries into areas outside this region—a topic addressed in the next section). However, the fact that over half of Japan’s secondary sector employees remained in the PUIB in 2000 indicates its continued prominence as
Japan’s industrial core at the century’s end.
4.4.2 Industrialization in areas outside the Pacific Urban-Industrial Belt
While the Urban-Industrial Belt had (and has) a disproportionate share of Japan’s secondary sector industries, some degree of industrialization has also occurred in areas outside this region. Manufacturing industries During the high growth era (1955-73), for example, manufacturing that came to fruition by the early 1960s took place in Nagano and
Gifu Prefectures (Chubu region); industries included the following. Nagano and Gifu
Prefectures (Chubu region) had a certain number of machinery, fabricated metals, and electrical equipment plants. Along the Japan Sea Coast, petrochemicals, machinery, and
17 As in the case of areas in the Tokyo Core, secondary sector employment growth continued throughout 1970 to 2000, albeit at a slower rate during the 1985-2000 period (Figure 4.2).
71 fabricated metals manufacturing plants existed in Niigata Prefecture (Chubu region), while
Toyama Prefecture (Chubu region) was known for its chemical, paper and textile
industries. In Hokkaido Prefecture, industries included food processing, pulp and paper,
and iron and steel (Trewartha 1965).
As with the case of the Pacific Urban Industrial Belt, the restructuring that
occurred in the post-1970 period led to varied spatial outcomes in these prefectures outside
Japan’s core manufacturing areas. On the one hand, similar to the “rustbelt phenomenon”
in the case of Western industrial economies, a few prefectures were negatively-impacted
with respect to secondary sector employment and total share (Tables 4.1-2: Figure 4.6).
With an high growth era industrial structure ( formed in the earlier years of the high
growth era) that included textiles and machinery, Kinki region Kyoto Prefecture suffered a
downturn from the 1970s, as did Wakayama Prefecture (with textiles, steel, and chemicals).
Chugoku region Yamaguchi Prefecture, with its large presence of petrochemical industries
by in the 1950s and early1960s (Trewartha 1965), witnessed stagnant employment growth
1970 to 1985 before undergoing decline after 1985.
On the other hand, secondary sector industrial growth took place in some largely
rural areas in the Tohoku and Kyushu regions (Table 4.1-2: Figure 4.6). This was
encouraged by early 1970s federal government legislation aimed at relocating industries
away from the core into rural areas, and for forming new geographies required to
implement flexible production strategies18. Electrical machinery, transportation equipment,
and other assembly-oriented sectors took advantage of these legislative incentives
18 This includes taking advantage of low cost labor from farming households that already had a partial income from agriculture. See Section 4.5 for further discussion.
72 (McDonald 1996b). The electrical machinery industry in particular became the largest employment sector by 1985 in several prefectures in Tohoku and Kyushu (Edgington
1994). It should be noted, however, that while the high rate of growth that occurred in these places (Table 4.2: Figure 4.6) is notable, especially between 1970 and 1985, they had relatively few employees compared to areas within the PUIB, and less than 1.5% (for all time periods) of the total secondary sector labor force.
4.4.3 Increasing secondary and tertiary sector primacy of the Tokyo Core relative to other regions
It was explained in Chapter 2 how the tertiary sector in postwar Japan has increased in importance, with substantial growth in lower order services (retail stores, convenience store chains, etc.) throughout the country, and higher order producer service activities mainly in large metropolitan areas such as the Tokyo Core. With the latter, growth in the tertiary sector there has been dramatic, as this region has attracted an increasing share of Japan’s central management functions (CMFs). These are defined as the command, coordination, and innovation activities that enable a given metropolitan area to become a local, national, or global power. Due to its increasing number of financial institutions, media activities, higher education research, political organs, federal government agencies, etc., the Tokyo Core became to be known as a “command and
control center” by the 1980s—a site where expanding production activities abroad
(encouraged by high yen pressures) were coordinated by Tokyo-based headquarters, research and development activities were conducted, and significant higher value added production took place (Sassen 1991; Fujita 1991a; Fujita and Hill 1995b). Regarding the
73 latter, as Japanese firms tend to emphasize close working relations among people at
various stages of production, they try to place their research and development, and advanced, high value added production facilities as close as possible to corporate headquarters. This has been a major factor in the Tokyo Core’s continued vibrancy, not only in the tertiary sector, but also in the secondary sector throughout the post-high growth era (Obayashi 1993).19
The Tokyo Core’s increased integration into the global economy as a command
and control center has also occurred to a degree disproportionate to other regions—so
much that by the late 1980s the economic geography in Japan has been described as one
dominated by the “Tokyo monopolar system” (Fujita and Tabuchi 1997). Compared to the
Osaka core—the next largest urban area in Japan—for instance, in 1980 the Tokyo core had nearly twice the population, while its share of CMFs was almost three times as large.
Similarly, while 51% of Japan’s corporations with capital in excess of one billion yen in
1990 were in the Tokyo core, the Osaka core had 13% (Fujita and Hill 1995: 8-9).
4.5 Summary and interpretation
This chapter served as an overview of the changing economic geography in Japan during the postwar period, especially since 1970. Section 4.1 identified regional classifications commonly used in studies on Japan; these included 47 sub-national administrative units called prefectures; and eight regional groupings—some of which are considered part of Japan’s urban industrial core, and others the opposite. The next two
19 Keeping in mind the intra-regional distribution of secondary sector employment, i.e., Tokyo Prefecture underwent decline while neighboring Chiba and Saitama Prefectures grew.
74 sections, 4.2-3, examined the spatial distribution of the Japanese population and labor force. For all years (1970, 1985, and 2000), both were highly concentrated in Pacific
Ocean-adjacent and highly urbanized areas including the Tokyo, Nagoya, and Osaka metropolitan regions. To a large extent, this pattern remained largely unchanged between
1970 and 2000. There was, however, some population dispersal from the center of Tokyo into adjoining prefectures.
Next, Section 4.4 identified major postwar spatial shifts in economic activity. The high growth era was characterized by a core manufacturing area, called the Pacific Urban-
Industrial Belt (PUIB), and centered on the Tokyo, Nagoya, and Osaka metropolitan areas and their hinterlands; and secondary centers of industry in other areas throughout the
Japanese island archipelago. Spatial shifts after the early 1970s included secondary sector employment decline in areas once dominated by a single or handful of heavy industries
(steel, petrochemicals, etc.); and substantial growth in several largely rural prefectures that
previously had little industry—in, for example, the electrical machinery and transportation
equipment sectors.
Spatial patterns also included disproportionate tertiary sector growth in the Tokyo
Core in the post-1970 era. Its increased integration into the global economy as a world city,
or command and control center, has led some researchers to assert the emergence of the
Tokyo Monopolar System. Factors in support of this claim include the Tokyo Core’s share
of central management functions (CMFs) being disproportionately larger than Osaka and
other urban areas.
This dissertation thus far has described how the trajectory of postwar growth in
Japan (as elsewhere) has proceeded along with greater incorporation of women in the paid
75 labor force, but typically in a disadvantaged position. Moreover, Chapter 4 identified the
uneven geographic pattern of development in the secondary and tertiary economic sectors
particular to Japan. As such, it is likely that spatial variation exists as well with respect to females’ experiences in the labor force, which depends, among other factors, on the
industrial and occupational composition in a given locale. Establishing the form and
extent of this is the goal of the next two chapters.
76
CHAPTER 5
THE CHANGING SPATIAL DISTRIBUTION OF FEMALE LABOR IN THE
SECONDARY SECTOR: 1970-2000
This chapter and the next (5 and 6) focus on geographic aspects of the gender
division of labor in Japan—an issue largely ignored in existing social science research.
Significant spatial variation in females’ labor force conditions is likely to exist there, as it
does in the North American context. As explained at the outset of this research, US-based
studies found that, in a given sub-national area, macro-level forces (i.e., national, global)
interact with local labor supply and demand processes to create substantial differences in
women’s work experiences (e.g., Brown, et al. 2005; Abrahamson and Sigelman 1987;
Kodras and Padavic 1993; Jones and Rosenfeld 1989). The object of Chapter 5 is thus to assess the extent to which this is also true in Japan, specifically in the secondary sector—a major part of its postwar economy.
Chapter 5 is organized as follows. First, for the secondary sector, years 1970, 1985,
and 2000, Section 5.1 uses location quotients and cartographic display to identify prefectures in which women are under- or over-represented in the labor force relative to
Japan as a whole. Second, in Section 5.2 several prefectures are selected as case studies to examine localized industrial structure, specifically in manufacturing. Focusing on the
77 year 2000, female and male employment is examined by medium industrial groups, similar to US double digit SIC codes. Comparing the manufacturing labor force in a given prefecture against its location quotient from Section 5.1 allows connections to be made regarding how a prefecture’s industrial structure shapes its particular gendered division of labor. Data for Sections 5.1 and 5.2 are from the Japanese Population Census (1970; 1985;
2000).
5.1 Secondary sector location quotient analysis
Location quotients are derived and mapped to identify instances of prefectures characterized by high shares of female employment as well as those with low shares. The years are 1970, 1985, and 2000. Each location quotient is defined as follows:
LQ = (Fijk/Mijk)/(Fjk/Mjk)
where F and M represent Japanese females and males in prefecture i, sector j during year
k; and Fjk/Mjk indicates the total proportion of females to males in the labor force
nationally within sector j, year k. An index of 1.0 would indicate that the proportion of females to men in a sector i prefecture j corresponds to the proportion nationally. Location quotient values of less than 0.85 represent under-representation, and those of 1.2 or above indicate shares of female labor that are significantly higher than the national proportion.
The results are interpreted in the context of analysis in previous chapters in this dissertation and other existing studies related to the female labor force in Japan.
78 Findings are as follows. Table 5.1 and Figure 5.1 show a distinct spatial pattern for
1970, 1985, and 2000, characterized by prefectures with both low and high shares of women’s secondary sector employment. On one hand, prefectures with low concentrations
(LQ values or .85 or less) included urbanized Kanagawa and Chiba prefectures in the
Tokyo Core for all years, and Hyogo in the Osaka Core for 1970 and 1985. These were highly populated areas of the Pacific Urban-Industrial Belt (PUIB) with a broad mix of industries and high numbers of secondary sector employees. In contrast, strong female concentrations were present for all years in areas outside the PUIB, including in several central Honshu prefectures. High shares were also present in Fukui, Ishikawa, Toyama, and Niigata, all located along the Sea of Japan; portions from each together comprise a secondary, non-PUIB center of industry known as the Hokuriku Industrial Area (Ito and
Ota 1980). Finally, high secondary sector LQ values existed in several prefectures in the southwestern part of the Japanese archipelago: Tottori and Shimane in the Chugoku region,
Saga in Kyushu, etc.
Noting the persistence of this general pattern between 1970 and 2000, with low shares in PUIB prefectures and high ones in areas considered remote from the former, the changes that occurred in the Japanese economy after 1970 also resulted in certain spatial rearrangements. Examples are as follows.
As explained in Chapter 2, the 1970 to 1985 period included crisis and restructuring. Oil crises, yen realignments, and other “shocks” negatively impacted heavy industries, while higher technology electronics and automobiles emerged as key sectors that played a significant role in restoring growth by the late 1970s, albeit at a slower pace than before. These changes coincided with declining shares (LQs) areas such as in Gunma
79 % % Chg. LQ Chg. Fem. Fem. Fem. Chg. Fem. Fem. LQ Emp LQ Emp LQ Emp. 70- Emp. LQ Emp. Chg. Region/Core Prefecture 1970 1970 1985 1985 70-85 85 2000 2000 85-00 85-00 Hokkaido 1 Hokkaido 152 0.79 160 0.76 0.05 -0.03 177 0.90 0.11 0.14 Tohoku 2 Aomori 33 0.91 49 1.08 0.49 0.17 59 1.14 0.20 0.06 3 Iwate 39 1.07 68 1.36 0.73 0.29 70 1.22 0.03 -0.14 4 Miyagi 58 1.08 95 1.22 0.64 0.14 102 1.13 0.07 -0.09 5 Akita 33 1.02 64 1.52 0.94 0.50 59 1.29 -0.08 -0.23 6 Yamagata 53 1.57 83 1.78 0.58 0.21 75 1.42 -0.10 -0.36 7 Fukushima 86 1.44 129 1.50 0.51 0.05 118 1.25 -0.08 -0.25 Kanto 8 Ibaraki 79 1.02 124 1.01 0.58 -0.01 140 1.02 0.13 0.01 9 Tochigi 76 1.25 104 1.15 0.36 -0.10 104 1.07 0.01 -0.08 10 Gumma 88 1.32 104 1.13 0.18 -0.19 105 1.07 0.01 -0.06 (Tokyo Core 11 Saitama 183 0.90 268 0.91 0.47 0.01 304 0.96 0.13 0.05 in bold) 12 Chiba 106 0.69 170 0.73 0.61 0.05 200 0.83 0.18 0.10 13 Tokyo 499 0.86 460 0.91 -0.08 0.04 388 0.94 -0.16 0.03 14 Kanagawa 258 0.73 300 0.73 0.16 0.00 288 0.76 -0.04 0.04 Chubu 15 Niigata 103 1.24 149 1.37 0.45 0.13 136 1.23 -0.09 -0.14 16 Toyama 63 1.34 78 1.39 0.24 0.06 73 1.27 -0.06 -0.13 17 Ishikawa 56 1.45 61 1.31 0.09 -0.14 61 1.22 0.00 -0.09 18 Fukui 55 1.86 59 1.53 0.07 -0.33 53 1.35 -0.11 -0.18 19 Yamanashi 30 1.30 40 1.15 0.33 -0.15 42 1.07 0.05 -0.08 20 Nagano 122 1.60 147 1.48 0.21 -0.12 129 1.25 -0.12 -0.23 21 Gifu 112 1.45 122 1.25 0.09 -0.21 118 1.17 -0.03 -0.08 (Nagoya Core 22 Shizuoka 171 1.15 217 1.16 0.27 0.01 223 1.14 0.03 -0.02 in bold) 23 Aichi 327 1.07 350 0.99 0.07 -0.08 363 0.97 0.04 -0.02 Kinki 24 Mie 79 1.20 100 1.19 0.27 -0.01 96 1.06 -0.04 -0.12 25 Shiga 52 1.30 65 1.09 0.25 -0.21 73 1.06 0.12 -0.03 26 Kyoto 112 1.14 99 0.95 -0.12 -0.18 96 0.99 -0.03 0.03 (Osaka Core 27 Osaka 380 0.86 357 0.85 -0.06 0.00 328 0.90 -0.08 0.04 in bold) 28 Hyogo 217 0.84 203 0.81 -0.07 -0.04 205 0.88 0.01 0.07 29 Nara 33 0.87 39 0.74 0.18 -0.13 45 0.83 0.17 0.09 30 Wakayama 36 0.83 32 0.79 -0.10 -0.04 32 0.86 0.01 0.07 Chugoku 31 Tottori 29 1.65 37 1.69 0.27 0.04 32 1.38 -0.13 -0.31 32 Shimane 30 1.37 44 1.43 0.45 0.06 35 1.17 -0.22 -0.26 33 Okayama 95 1.24 99 1.11 0.05 -0.13 89 1.03 -0.11 -0.08 34 Hiroshima 118 0.95 121 0.91 0.02 -0.04 115 0.94 -0.05 0.03 35 Yamaguchi 59 0.87 62 0.84 0.04 -0.02 60 0.90 -0.02 0.06 Shikoku 36 Tokushima 36 1.37 38 1.28 0.06 -0.09 32 1.06 -0.17 -0.22 37 Kagawa 45 1.31 49 1.17 0.10 -0.15 45 1.11 -0.08 -0.06 38 Ehime 57 1.09 68 1.15 0.19 0.06 60 1.05 -0.12 -0.10 39 Kochi 26 1.20 28 1.16 0.08 -0.04 24 0.98 -0.13 -0.18 Kyushu 40 Fukuoka 151 0.93 147 0.84 -0.03 -0.10 164 0.95 0.12 0.11 41 Saga 34 1.48 39 1.32 0.16 -0.16 36 1.15 -0.07 -0.17 42 Nagasaki 38 0.88 45 0.94 0.18 0.06 47 0.98 0.03 0.04 43 Kumamoto 45 1.20 67 1.22 0.50 0.02 67 1.13 -0.01 -0.09 44 Oita 31 0.97 42 0.98 0.33 0.01 44 0.98 0.04 0.01 45 Miyazaki 31 1.17 44 1.29 0.45 0.12 45 1.21 0.02 -0.08 46 Kagoshima 37 1.07 58 1.10 0.58 0.03 62 1.09 0.05 0.00 *PUIB prefectures in bold
Table 5.1: Secondary sector female employment and location quotients: 1970, 1985 and 2000 (Source: Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications 1970; 1985b; 2000b)
80
Figure 5.1: Women’s concentration in the secondary sector: 1970, 1985, and 2000 location quotients (Source: Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications 1970; 1985b; 2000b)
81 and Tochigi prefectures at the northern edge of the Tokyo Core, and in several prefectures throughout southwest Japan; and gains in the Tohoku region and in southern Kyushu
(Table 5.1: Figure 5.1).
That largely rural areas in the Tohoku region in particular experienced strong gains in female employment shares, along with substantial employment growth, resonates with
McDonald’s research (1996a: 1996b) on industrialization in rural Japan (Table 5.1). In the early 1970s government legislation was enacted aimed at facilitating decentralization in electrical machinery and other manufacturing industries away from the Pacific Urban-
Industrial Belt (see discussion in Section 4.4). A key advantage of firms locating plants in rural areas was to take advantage of labor from farming households that in postwar Japan increasingly could not survive from agriculture alone. The partial income that such workers did generate from agriculture meant though that the new manufacturing industries could keep wages down. A high percentage, moreover, of the labor force in these new green field industrial plants was female. One household pattern in rural areas that emerged after 1970 was one involving the male household head combining work on the family farm with part-time jobs such as in construction and transport. The farm wife, on the other hand, would assume a full-time job in an electronics assembly plant to supplement household income (McDonald 1996).
Further regional arrangements occurred during the next time period, 1985 to 2000, as the Japanese economy entered a prolonged recession with the beginning of the 1990s.
In response to the economic downturn, firms enacted restructuring strategies, including the acceleration of exporting production overseas; seeking greater employment flexibility through increased use of paato and other types of non-regular employees; providing
82 incentives for early retirement; and layoffs outright (Conachy 2002). Reflecting this restructuring, the spatial pattern for 2000 included losses in female shares in several prefectures throughout Japan (Figure 5.1). Table 5.1 indicates, moreover, that in a significant number of prefectures (19 to be exact) LQ decreases coincided with a % decline in female employment, indicating that women were disproportionately affected by restructuring. This is perhaps of no surprise, given that large numbers of Japanese females in manufacturing have been employed under non-regular contracts, notably paato (see
Chapter 3). The vulnerable position of these women in the labor force is illustrated in
Chapter 3’s discussion of their role as a buffer or “safety valve.” That is, firms readily increased or decreased non-regular female employees according to economic conditions in an effort to preserve their core (mainly male) labor forces (Osawa 1992).
While the analysis in this section indicated secondary sector female employment shares by prefecture, except perhaps in the case of Tohoku (supported by existing research) it was not able to capture underlying localized industrial structure that likely shapes an area’s gendered division of labor. This issue is addressed in the next section.
5.2 Manufacturing case study analysis
To illuminate prefecture level economic structure—and complement the secondary sector location quotient analysis in Section 5.1—several prefectures are selected as case studies for a closer look at the labor force in manufacturing. Employment data from the
Japan Population Census show the distribution of labor (female as well as male) by medium industrial group, similar to US double digit SIC codes. The focus is on 2000, although data is also provided for 1970 and 1985. Comparing the manufacturing labor
83 force in a given prefecture against its location quotient from Section 5.1 allows
connections to be made of how a prefecture’s industrial structure shapes its particular
gendered division of labor.
Manufacturing sector medium industrial groups as defined in the Population
Census and other Japanese statistics are presented as follows.
1. Food processing 9. Chemical products 17. Fabricated metal products 2. Beverage, feed, and tobacco 10. Petroleum and coal products 18. General machinery 3. Textile mill products 11. Plastic products 19. Electrical machinery 4. Apparel 12. Rubber products 20. Transportation equipment 5. Lumber and wood 21. Precision instruments and products 13. Leather products machinery 14. Ceramic, stone and clay 6. Furniture and fixtures products 22. Other manufacturing industries 7. Pulp and paper 15. Iron and steel 8. Publishing and printing 16. Non-ferrous metals
Table 5.2: Medium industrial groups in manufacturing (Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications 2000b)
Concerning the choice of prefectures for case studies (see Figure 5.2), Chiba
Prefecture is selected to represent the Pacific Urban-Industrial Belt (PUIB). Next, four prefectures, Akita, Niigata, Shimane, and Miyazaki, represent areas located well apart geographically from the PUIB and with relatively small numbers of manufacturing employees. The final two prefectures, Tochigi and Nagano, are chosen to represent areas on the outskirts of the PUIB and have moderate numbers of manufacturing workers relative to the two other groups. This classification scheme is shown in Table 5.3.
Finally, analysis for each prefecture will focus on the largest industrial groups in terms of employment. These are selected on the basis of having 10% or more of the
84 PUIB or non- Prefecture Locational attributes Labor force PUIB
Large numbers of manufacturing PUIB Chiba Part of Tokyo Core employees/low female shares
Akita Niigata Located well-apart geographically Low numbers of female Non-PUIB Shimane from PUIB employees/average or high shares Miyazaki
Nagano Located on the margins of the PUIB Moderate numbers of female Non-PUIB Tochigi in central Honshu employees/high shares
Table 5.3: Case study prefectures, and characteristics, 1970
manufacturing labor force in a prefecture during a given year. (Data on all manufacturing industrial groups by prefecture is provided in Appendix A.)
Results are as follows. Table 5.4 shows how, for 2000, in all case study prefectures except for Nagano the top industries in terms of female manufacturing employment were electrical machinery, apparel, and food processing (Table 5.4). The concentration of women employees in these three industrial groups in each prefecture was significant, ranging from just under half of the female labor force in Chiba and Tochigi, to nearly 75% in Akita. In contrast, male manufacturing employment in a given prefecture was less concentrated. That is, while electrical machinery and food processing industries were major employers of males (as was the case of women), other men were found in industrial groups, including—depending on prefecture—lumber and wood, fabricated metal products,
and chemical products.
PUIB/Tokyo Core representative Chiba Prefecture was characterized with a
lower than average share (LQ) of female employment in 2000. Table 5.4 also reveals
85
Figure 5.2: Case study prefectures
86 Chiba Prefecture: PUIB Female Male 1970 1985 2000 1970 1985 2000 LQ (from Table 5.1) 0.69 0.73 0.83 % % % % % % Industry (medium groups) MNU EMP MNU EMP MNU EMP MNU EMP MNU EMP MNU EMP Food manufacturing 0.14 15 0.17 24 0.24 31 0.08 23 0.09 30 0.1 32 Apparel 0.09 9 0.1 14 0.09 11 0.02 5 0.02 7 0.02 5 Chemical products 0.04 5 0.04 6 0.07 9 0.08 22 0.09 30 0.1 30 Iron and Steel 0.04 4 0.03 5 0.04 5 0.15 43 0.13 45 0.1 33 Fabricated metal products 0.09 9 0.08 11 0.07 9 0.16 44 0.12 41 0.12 38 Electrical machinery 0.14 15 0.18 26 0.16 21 0.08 23 0.12 41 0.15 49 Other manufacturing 0.13 13 0.08 11 0.07 9 0.06 15 0.03 10 0.03 11 Total employees (in manufacturing: 1000s) 104 144 131 280 337 315
Akita Prefecture: remote from PUIB (Tohoku region) Females Males 1970 1985 2000 1970 1985 2000 LQ (from Table 5.1) 1.02 1.52 1.29 % % % % % % Industry (medium groups) MNU EMP MNU EMP MNU EMP MNU EMP MNU EMP MNU EMP Food manufacturing 0.14 4 0.07 4 0.13 7 0.12 5 0.1 5 0.09 5 Apparel 0.1 3 0.28 17 0.32 17 0.01 0 0.04 2 0.04 2 Lumber and wood products 0.26 7 0.06 4 0.03 2 0.26 10 0.13 6 0.09 5 Fabricated metal products 0.02 0 0.01 1 0.02 1 0.09 1 0.07 4 0.1 3 Electrical machinery 0.22 6 0.35 21 0.28 15 0.08 3 0.21 10 0.3 15 Total employees (in manufacturing: 1000s) 27 60 53 38 48 51
Continued
Table 5.4: Manufacturing labor force in selected prefectures: industrial groups with >10% of female or male labor force (Source: Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications 1970; 1985b; 2000b)
87 Table 5.4 continued
Niigata: remote from PUIB (Chubu region) Females Males 1970 1985 2000 1970 1985 2000 LQ (from Table 5.1) 1.24 1.37 1.23 % % % % % % Industry (medium groups) MNU EMP MNU EMP MNU EMP MNU EMP MNU EMP MNU EMP Food manufacturing 0.1 11 0.14 20 0.2 24 0.06 9 0.09 14 0.11 17 Textile mill products 0.35 38 0.19 28 0.05 6 0.11 16 0.08 13 0.04 6 Apparel 0.07 8 0.13 18 0.16 18 0.01 2 0.02 3 0.03 5 Fabricated metal products 0.14 15 0.12 17 0.12 14 0.19 28 0.19 29 0.17 25 General machinery 0.05 6 0.05 7 0.07 8 0.15 21 0.15 23 0.13 20 Electrical machinery 0.06 7 0.2 30 0.2 23 0.02 3 0.11 17 0.16 23 Total employees (in manufacturing: 1000s) 111 147 116 145 157 149
Shimane: remote from PUIB (Chugoku region) Females Males 1970 1985 2000 1970 1985 2000 LQ (from Table 5.1) 1.37 1.43 1.17 % % % % % % Industry (medium groups) MNU EMP MNU EMP MNU EMP MNU EMP MNU EMP MNU EMP Food manufacturing 0.21 6 0.14 6 0.22 6 0.13 4 0.11 4 0.1 4 Textile mill products 0.18 5 0.13 5 0.04 1 0.04 1 0.04 1 0.01 0 Apparel 0.13 4 0.26 10 0.25 7 0.01 0 0.03 1 0.03 1 Lumber and wood products 0.08 2 0.04 1 0.03 1 0.17 5 0.11 4 0.05 2 Ceramic, stone and clay products 0.05 1 0.04 2 0.03 1 0.09 3 0.11 4 0.09 3 Iron and Steel 0.02 1 0.02 1 0.01 0 0.11 3 0.1 4 0.08 3 General machinery 0.04 1 0.03 1 0.05 1 0.14 4 0.11 4 0.15 5 Electrical machinery 0.14 4 0.18 7 0.2 5 0.02 1 0.12 4 0.17 6 Total employees (in manufacturing: 1000s) 29 40 27 31 34 35
Miyazaki: remote from PUIB (Kyushu region) Females Males 1970 1985 2000 1970 1985 2000 LQ (from Table 5.1) 1.17 1.29 1.21 % % % % % % Industry (medium groups) MNU EMP MNU EMP MNU EMP MNU EMP MNU EMP MNU EMP Food manufacturing 0.2 5 0.24 10 0.29 11 0.15 5 0.17 7 0.18 7 Textile mill products 0.17 4 0.16 7 0.02 1 0.03 1 0.05 2 0.01 1 Apparel 0.04 1 0.02 8 0.18 7 0.01 0 0.03 1 0.02 1 Lumber and wood products 0.14 4 0.06 2 0.05 2 0.14 5 0.1 4 0.05 2 Chemical products 0.16 4 0.03 1 0.03 1 0.28 10 0.15 6 0.09 4 Electrical machinery 0.06 1 0.14 6 0.18 7 0.03 1 0.11 4 0.17 7 Total employees (in manufacturing: 1000s) 26 40 38 35 39 41
Continued
88 Table 5.4 continued
Nagano: outskirts of PUIB (Chubu region) Females Males 1970 1985 2000 1970 1985 2000 LQ (from Table 5.1) 1.6 1.48 1.25 % % % % % % Industry (medium groups) MNU EMP MNU EMP MNU EMP MNU EMP MNU EMP MNU EMP Food manufacturing 0.08 11 0.08 13 0.15 16 0.08 12 0.08 13 0.08 13 Textile mill products 0.12 16 0.04 6 0.01 1 0.04 6 0.02 3 1 General machinery 0.04 6 0.06 10 0.07 8 0.13 18 0.14 24 0.15 26 Electrical machinery 0.34 46 0.41 60 0.36 39 0.17 25 0.27 45 0.33 57
Precision instruments and machinery 0.13 18 0.15 22 0.1 11 0.01 4 0.11 19 0.08 14 Total employees (in manufacturing: 1000s) 137 149 108 147 168 172
Tochigi Prefecture: outskirts of PUIB (Kanto region) Females Males 1970 1985 2000 1970 1985 2000 LQ (from Table 5.1) 1.25 1.15 1.07 % % % % % % Industry (medium groups) MNU EMP MNU EMP MNU EMP MNU EMP MNU EMP MNU EMP Food manufacturing 0.07 7 0.09 9 0.18 17 0.07 9 0.06 10 0.09 16 Textile mill products 0.16 15 0.08 9 0.02 2 0.08 11 0.04 7 0.01 2 Apparel 0.2 18 0.16 17 0.12 11 0.03 5 0.03 5 0.02 4 Fabricated metal products 0.04 3 0.06 6 0.07 7 0.09 12 0.1 18 0.1 17 General machinery 0.03 3 0.04 4 0.05 4 0.09 12 0.1 17 0.09 17 Electrical machinery 0.18 17 0.25 27 0.18 16 0.12 17 0.18 30 0.17 30 Transportation equipment 0.02 1 0.03 4 0.06 6 0.08 11 0.14 24 0.19 33 Total employees (in manufacturing: 1000s) 93 106 90 134 168 176
that the number of female employees in many of Chiba’s largest manufacturing industries, including iron and steel, and fabricated metals, was low relative to males.
This low degree of female participation was likely due to a number of factors. One possible reason relates to job availability for females in the Tokyo Core’s vast and varied tertiary sector, drawing them away from considering secondary sector employment.
Moreover, as noted in Chapter 3, it is likely that sex stereotypes persisted in the heavy industries based in Chiba, in jobs assumed to be “men’s work.” The high degree of male
89 dominance in chemical, steel and other industries in other countries has been noted; the same is likely in the case in Japan (e.g., Reskin and Hartmann 1986).
In contrast to Chiba, the gendered division of labor differed in non-PUIB Akita,
Niigata, Shimane, and Miyazaki prefectures (all also geographically remote from the
PUIB). These areas were characterized in 2000 by high female representation (except for
Shimane with a LQ of 1.17) (Table 5.4). This was possibly influenced by the continuation of the practice of firms making extensive use of unskilled female labor in assembly-type
factory jobs in these areas, especially in electrical machinery industries (Kawashima
1995)—noting, however, that this was less the case in 2000 than in previous years with the shifts over time of women out of manufacturing (Table 5.4).
The gendered division of labor in the case study non-PUIB prefectures also included significant numbers of women employees in lumber and wood products in Akita in 1970. However, subsequent employment losses (both female and male) occurred over time; by 2000 only 3% of Akita’s female manufacturing labor force was in this industry.
In contrast, in Niigata Prefecture, the fabricated metals industry continued to be part of its manufacturing base, with a greater presence than in other prefectures; products included tools and Western-style tableware (Japan External Trade Organization 2006). This industry remained a significant employee of women in Niigata, with a % MNU of 12% in
2000 (17% for men) (Table 5.4). Possible factors responsible for this high female participation included lack of job opportunities in the tertiary sector or elsewhere, or
(explained previously) a higher incidence of women continuing to work outside the home throughout their lives than in PUIB areas.
90 High LQ values in non-PUIB prefectures were also shaped by the significant presence of women in textile and apparel industries, in which male participation has historically been low by comparison.20 This is evident from Table 5.4, which indicates relatively few male employees relative to women, together with high female %MANU values—for apparel in 2000 32% in Akita, 25% in Shimane, etc. These industries have been feminized since their beginnings in the 19th century Meiji Era (notably textiles in this early period). As a source of cheap labor, impoverished agricultural households would contract out young, unmarried daughters to work, typically two to three years, with wages often being paid to parents in advance (Naito 1980; Kawashima 1995). After the Second
World War, however, female engagement in apparel and textiles occurred less on an exploitative and involuntary basis. Macnaughtan’s research, focusing on the case of women in cotton textiles production, describes how this industry in the high growth era continued to be a major employer of young, unmarried junior high school leavers and
(increasingly) middle-aged married women.
While apparel and textile industries in postwar Japan can be assumed to have diminished in importance over time in the overall national economy, Table 5.4 provides finer-level indication of their regional fortunes in the case study prefectures. Regarding textiles, in Niigata, Nagano, and Tochigi prefectures (the latter two classified as non-PUIB and situated on the outskirts of the PUIB)—all of which had relatively large numbers of women workers in this industry in 1970—female employment steadily declined over the next fifteen years, and between 1985 and 2000. This was due to factors such as firms’
20 Textiles refers to textile mill products: the manufacturing of silk, cotton, wool, and other natural fabrics; yarns; rope and netting, etc. Apparel refers to the manufacture of apparel and other finished products made from fabrics and similar materials (Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications 2002a).
91 increasing off-shore manufacturing, diversifying away from relying solely on textile production, and downsizing labor through technological innovations in production
(Macnaughtan 2005). In contrast, in the apparel industry female employment grew in
Akita, Niigata, and Miyazaki prefectures from 1970 to 1985, and remained even between
1985 and 2000. One contributing factor relates to increased demand, especially in the
1980s, for women’s clothing; production of high value added fashionable apparel became central (US Library of Congress 1994).
Turning towards focus on Tochigi Prefecture as a case study, it is possible that declining female shares over time (from 1.25 in 1970 to 1.07 in 2000) was influenced by significant expansion in the prefecture’s transportation equipment industry (Takeuchi
1980). While Table 5.4 shows a shift of male employees into this industrial group (of which automobile production is a major subset) between 1970 and 2000, female presence remained low by comparison. This may have been influenced by corporate hiring practices biased in favor of males (see Chapter 3), notably with respect to full time regular employment on production lines in this type of industry—and characterized by high learning curve just-in-time production techniques: Toyota’s female blue collar labor force in Japan stood at only 1% in 1998, for instance (Yokoyama 1999). Companies in postwar
Japan have often considered long-term investment in training on women an “unsafe bet” due to the perception that most are unwilling to make the commitment to long hours and job duration required because of their considerable domestic responsibilities—as wife, mother, and manager of the household budget (Brinton 1993). Another factor that encouraged Japanese automakers not to hire women was legislative in nature. Restrictions existed that prohibited women (with the exception of nurses, flight attendants, etc.) from
92 working between 10 pm and 5 am; these began to be lifted only in the late 1990s, after
which companies such as Toyota started to make modest increases in their numbers of
female blue collar employees (Yokoyama 1999).
Finally, while this section has focused on the issue of how a prefecture’s industrial
structure shapes its gendered division of labor, it is worth noting that other factors may
play a role. It is possible, for instance, that high female employment shares in non-PUIB
regions were influenced, as some researchers assert, by persistence of traditional social
norms that encouraged women’s continued participation in farm labor even after marriage
and childbirth (Shimada and Higuchi 1985). Such practices, along with the presence of the
extended family unit, remained even with the rise of off-farm jobs in the postwar era for
women—employment that often meant work in newly-established green field
manufacturing plants. It is thus possible that the “professional housewife” phenomenon
was less prominent in rural areas than in the PUIB; this terms refers to female homemakers
who remain out of the labor force for extended periods or indefinitely to focus on
childrearing and domestic responsibilities, enabling husbands to devote long hours to work
(Dore 1978; Hendry 1996). Higher incidences of professional housewives in PUIB areas
may also be buttressed by higher average wages there that make one-income households
possible. Data in Appendix B support this claim; there is a tendency for the highest annual
per capital incomes, together with the lowest incidence of dual income households, to be
present in PUIB prefectures, especially in the Tokyo, Nagoya, and Osaka cores.
93 5.3 Summary and interpretation
Chapters 2 and 3 detailed how the trajectory of the post-Second World War
Japanese economy included a significant presence of women in its all-important manufacturing industries. It was also explained how restructuring in the post-high growth period resulted in increases in numbers of females in nonstandard employment in manufacturing, notably paato jobs. Such women, however, were disproportionately affected by the downturn in the economic downturn that characterized the 1990s. These points being noted, missing thus far from analysis is the possibility of significant geographic variation with respect to women’s experiences in the secondary sector—a task taken up in Chapter 5.
A major conclusion of Chapter 5 is that this was indeed the case, as in the North
American context: the form and extent of female labor in the secondary sector varied spatially, depending on the mix of factors in a particular place. Spatial patterns included a tendency for low female employment shares (LQs) to exist for all years (1970, 1985, and
2000) in PUIB prefectures—Japan’s urban industrial core—and high shares in prefectures well outside the PUIB. While such results are perhaps to be expected (i.e., significant geographic variation exists, as it does elsewhere) perhaps more interesting are the factors unique to the Japanese experience that shape overall sub-national variation.
A large factor that shaped the spatial patterns of location quotients was the presence of particular manufacturing industries. As mentioned, in the non-PUIB prefectures that have typically had high LQ values, electrical machinery firms have played a large role as major employers of women (noted in several places in this dissertation), as has been the case of apparel and textiles industries, with the female dominance in the latter
94 being influenced by their long history, dating back to the late 19th century, of using cheap female labor. In contrast, the manufacturing base in PUIB areas such as Chiba Prefecture
(a case study in section 5.2) included a large presence of heavy manufacturing including
chemicals and steel. The relatively low numbers of women in these activities (as in other
countries) suggests a high degree of sex segregation—i.e., “jobs for men.”
Besides industrial structure, this chapter noted other factors that likely shape
secondary sector female participation. These include the persistence of traditional social
norms that once encouraged women’s continued participation in farm labor even after
marriage and childbirth. Moreover, the lower incomes typical to non-PUIB areas also
encouraged women’s extended engagement in paid employment outside the home; whereas in PUIB prefectures wages tend to be higher (see Appendix B), resulting in a higher presence of households with “professional housewives”— again, women who remain outside the labor force for long periods or indefinitely.
Chapter 5 also revealed some of the specific spatial impacts on female labor that resulted from changes in the Japanese economy, notably between 1970 and 2000; examples include the following. First of all, the Tohoku region in the 1970-85 period experienced strong LQ gains, along with substantial employment growth. This was influenced by early 1970s legislation aimed at facilitating decentralization in electrical machinery and other manufacturing industries away from the Pacific Urban-Industrial Belt.
Such firms were also attracted to the existing pools of female (and male) labor, including those from farming households that in postwar Japan increasingly could not survive from agriculture alone (McDonald 1996; 1998).
95 Second, it was interesting to note how the maps in Section 5.1 clearly reflected the effects on women of the prolonged economic recession that began in the early 1990s.
Reflecting increasing offshore production, employee downsizing, and other restructuring strategies, the spatial pattern of secondary employment in 2000 included location quotient losses in several prefectures throughout Japan. In a significant number of these, moreover, decreasing shares coincided with declining numbers of women employees, indicating that they were disproportionately affected by restructuring. This was perhaps unsurprising given that a significant portion of women in manufacturing were employed under non- regular contracts, notably in paato jobs. It was likely that firms were engaged in shedding
“excess” paato workers while attempting to preserve largely male core labor forces.
Finally, analysis in Chapter 5 showed not only how expansion in automobile production was spatially localized in areas such as Tochigi Prefecture, but also revealed the exclusion of women there in this key slower growth era industry. Data in Section 5.2 indicated considerable growth in male employment after 1970 in Tochigi, while female participation remained low by comparison. Corporate hiring practices biased in favor of men have possibly played a role, notably with respect to full time regular employment on production lines characterized by high learning curve just-in-time production techniques.
Another factor is legislation that restricted women’s nighttime working hours, at least until its repeal in recent years.
The next chapter continues the task of establishing the extent to which women’s labor force experiences vary by prefecture. This time, however, focus includes that on the tertiary sector—a worthy object of research given its increased importance in the Japanese economy in recent years.
96
CHAPTER 6
THE CHANGING SPATIAL DISTRIBUTION OF FEMALE LABOR IN THE
TERTIARY SECTOR: 1970-2000
As with Chapter 5, the object of this chapter is to establish the extent to which females’ labor force conditions vary sub-nationally in Japan; this time, however, focus is
on the tertiary sector. This is a worthy research topic in light of the increasingly centrality
of this part of the economy since the early 1970s—with growth in lower order services
throughout Japan, including retail, supermarket, and convenience store chains; and in producer services notably in the Tokyo Core and other large urban areas. Coinciding with
this expansion, moreover, has been a significant shift of women into this part of the
economy, with 70% of the female labor force in tertiary sector employment by 2000.
Chapter 6 is organized as follows. First, Section 6.1 focuses on the overall tertiary
sector through use of location quotients and map display by prefecture for 1970, 1985, and
2000. However, the results (as will be shown) indicate relatively little spatial variation.
Accordingly, Section 6.2 maintains focus on sub-national variation but turns away
from analysis of broad economic sectors. For 2002, available Japanese Employment
Status Survey data by occupation and by paato and temporary types of nonstandard
employment provide an alternative perspective on the Japanese female labor force. 97 Analysis is in three parts. First, location quotients are calculated and mapped for several occupational groups commonly used in Japanese statistics (roughly equivalent to US
Standard Occupational Codes). These groups are comprised primarily of tertiary sector occupations (Section 6.2.1). This expands Section 6.1 in that the tertiary sector labor force is examined in greater detail. Second, data by prefecture on women in engineering/technical and managerial occupations are examined as an indicator of female advancement in the labor force (Section 6.2.2). Third, to illuminate spatial distribution of non-standard employment, Section 6.2.3 analyzes the female labor force in paato- and temporary-type jobs.
Supplementary demographic, social, and economic data for recent years from the
Social Indicators by Prefecture (Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications 2006) in
Appendix B contribute to analysis.
6.1 Tertiary sector location quotient analysis
Location quotients are calculated in the same manner is in Chapter 5 (see Section
5.1). Again, the years are 1970, 1985, and 2000, with data from the Japanese Population
Census (1970; 1985; 2000).
The results indicate that female shares for all years were much less varied than those in the secondary sector (Table 5.1: Figure 6.1). The majority of prefectures had
LQ values of between 0.85 and 1.2, indicating a close correspondence between the ratio of female to male employees in a given prefecture, and what would be expected at the national level. Such results perhaps come as no surprise, as a large segment of the
98 % % Chg. Chg. Fem. Fem. Fem. LQ Fem. Fem. LQ Emp LQ Emp LQ Emp Chg. Emp LQ Emp Chg. Region/Core Prefecture 1970 1970 1985 1985 70-85 70-85 2000 2000 85-00 85-00 Hokkaido 1 Hokkaido 367 0.98 562 1.00 0.53 0.02 751 0.99 0.34 -0.01 Tohoku 2 Aomori 78 1.02 125 1.01 0.6 -0.01 175 1.04 0.40 0.03 3 Iwate 74 1.11 115 1.04 0.55 -0.07 167 1.06 0.45 0.02 4 Miyagi 111 0.98 187 0.92 0.69 -0.06 290 0.95 0.55 0.03 5 Akita 66 1.09 98 1.03 0.48 -0.07 137 1.06 0.40 0.03 6 Yamagata 66 1.06 95 1.01 0.44 -0.05 138 1.05 0.45 0.04 7 Fukushima 97 1.07 151 1.00 0.56 -0.07 230 1.05 0.53 0.05 Kanto 8 Ibaraki 87 0.9 187 0.89 1.15 -0.01 324 0.95 0.73 0.06 9 Tochigi 77 1.00 141 1.02 0.84 0.02 230 1.04 0.63 0.02 10 Gumma 84 1.02 143 1.01 0.71 0.00 231 1.05 0.61 0.04 (Tokyo Core 11 Saitama 198 0.81 477 0.88 1.41 0.06 846 0.88 0.77 0.01 in bold) 12 Chiba 187 0.86 462 0.89 1.46 0.03 770 0.88 0.67 -0.01 13 Tokyo 956 0.92 1338 0.93 0.4 0.00 1712 0.89 0.28 -0.03 14 Kanagawa 342 0.88 674 0.89 0.97 0.01 1108 0.87 0.64 -0.02 Chubu 15 Niigata 138 1.12 207 1.06 0.49 -0.06 297 1.08 0.44 0.03 16 Toyama 60 1.15 102 1.24 0.7 0.09 144 1.21 0.41 -0.03 17 Ishikawa 67 1.14 116 1.16 0.73 0.02 160 1.11 0.38 -0.05 18 Fukui 41 1.05 71 1.12 0.73 0.07 102 1.11 0.44 -0.01 19 Yamanashi 38 0.99 62 0.97 0.64 -0.02 100 1.02 0.62 0.04 20 Nagano 104 0.98 163 0.99 0.56 0.00 256 1.05 0.57 0.06 21 Gifu 88 0.97 154 0.99 0.74 0.02 248 1.07 0.61 0.07 (Nagoya Core 22 Shizuoka 185 1.07 306 1.11 0.65 0.04 454 1.10 0.48 -0.01 in bold) 23 Aichi 309 0.93 551 1.01 0.78 0.08 856 1.02 0.55 0.01 Kinki 24 Mie 83 1.11 144 1.14 0.73 0.02 222 1.16 0.54 0.03 25 Shiga 43 0.93 87 0.97 1 0.03 152 1.05 0.74 0.08 26 Kyoto 151 0.92 233 0.95 0.55 0.03 329 0.99 0.41 0.04 (Osaka Core 27 Osaka 483 0.90 777 0.96 0.61 0.06 1057 0.97 0.36 0.01 in bold) 28 Hyogo 288 0.99 459 1.01 0.6 0.02 668 1.02 0.45 0.01 29 Nara 48 0.84 98 0.81 1.05 -0.03 160 0.88 0.65 0.07 30 Wakayama 59 1.08 87 1.07 0.49 -0.01 118 1.05 0.36 -0.03 Chugoku 31 Tottori 41 1.20 55 1.05 0.36 -0.15 77 1.07 0.40 0.02 32 Shimane 49 1.19 70 1.10 0.42 -0.09 98 1.11 0.40 0.01 33 Okayama 102 1.16 164 1.13 0.61 -0.03 239 1.15 0.46 0.02 34 Hiroshima 165 1.12 263 1.09 0.59 -0.02 378 1.08 0.44 -0.01 35 Yamaguchi 106 1.32 156 1.29 0.47 -0.02 202 1.26 0.29 -0.03 Shikoku 36 Tokushima 42 1.13 67 1.14 0.6 0.01 96 1.15 0.43 0.02 37 Kagawa 60 1.17 92 1.11 0.53 -0.06 132 1.10 0.43 -0.01 38 Ehime 81 1.22 126 1.16 0.55 -0.06 177 1.15 0.41 -0.01 39 Kochi 60 1.47 87 1.38 0.45 -0.10 111 1.27 0.28 -0.10 Kyushu 40 Fukuoka 309 1.21 474 1.13 0.53 -0.07 675 1.10 0.42 -0.04 41 Saga 50 1.19 77 1.18 0.55 -0.01 111 1.19 0.44 0.00 42 Nagasaki 99 1.22 143 1.16 0.45 -0.06 197 1.15 0.37 -0.01 43 Kumamoto 106 1.22 165 1.19 0.56 -0.03 238 1.18 0.44 -0.01 44 Oita 74 1.17 113 1.16 0.54 -0.01 156 1.18 0.38 0.02 45 Miyazaki 67 1.22 104 1.16 0.57 -0.06 148 1.18 0.42 0.01 46 Kagoshima 89 1.07 143 1.05 0.62 -0.02 218 1.12 0.52 0.07
Table 6.1: Tertiary sector female employment and location quotients: 1970, 1985 and 2000 (Source: Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications 1970; 1985b; 2000b)
99
Figure 6.1: Women’s concentration in the tertiary sector: 1970, 1985, and 2000 location quotients (Source: Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications 1970; 1985b; 2000b)
100 tertiary sector in Japan, as elsewhere, is comprised of wholesale/retail trade, food and beverage- related and other activities that are market-oriented in nature. Workers are distributed according to the demand for these services (Kodras and Padavic 1993).
In 1970, women were underrepresented only in Saitama (Tokyo Core) and Nara prefectures (Table 6.1). High shares existed in a handful of prefectures in the Shikoku
and Kyushu regions of southwestern Japan. By 2000, Figure 6.1 indicates that what little tertiary sector spatial variation existed decreased further, as all but three prefectures—
Toyama, Yamaguchi, and Kochi—had average female-to-male concentrations.
Turning to the case of Kochi, this prefecture had the highest 2000 LQ value (1.27) among all prefectures. Data from Appendix B indicate several factors that explain this finding. For instance, low male wages compared to in other prefectures, together with a high average number of persons per household, suggest that many women have to work outside the house: the stay-at-home professional housewife arrangement, more common to PUIB areas, is not an option. In addition, relatively little opportunity exists in manufacturing—as indicated by Kochi having the lowest % of the labor force (out of all prefectures) in the secondary sector. Thus, jobs for women are mostly in the tertiary sector, as Kochi ranks among the highest % among all prefectures of establishments in the tertiary sector. It is likely, however, that many, if not most jobs for women are low- waged and low benefit, in retail and lower order services: Kochi Prefecture has a high % number per 10,000 persons regarding large retail stores, and—interestingly enough— barbershops and beauty salons (see Appendix B). This prefecture also lacks large metropolitan areas that normally attract higher order services.
101
Analysis now turns to whether greater spatial variation can be identified through examining finer-level categories in the tertiary sector (clerical, sales, education, etc.).
6.2 Spatial distribution of female labor force by occupation, and by paato and temporary non-standard employment type
Using readily-available data from the 2002 Japanese Employment Status Survey,
Section 6.2 provides an alternative perspective on the gendered division of labor in Japan.
Departing from prior attention on broad economic sectors, this section instead examines female labor by occupation, and by paato and temporary types of non-standard employment. Location quotients are calculated in the same manner as previously, and analysis is in three parts (Sections 6.2.1-3), outlined as follows.
Section 6.2.1 complements the analysis in 6.1, which yielded little spatial variation at the level of the overall tertiary economic sector. Focus in this section is on several primarily tertiary sector occupational groups defined in the Japan Standard Occupational
Classification (Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications 2000a): public health and medical; education; clerical; sales; and food and beverage preparation (i.e., cooks and bartenders). These groups were chosen on the basis of significant female participation in them with respect to high employment numbers and/or high concentration indexes (see analysis in Chapter 3). The next section, 6.2.2, examines female employment by prefecture in engineering/technical (engineers, computer processing technicians, and researchers) and managers/officials (company directors and managers, government officials) occupational groups separately. The extent to which women have made inroads
102 into such occupations is taken as an indicator of female advancement in the labor force.
(While this chapter is concerned with the tertiary sector, it should be noted, however, that these types of jobs are not confined to tertiary sector occupations; female computer programmers and corporate managers, for instance, are also present in the secondary sector.)
Discussion in Chapter 3 explained how the numbers of females in Japan working under nonstandard-type job contracts have increased in recent decades. While this issue has accordingly received some research attention, little is known about its geographic dimensions. As such, the final section (6.2.3) focuses on females shares (LQs) by prefecture in nonstandard employment, notably in paato and temporary-type jobs.21 (As a reminder, with paato jobs working hours can approach full-time despite its label of “part- time”; and a major subset of temporary employment is the case of workers dispatched from
Manpower or similar agencies.)
Results for all analysis in Section 6.2 are presented below in Tables 6.2-5 and
Figures 6.2-4.
6.2.1 Female employment in selected tertiary sector occupational groups
Tables 6.2-4 and Figures 6.2-3 indicate that in the public health/medical, education, and clerical occupational groups a majority of prefectures had average female shares.
Such results are perhaps to be expected, as to a large extent the demand for nurses and other health care practitioners, school teachers, clerical workers, etc., can be assumed to exist
21 Again, many of these jobs are also found in the secondary sector.
103
Public health and medical Education Clerical Region Prefecture Female Male LQ Female Male LQ Female Male LQ Hokkaido 1 Hokkaido 104,700 31,400 1.15 32,400 46,100 0.76 294,700 205,600 0.90 Tohoku 2 Aomori 22,100 6,000 1.27 8,700 8,400 1.12 68,300 44,300 0.97 3 Iwate 22,500 7,800 0.99 8,600 9,700 0.96 71,700 44,600 1.01 4 Miyagi 32,200 11,500 0.96 13,400 19,900 0.73 139,600 81,900 1.07 5 Akita 17,700 4,800 1.27 6,100 5,700 1.16 55,500 36,600 0.95 6 Yamagata 16,400 5,300 1.06 7,500 7,700 1.05 68,200 36,900 1.16 7 Fukushima 34,800 10,900 1.10 12,700 13,100 1.05 107,600 74,100 0.91 Kanto 8 Ibaraki 36,500 13,100 0.96 19,700 23,700 0.90 176,300 109,200 1.01 9 Tochigi 25,700 10,200 0.87 10,800 11,000 1.06 108,600 73,000 0.93 10 Gumma 27,000 10,400 0.89 10,600 10,400 1.10 117,000 71,500 1.03 Tokyo 11 Saitama 90,100 29,000 1.07 35,600 44,400 0.87 454,400 331,800 0.86 Core 12 Chiba 75,200 25,600 1.01 33,800 32,700 1.12 397,900 310,400 0.80 13 Tokyo 152,000 72,700 0.72 58,100 59,800 1.05 981,800 623,900 0.99 14 Kanagawa 115,400 35,900 1.10 45,900 41,700 1.19 551,300 414,100 0.84 Chubu 15 Niigata 33,000 10,700 1.06 12,700 13,300 1.03 141,800 83,800 1.06 16 Toyama 17,200 6,600 0.90 7,000 5,900 1.28 70,600 38,000 1.17 17 Ishikawa 22,400 6,400 1.20 6,800 6,900 1.07 79,600 38,400 1.30 18 Fukui 13,100 4,100 1.10 6,300 5,200 1.31 55,900 28,100 1.25 19 Yamanashi 12,900 4,500 0.99 5,500 6,400 0.93 53,300 31,400 1.06 20 Nagano 34,500 12,500 0.95 9,000 11,900 0.82 127,200 87,300 0.91 21 Gifu 28,800 11,500 0.86 10,000 13,300 0.81 130,400 70,900 1.15 Nagoya 22 Shizuoka 49,900 18,000 0.95 19,500 20,800 1.01 237,700 126,000 1.18 Core 23 Aichi 104,700 28,300 1.27 36,800 44,100 0.90 448,400 257,400 1.09 Kinki 24 Mie 27,500 8,100 1.17 13,200 11,200 1.27 105,300 67,200 0.98 25 Shiga 18,100 6,200 1.00 8,800 9,500 1.00 79,900 52,800 0.95 26 Kyoto 42,400 15,100 0.96 14,500 18,200 0.86 155,400 85,500 1.14 Osaka 27 Osaka 138,800 53,500 0.89 36,300 34,900 1.13 570,400 334,300 1.07 Core 28 Hyogo 81,500 27,200 1.03 33,000 33,300 1.07 327,600 216,200 0.95 29 Nara 20,200 9,700 0.72 9,600 11,400 0.91 82,900 66,800 0.78 30 Wakayama 17,200 6,600 0.90 7,600 6,600 1.25 54,000 35,100 0.96 Chugoku 31 Tottori 10,200 3,300 1.06 3,100 4,000 0.84 35,500 21,500 1.04 32 Shimane 14,400 3,800 1.30 4,500 5,300 0.92 42,600 23,700 1.13 33 Okayama 35,900 12,200 1.01 12,800 13,300 1.04 108,800 66,200 1.03 34 Hiroshima 49,500 13,700 1.24 17,600 18,800 1.01 175,200 106,900 1.03 35 Yamaguchi 28,900 8,500 1.17 9,400 8,400 1.21 85,100 45,300 1.18 Shikoku 36 Tokushima 15,400 5,100 1.04 6,500 6,100 1.15 43,500 23,700 1.15 37 Kagawa 17,400 7,000 0.85 7,400 7,100 1.13 64,200 35,400 1.14 38 Ehime 28,300 11,000 0.88 8,400 8,800 1.03 80,200 45,000 1.12 39 Kochi 17,100 5,400 1.09 6,900 5,600 1.33 47,400 22,700 1.31 Kyushu 40 Fukuoka 88,600 30,100 1.01 26,400 28,400 1.01 321,900 155,200 1.30 41 Saga 19,700 6,500 1.04 5,100 5,900 0.94 49,000 28,700 1.07 42 Nagasaki 28,600 10,400 0.95 8,900 10,100 0.95 75,700 38,600 1.23 43 Kumamoto 37,700 10,400 1.25 10,100 13,300 0.82 102,100 51,500 1.24 44 Oita 23,500 6,200 1.30 7,400 7,000 1.14 63,400 38,800 1.02 45 Miyazaki 21,200 6,100 1.19 7,000 7,300 1.04 64,600 34,500 1.17 46 Kagoshima 33,100 11,000 1.03 12,000 14,100 0.92 92,600 55,600 1.04 Total (1000s) 1,900 654 694 751 7,765 4,870
Table 6.2: Location quotients and female/male employment in selected tertiary sector occupational groups: 2002 (A) (Source: Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications 2002c) 104
Figure 6.2: Women’s concentration in selected occupational categories: 2002 location quotients (Source: Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications 2002c).
105
Food and beverage Sales preparation Region Prefecture Female Male LQ Female Male LQ Hokkaido 1 Hokkaido 167,300 233,700 1.19 53,800 35,500 1.26 Tohoku 2 Aomori 40,900 51,100 1.33 13,900 6,700 1.73 3 Iwate 36,500 48,200 1.26 14,600 7,800 1.56 4 Miyagi 69,900 114,200 1.02 19,300 16,400 0.98 5 Akita 28,700 42,000 1.14 12,000 7,900 1.27 6 Yamagata 30,800 44,500 1.15 9,600 6,300 1.27 7 Fukushima 51,500 70,100 1.22 18,600 13,000 1.19 Kanto 8 Ibaraki 74,600 102,600 1.21 26,000 17,300 1.25 9 Tochigi 53,800 77,000 1.16 16,800 14,100 0.99 10 Gunma 45,600 78,000 0.97 18,100 15,200 0.99 Tokyo 11 Saitama 199,100 376,800 0.88 57,100 62,800 0.76 Core 12 Chiba 166,400 320,000 0.86 54,300 48,100 0.94 13 Tokyo 365,400 731,300 0.83 98,000 130,400 0.63 14 Kanagawa 246,900 453,900 0.90 68,900 67,000 0.86 Chubu 15 Niigata 66,600 98,800 1.12 24,000 16,200 1.23 16 Toyama 32,400 45,400 1.19 11,800 4,700 2.09 17 Ishikawa 36,300 52,200 1.16 11,900 8,700 1.14 18 Fukui 21,300 29,900 1.18 9,000 5,300 1.41 19 Yamanashi 21,800 32,600 1.11 8,800 8,300 0.88 20 Nagano 55,400 91,100 1.01 27,100 18,000 1.25 21 Gifu 56,500 88,600 1.06 19,400 15,200 1.06 Nagoya 22 Shizuoka 106,400 149,900 1.18 40,200 31,700 1.06 Core 23 Aichi 190,200 341,000 0.93 60,300 56,600 0.89 Kinki 24 Mie 55,100 62,700 1.46 15,700 12,200 1.07 25 Shiga 33,100 56,200 0.98 10,100 8,500 0.99 26 Kyoto 76,800 127,700 1.00 25,400 22,700 0.93 Osaka 27 Osaka 261,400 495,400 0.88 63,800 80,300 0.66 Core 28 Hyogo 137,200 243,500 0.94 48,800 40,400 1.01 29 Nara 35,900 69,800 0.85 9,100 7,900 0.96 30 Wakayama 31,000 42,300 1.22 9,100 5,900 1.29 Chugoku 31 Tottori 16,900 22,800 1.23 4,700 2,600 1.51 32 Shimane 19,700 27,200 1.20 8,000 5,100 1.31 33 Okayama 51,200 77,400 1.10 18,300 10,300 1.48 34 Hiroshima 80,400 127,700 1.05 30,500 13,500 1.88 35 Yamaguchi 44,200 56,600 1.30 19,100 6,900 2.31 Shikoku 36 Tokushima 21,000 28,100 1.24 8,300 5,100 1.36 37 Kagawa 25,700 43,100 0.99 8,900 6,300 1.18 38 Ehime 40,800 61,700 1.10 14,500 8,700 1.39 39 Kochi 22,600 30,800 1.22 9,800 5,000 1.63 Kyushu 40 Fukuoka 149,000 262,400 0.94 45,600 36,500 1.04 41 Saga 24,300 30,700 1.31 7,900 4,300 1.53 42 Nagasaki 43,100 53,800 1.33 14,300 8,900 1.34 43 Kumamoto 48,700 68,700 1.18 20,800 11,900 1.46 44 Oita 32,600 43,100 1.26 14,200 7,100 1.67 45 Miyazaki 32,400 39,400 1.37 11,400 6,700 1.42 46 Kagoshima 45,700 58,000 1.31 16,800 10,400 1.35 Total (1000s) 3,493 5,802 1,129 940
Table 6.3: Location quotients and female/male employment in selected tertiary sector occupational groups: 2002 (B) (Source: Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications 2002c)
106
Engineering/technical Managers and officials Region Prefecture Female Male LQ Female Male LQ Hokkaido 1 Hokkaido 3,700 61,300 0.67 10,500 85,300 0.99 Tohoku 2 Aomori 800 13,800 0.65 3,100 17,300 1.44 3 Iwate 600 15,000 0.45 1,700 18,200 0.75 4 Miyagi 3,300 36,400 1.01 3,400 34,300 0.80 5 Akita 400 11,200 0.40 2,100 17,600 0.96 6 Yamagata 1,400 13,800 1.13 2,500 16,800 1.20 7 Fukushima 1,700 22,700 0.83 3,700 29,100 1.02 Kanto 8 Ibaraki 3,500 56,800 0.69 3,600 35,500 0.82 9 Tochigi 2,000 31,700 0.70 2,900 25,400 0.92 10 Gumma 1,400 33,200 0.47 3,700 27,500 1.08 Tokyo 11 Saitama 16,500 146,500 1.25 8,600 93,200 0.74 Core 12 Chiba 11,600 140,000 0.92 7,100 83,000 0.69 13 Tokyo 47,300 329,900 1.60 40,600 236,500 1.38 14 Kanagawa 26,400 309,600 0.95 15,500 140,400 0.89 Chubu 15 Niigata 1,100 30,300 0.40 2,600 37,300 0.56 16 Toyama 2,500 18,500 1.50 1,500 15,600 0.77 17 Ishikawa 1,900 17,000 1.24 1,300 17,000 0.62 18 Fukui 1,000 10,400 1.07 1,100 14,500 0.61 19 Yamanashi 1,500 13,800 1.21 1,300 13,100 0.80 20 Nagano 3,600 35,300 1.13 3,500 31,300 0.90 21 Gifu 1,900 29,600 0.71 2,600 28,200 0.74 Nagoya 22 Shizuoka 4,600 65,800 0.78 3,900 50,600 0.62 Core 23 Aichi 9,900 153,300 0.72 10,000 95,700 0.84 Kinki 24 Mie 1,500 24,100 0.69 2,900 23,600 0.99 25 Shiga 1,700 24,800 0.76 1,900 17,400 0.88 26 Kyoto 3,800 39,800 1.06 5,500 38,100 1.16 Osaka 27 Osaka 13,600 133,300 1.14 18,500 119,800 1.24 Core 28 Hyogo 7,100 95,600 0.83 10,300 72,600 1.14 29 Nara 2,800 24,500 1.27 2,200 22,900 0.77 30 Wakayama 600 11,400 0.59 1,900 13,300 1.15 Chugoku 31 Tottori 200 7,000 0.32 1,500 9,800 1.23 32 Shimane 500 9,500 0.59 1,500 11,100 1.09 33 Okayama 1,800 22,700 0.88 3,700 25,100 1.19 34 Hiroshima 4,000 48,400 0.92 5,200 40,800 1.03 35 Yamaguchi 1,000 17,100 0.65 2,800 20,900 1.08 Shikoku 36 Tokushima 900 8,800 1.14 2,200 11,800 1.50 37 Kagawa 300 11,600 0.29 2,100 13,800 1.22 38 Ehime 1,500 16,300 1.02 2,700 19,100 1.14 39 Kochi 400 7,800 0.57 1,600 10,800 1.19 Kyushu 40 Fukuoka 7,200 71,700 1.12 8,500 66,100 1.03 41 Saga 200 7,100 0.31 1,000 10,000 0.80 42 Nagasaki 600 14,700 0.45 2,400 17,000 1.14 43 Kumamoto 1,600 20,100 0.89 2,600 23,800 0.88 44 Oita 1,000 12,700 0.88 1,700 14,600 0.94 45 Miyazaki 600 12,300 0.54 1,400 16,700 0.67 46 Kagoshima 900 15,300 0.65 3,300 21,300 1.25 Total (1000s) 202 2,253 224 1,804
Table 6.4: Location quotients and female/male employment in selected tertiary sector occupational groups: 2002 (C) (Source: Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications 2002c).
107
Figure 6.3: Women’s concentration in selected occupational categories: 2002 location quotients (A) (Source: Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications 2002c).
108 throughout Japan.
That being noted, there were instances of prefectures in which females were overrepresented—and in some of these Appendix B data illuminate contributing factors.
Regarding public health and medical occupations, for instance, it should first be noted that a major subset of this category is nursing, with the majority being comprised of women
(see Sakato 1998)—as has been the case historically in other countries. Many females in nursing and related occupations, moreover, are employed in care-giving roles working with the elderly, of which the proportion of the total population in Japan is high relative to elsewhere, and only expected to increase in the future; this is known as the koreika, or
“graying phenomenon.” The findings in this section add another, spatial dimension to this issue: female shares in public health/medical jobs tended to be high in prefectures that had the largest % of the population over 65. Shimane and Akita prefectures ranked #1 and #2, respectively, in this category (see Appendix B). Thus, it is possible that koreika has created a demand for elderly care nurses and other public health/medical jobs for women in Shimane and Akita, and this fact is combined with the lack of job opportunities elsewhere (such as in higher-paid professional or technical, manufacturing, etc.).
The spatial patterns of sales, and food/beverage occupations had several instances of non-PUIB prefectures with high female shares, including in the Chugoku, Shikoku and
Kyushu regions of southwestern Japan (with high LQs in a majority of prefectures in food/beverages, and in many in the sales category: see Figure 6.3). As was the case in
Kochi (one of the prefectures in these regions) these areas are among the least economically developed in Japan if measured by levels of secondary sector industrialization, higher order tertiary sector activities, etc. Such conditions, of course,
109 have implications for women employees, again with job opportunities largely confined to low-waged and low-benefit—hence the high female shares in what jobs are available,
including in tertiary sector sales (with a major subset being shop salespersons and store clerks) and food/beverages (i.e., cooks, bartenders). The fact, moreover, that manufacturing jobs are few relative to other areas in Japan further limits choice. The case
could be made that jobs in manufacturing, despite being far from having ideal work environments, are better—at least in terms of wages.
6.2.2 Female employment by prefecture in engineering/technical and managers/officials
occupational categories
Table 6.4 and Figure 6.3 show that in both of these categories low female shares
were found in numerous prefectures throughout Japan (especially in engineering/technical
occupations) while women were over-represented in fewer instances. Of particular interest
were the high LQ values, relative to other regions, in Tokyo Prefecture for both categories:
1.60 for engineering/technical, and 1.38 for managers/officials. Factors responsible for these high shares in Tokyo included the following.
Fujita (1991a) explains how the rise of flexible specialization in the post high
growth (1971-1991) era included fruition of an extensive networking system in and across industries through greater application of information and computer software. Information
and software industries played an increasingly important role in information gathering on markets and new products, and in high value-added production. Moreover, these
110 industries were disproportionately-based in Tokyo Prefecture (corresponding to the city of
Tokyo), coinciding with its rise as a world city, or global command center.
Particularly in the 1980s, due to high labor demand these industries in many instances turned to women with certain technical skills and education as a source of employment (Fujita 1991a). Thus, this suggests that restructuring in recent decades, at least for some Japanese women, has resulted in employment opportunities other than low waged, low benefit, and non-career track. Largely ignored in existing research on female workers, however, are the geographic dimensions of engineering/technical employment (or other types for that matter). Fujita’s analysis (1991a) is an exception, illustrating that in the case of information and software industries Tokyo disproportionately held the most
“opportunity spaces” for women (see Kodras and Padavic 1993).
Likewise, the high female share for Tokyo Prefecture in the managers/officials category (Table 6.4) is also likely related to its world city status and corresponding high number of central management functions (Fujita and Tabuchi 1997)—see discussion in
Chapter 4. Industrial structure likely plays a role; for instance, across national contexts in recent years there have been increases of female managers in industries such as finance and banking industries, as well as in government (Wirth 2001). Some Japanese women have also sought employment alternatives in non-governmental organizations or foreign firms, where barriers to career advancement into high level positions may not be as great as otherwise (Wiseman 2005). Again, the degree to which such industries are disproportionately concentrated in Tokyo relative to other metropolitan areas and the rest of Japan is notable (Fujita and Tabuchi 1997).
111 6.2.3 Female employment by prefecture in nonstandard employment: paato and temporary occupations
Concerning female paato employment, most prefectures had either average or low shares (Figure 6.4). There were two prefectures, however, that had unusually high LQ values: Oita (1.93) and Miyazaki (1.84) (Table 6.5; Figure 6.4). These areas are located in
Kyushu, which, in recent years and despite general recessionary conditions nationally, has come to be known as “Silicon Island”—a global center of integrated circuit (IC) production, with around 300 plants manufacturing semiconductors and other types of electronics (Kyushu Bureau of Economy, Trade, and Industry 2004). While several factors likely contribute to high female shares in Oita and Miyazaki, it is possible that IC industries based there made disproportionate use of paato women workers, possibly from agrarian households. This possibly mirrors the rural industrialization and use of female labor that occurred in the Tohoku region, as explained in Section 5.1 of the last chapter.22
Concerning temporary employment, with a major subset of this category being
workers dispatched from Manpower-type agencies, what is notable from Table 6.5 is the extremely high LQ (2.18), relative to other areas, in Tokyo Prefecture. High shares also existed in other PUIB prefectures (Kanagawa with 1.22, Osaka with 1.23, etc.) but they are
“distant seconds” by comparison. Existing research on dispatched workers in Japan notes
that the majority are women, and growth in this type of non-regular employment has
grown significantly in recent years, though numbers are small relative to paato workers
22 Although it must be acknowledged that the size of the secondary sector in these prefectures is small compared to elsewhere in Japan: see Appendix B.
112 Paato Temp Region Prefecture Female Male LQ Female Male LQ Hokkaido 1 Hokkaido 364,000 25,900 1.23 11,600 5,800 0.79 Tohoku 2 Aomori 75,600 6,100 1.08 2,100 1,300 0.64 3 Iwate 71,900 5,800 1.08 2,700 1,200 0.89 4 Miyagi 122,900 10,800 0.99 8,900 4,300 0.82 5 Akita 55,400 6,400 0.75 2,400 1,500 0.63 6 Yamagata 54,000 5,500 0.86 2,600 2,100 0.49 7 Fukushima 102,100 9,500 0.94 6,000 4,400 0.54 Kanto 8 Ibaraki 185,000 13,300 1.21 10,100 5,300 0.75 9 Tochigi 124,200 11,000 0.98 6,600 6,500 0.40 10 Gumma 129,800 13,200 0.86 6,800 5,200 0.52 Tokyo 11 Saitama 455,400 39,300 1.01 34,400 11,300 1.20 Core 12 Chiba 373,900 28,800 1.13 34,800 11,400 1.20 13 Tokyo 590,800 54,800 0.94 106,800 19,300 2.18 14 Kanagawa 494,900 41,500 1.04 52,200 16,800 1.22 Chubu 15 Niigata 133,200 16,300 0.71 4,100 2,200 0.73 16 Toyama 56,700 6,200 0.80 3,100 2,200 0.56 17 Ishikawa 63,000 6,900 0.80 3,200 1,900 0.66 18 Fukui 40,800 4,500 0.79 1,800 1,000 0.71 19 Yamanashi 50,100 4,500 0.97 2,000 1,300 0.61 20 Nagano 130,200 13,300 0.85 5,600 3,700 0.60 21 Gifu 136,900 12,000 0.99 5,400 1,900 1.12 Nagoya 22 Shizuoka 242,000 27,100 0.78 15,400 9,200 0.66 Core 23 Aichi 458,800 45,700 0.88 33,200 13,000 1.01 Kinki 24 Mie 120,300 11,600 0.90 6,100 6,000 0.40 25 Shiga 85,200 6,600 1.13 6,700 4,800 0.55 26 Kyoto 145,000 11,800 1.07 10,400 2,500 1.64 Osaka 27 Osaka 476,800 40,300 1.03 46,300 14,800 1.23 Core 28 Hyogo 311,600 21,700 1.25 22,000 11,200 0.77 29 Nara 67,300 6,900 0.85 4,500 1,700 1.04 30 Wakayama 53,700 4,800 0.98 1,300 400 1.28 Chugoku 31 Tottori 27,600 2,400 1.00 1,100 800 0.54 32 Shimane 35,200 3,600 0.85 1,200 1,200 0.39 33 Okayama 97,500 9,200 0.92 5,000 3,000 0.66 34 Hiroshima 164,600 16,300 0.88 11,500 5,700 0.80 35 Yamaguchi 90,300 8,300 0.95 2,200 2,600 0.33 Shikoku 36 Tokushima 32,100 2,800 1.00 1,100 500 0.87 37 Kagawa 56,500 4,900 1.01 2,800 600 1.84 38 Ehime 80,000 6,000 1.16 3,500 1,100 1.25 39 Kochi 36,700 3,400 0.94 1,000 600 0.66 Kyushu 40 Fukuoka 285,500 22,000 1.13 11,700 4,200 1.10 41 Saga 47,200 3,400 1.21 1,200 1,100 0.43 42 Nagasaki 83,600 7,300 1.00 1,800 1,900 0.37 43 Kumamoto 99,100 7,400 1.17 4,000 2,900 0.54 44 Oita 70,800 3,200 1.93 2,200 1,000 0.87 45 Miyazaki 61,100 2,900 1.84 2,500 900 1.09 46 Kagoshima 98,500 7,100 1.21 2,900 600 1.90 (Total 1000s) 7,138 622 515 203
Table 6.5: Location quotients and female/male employment in paato and temporary forms of nonstandard employment: 2002 (Source: Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications 2002c).
113
Figure 6.4: Women’s concentration in paato and temporary forms of nonstandard employment: 2002 location quotients (B) (Source: Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications 2002c).
114 (Weathers 2001; 2002). These studies, however, like other research on female labor in
Japan, are couched at the national level and thus ignore possible (or likely) spatial variation. The high geographic concentration of temporary employment in Tokyo as revealed in Table 6.5 and Figure 6.4 relates (again) to this metropolitan area’s large and varied tertiary sector, and status as a global city—not to mention firms’ expanded use of nonstandard female labor.
6.3 Summary and interpretation
For the overall tertiary sector (Section 6.1), results for all years, 1970, 1985, and
2000 were much less varied than the case of the secondary sector. The majority of prefectures had average LQ values, indicating a close correspondence between the ratio of females to males in a given prefecture, and what would be expected at the national level. Such results were perhaps of little surprise, as a large segment of Japan’s tertiary sector is comprised of wholesale/retail trade, consumer services and other activities that are market oriented in nature: labor is distributed according to the demand for these services.
Section 6.2 extended analysis of the tertiary sector by first focusing in on health/medical, clerical, sales, and other primarily tertiary sector occupational groups.
Social Indicators by Prefecture data for 2000 (Appendix B) were helpful in explaining contributing factors to high location quotients that were found in a number of instances.
For example, high female shares in public health/medical occupations (with a major subset being nursing) in Shimane and Akita prefectures indicate the influence of
115 demographic factors—namely a high % of the population over 65 years. This, combined
with relative lack of employment opportunities for women elsewhere in the local
economy, is likely to have created high demand for female “care-givers” in nursing and
related jobs.
Data also indicate that prefectures in the Chugoku, Shikoku and Kyushu regions of
southwestern Japan were among the least economically-developed in Japan as measured by
low levels of secondary sector industrialization, low levels of higher order tertiary sector
activities, and so forth. This had implications for women employees, with job
opportunities largely confined to low-waged and low-benefit—with high female shares in what jobs were available, including in tertiary sector sales (a majority subset being shop salespersons and store clerks) and food/beverages (i.e., cooks, bartenders). The fact, moreover, that manufacturing jobs were few in these prefectures relative to elsewhere in
Japan further limited choice in the labor market.
In analyzing females in engineering/technical and managerial/officials occupations, of particular interest were the high shares in Tokyo Prefecture. With its vast and diversified tertiary sector, it was apparent that Tokyo had the most “opportunity spaces” for women in such work, including in computer programming, systems engineering, and related occupations. Likewise, Tokyo’s disproportionate concentration of command and control functions also created opportunities in management for at least some females.
These women found managerial positions in industries such as publishing, broadcasting,
and fashion, as well as in governmental and non-governmental organizations.
The final part of Section 6.2 examined females in the temporary and paato types of nonstandard labor. Temporary employment, a category of work largely comprised of
116 women, displayed an unusually high LQ in Tokyo Prefecture relative to the rest of Japan.
With paato employment, most prefectures had either average or low concentrations; exceptions included Oita and Miyazaki prefectures, which had unusually high shares. It is possible that the growth of semiconductor industries in these prefectures (and throughout the Kyushu region) in recent years contributed to these high concentrations, with firms, as was the case in the Tohoku region, making extensive use of females from agrarian households.
117
CHAPTER 7
SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS
This research began by providing an overview of major trends in the post-Second
World War Japanese economy, which serves as background for analyzing the issue of female labor and its spatial dimensions. The postwar economy was characterized in terms of three distinct periods: initial recovery, followed by high speed growth in the late 1950s and during the 1960s (1945-1971); crisis during the 1970s, after which growth was restored though at a slower rate than before (1971-1991); and prolonged recessionary
conditions throughout the 1990s (1991-2000).
During the first period, the US played a key economic role in refashioning Japan as
a Cold War bulkhead, while Japan-specific factors included a preexisting industrial labor
force, keiretsu industrial groupings, and active government intervention. High speed
growth coincided with a shift away from agriculture and light consumer goods to heavy
industries such as fabricated metals, petrochemicals, and electric and transport machinery.
During the second period (1971-1991), economic growth slowed due to oil shocks,
international geopolitical pressures, and other developments. In response, industry
implemented various restructuring strategies. These included increased employment
flexibility through the use of part-time and temporary workers in an attempt to preserve
118 core labor force segments, such as largely male, full time workers (i.e., those with
“lifetime employment”). Many of the key, energy-intensive heavy industries of the
previous period underwent downsizing, while others, notably automobiles and electronics,
experienced considerable growth. Growth in the latter two, together with large-scale expansion of the tertiary sector, compensated enough to produce higher overall growth than in other industrialized nations during this time.
While growth occurred in the 1980s, strong yen issues, continuing problems with protectionism, and the fragile basis of Japan’s bubble economy (characterized by rapid asset inflation and wild speculation in the stock market in land) contributed to the economic downturn of the 1990s. After collapse of the bubble economy, firms’ response was to accelerate restructuring strategies, such as exporting production off-shore, resulting in employment decline, and increasing employment flexibility/adjustment. The extent and severity of restructuring was evidenced by extreme employment layoffs, uncharacteristic of previous eras.
While the main objective of Chapter 2 was to provide historical background, the concluding section (2.3) drew brief cross national comparisons with the US concerning broad economic transitions. Hence, the Fordist to post-Fordist transition, argued to have occurred in Western contexts from the 1970s, only applies somewhat to Japan. Noted similarities included both countries experiencing a postwar high growth period, crisis in the late 1960s/early 1970s, and a subsequent slower growth era characterized by massive restructuring. There were also substantial differences, however, such as the fact that during the 1950s and 60s federal government economic intervention played a larger role in
Japan in facilitating industrial growth; while the success of the US was due in significant
119 part to Keynesian macroeconomic policies. Regarding the issue of increased employment flexibility in the 1970s and beyond, while both countries were engaged in this, the
Japanese placed more emphasis on retaining core workers, at least until the recessionary
1990s.
The purpose of Chapter 3 was to explain how the trajectory of growth in the postwar economy resulted in a pattern of female labor force participation specific to Japan.
Focusing on national-level trends, Chapter 3 first discussed different forms of labor in which women have engaged historically, including family enterprise work and self- employment. The postwar era, however, witnessed a substantial increase of females in paid employment outside the home in expanding secondary and tertiary sector industries.
A key development after 1970 was the expansion in the numbers and importance of nonstandard forms of employment, including paato and temporary.23 Females comprised a disproportionate share of workers in these types of jobs, many of which were in the tertiary sector. Other women worked in manufacturing, where in certain instances they were used as a numerically-flexible buffer, adjusted upwards or downwards in response to boom and bust cycles.
Understanding female labor in Japan also involves recognition of the M-shape pattern of female labor force participation. The first peak of the “M” is characterized by younger, unmarried women employed full-time, but usually not under lifetime employment-type conditions. At the second peak, working conditions shift, with available
23 While paato is a literal translation of part-time, the nature of such employment differs in several ways from the North American context. For example, paato status does not necessarily mean fewer working hours than being employed full-time. Temporary refers to workers hired for a short duration, usually less than one year; many are employed through a temporary help agency and dispatched to an organization(s).
120 jobs for these largely married, middle-aged mothers tending to be in smaller firms, and with paato-type employment contracts. The M-shape pattern is strong in the Japanese context but absent in other industrial economies such as Germany, France, and the US.
This is because unique to the former are strong social norms encouraging women to leave the labor force for extended periods to focus primarily on childrearing.
Chapter 3 then used concentration indexes (CI) to analyze female labor by industrial group within the primary, secondary, and tertiary sectors, and by occupational groups. The following trends were revealed. First, while nearly one fourth of the female labor force in 1970 was in the primary sector, especially agriculture, this percentage declined rapidly in subsequent years. In the secondary sector, another quarter of the female labor force was in manufacturing alone in 1970, but with an average CI. Between
1970 and 1985, this CI showed a modest increase, suggesting greater use of female paato employees. In the 1985 to 2000 period, however, CI declined considerably, possibly due to firms in the recessionary 1990s shedding women workers, while attempting to preserve core (usually male) labor segments.
Finally, nearly half of the female labor force in 1970 was in the tertiary sector, notably in wholesale and retail trade, eating and drinking establishments, clerical employment, and services. CI values were high in all these industrial groups, indicating tertiary sector expansion that increasingly incorporated females, though for the most part in “jobs for women”—filing clerks, retail store workers, waitresses, and so forth. Over time, there was continued movement of women into this sector, reaching 70% of the female labor force by 2000, and accompanied by further feminization (i.e., rising CI
121 values). Of particular note were the dramatic female percent labor force and CI increases that occurred in clerical and service-type jobs.
Chapter 3 concluded with cross-national comparisons between female labor force conditions in Japan, the US, and selected Western European countries. Points included the reality of paato employment in the Japanese context often differing than the term “part- time” implies, including working hours that often approximate full-time. Another point concerns managerial employment. Despite such positions opening up in recent decades for at least some women—taken as an indicator of female advancement in the labor force overall—the movement of females into these careers has proceeded at a much lower rate than in the US or other industrial economies.
As a prelude to discussing spatial aspects of female labor, Chapter 4 provided an overview of Japan’s changing economic geography in the postwar period. A major geographic expression of the high speed growth era was the Pacific Urban-Industrial Belt
(PUIB). This region, which contains the Tokyo, Nagoya, and Osaka cores, and adjacent prefectures, had a disproportionate share of heavy industry.
With the restructuring that occurred from the early 1970s, there also were significant spatial shifts within the PUIB. The Osaka Core, in particular, had difficulty coping and underwent secondary sector employment decline. In contrast, the Nagoya Core remained vibrant with its high concentration of automobile production, a key post-high growth era sector. Outlying areas of the Tokyo Core (e.g., Saitama and Chiba) experienced substantial growth in industries such as electronics. While the overall national share of secondary sector employment in the PUIB showed some decline after 1970, with
122 spatial shifts of production elsewhere, this region remained Japan’s dominant industrial region in 2000.
The economic geography of Japan during the high growth era (1945-1971) also included smaller centers of production outside the PUIB. Spatial shifts after the early
1970s included secondary sector decline in several of these areas, often dominated by a single or handful of heavy industries; and substantial growth in several rural prefectures that previously had little industry, facilitated by federal legislation.
Finally, despite the ubiquitous nature of services, disproportionate tertiary sector growth occurred in the Tokyo Core in the post-1970 era. Tokyo’s increased integration into the global economy as a world city, or command and control center, has led some researchers to assert the emergence of the Tokyo Mono-polar System. Factors in support of this claim include its share of central management functions being disproportionately larger than Osaka and other urban areas.
Turning to spatial aspects of female labor, Chapter 5 addressed this issue for the secondary sector. Findings confirmed that the form and extent of female labor in the secondary sector varied considerably—as elsewhere—depending on the mix of factors in a particular place. Spatial patterns included a tendency for low female employment shares
(LQs) for all years (1970, 1985, and 2000) in the Pacific Urban-Industrial Belt (PUIB) prefectures, but high shares in prefectures well outside the PUIB.
Analysis also focused on factors unique to the Japanese context that influenced sub-national variation in the secondary sector. Important in a given region or prefecture was the presence of particular manufacturing industries. Examples are as follows.
123 First, high LQ values in certain non-PUIB prefectures were shaped by apparel/textiles industries firms. These have long been major employers of women, with
female dominance shaped by their long history, dating back to the late 19th century, of
using female labor.
As a second example, in the Tohoku region strong LQ gains and substantial
employment growth from 1970 to 1985 reflected legislation that promoted
decentralization in electrical machinery and other industries away from the PUIB. In
decentralizing, these industries were attracted to existing pools of female labor, including those from farming households that increasingly could not survive from agriculture alone.
Third, declining female shares in Tochigi Prefecture between 1970 and 2000 were likely influenced by significant expansion in automobile production. This led to a considerable influx of male labor, while female participation remained low by comparison.
Corporate hiring practices biased in favor of men likely played a role; another factor was legislation that restricted women’s nighttime working hours, at least until its repeal in recent years.
Finally, in PUIB areas a large presence of heavy manufacturing such as chemicals and steel likely shaped low LQ values. The relatively low numbers of women in these activities (as in the case of other countries) suggests a high degree of sex segregation—i.e.,
“jobs for men.”
Other factors that shaped sub-national variation include the persistence in non-
PUIB areas of traditional social norms that once encouraged women’s continued
participation in farm labor even after marriage and childbirth, not to mention low male incomes that encouraged women’s extended engagement in paid employment outside the
124 home. In PUIB prefectures, by contrast (with low LQ values), wages tended to be higher, resulting in a higher incidence of households with “professional housewives”— women who remain outside the labor force for long periods or indefinitely.
Chapter 6 turned to spatial variation in women’s employment in the tertiary sector.
Overall, results for all years displayed little spatial variation. Such results were perhaps of little surprise, since the tertiary sector is dominated by wholesale/retail trade, consumer services and other activities that are market oriented in nature, and reasonably ubiquitous.
Accordingly, to better understand spatial variations in the tertiary sector, Section
6.2 focused on public health/medical, clerical, sales, and other occupational groups.
Social Indicators by Prefecture data for 2000 (Appendix B) were helpful in explaining contributing factors to high location quotients that were found in a number of places.
For instance, high female shares in public health/medical occupations (with a major subset being nursing) in Shimane and Akita prefectures indicated the influence of demography—notably a high % of the population over 65 years. This fact, along with relative lack of employment opportunities for women elsewhere in the local economy likely created high demand for female “care-givers” in nursing-related jobs.
Data also indicate that prefectures in the Chugoku, Shikoku and Kyushu regions of southwestern Japan were among the least economically-developed as measured by low levels of secondary sector industrialization, and by low levels of higher order tertiary sector activities. Such factors, together with low male wages, had implications for women employees, with job opportunities largely confined to low-waged and low-benefit—i.e., largely in sales (with a majority subset being shop salespersons and store clerks) and
125 food/beverages (e.g., cooks, bartenders). The limited availability of jobs in manufacturing
in these regions relative to elsewhere in Japan further reduces choice in the labor market.
In contrast to the lack of varied employment opportunities in areas well-apart from the PUIB, females in engineering/technical and managerial/officials occupations illustrate the opposite. Of particular interest were the high LQ values in Tokyo Prefecture. With its
vast and diversified tertiary sector, it was apparent that Tokyo had the most “opportunity spaces” for women in such work, including computer programming, systems engineering, and related occupations. Likewise, Tokyo’s disproportionate concentration of command and control functions also created opportunities in management for at least some females, including in publishing, broadcasting, fashion, government, and non-governmental organizations.
The final part of Section 6.2 examined females in the temporary and paato types of nonstandard labor. Temporary employment, largely comprised of women, displayed an unusually high LQ in Tokyo Prefecture relative to the rest of Japan. With paato employment, most prefectures had either average or low concentrations; exceptions included Oita and Miyazaki, which had unusually high shares. This seems related to recent growth of semiconductor industries in these prefectures and throughout the Kyushu region, with firms making extensive use of females from agrarian households.
In conclusion, this research has demonstrated that broad economic change indeed does not wash evenly over different sub-national regions throughout Japan. Rather, as in the United States and other national contexts (e.g. Kodras and Padavic, 1993; Brown, et al., 2005), macro-level forces are mediated by local conditions—place-specific histories, social norms, pre-existing industrial bases, etc.—all of which create differential sets of
126 labor force experiences for women. This was apparent from the varied spatial pattern of female-to-male location quotients in the secondary sector, and in certain instances within
the tertiary sector.
This dissertation thus contributes to research on the gendered division of labor in
Japan by documenting the spatial patterns of female employment in the secondary and
tertiary sectors; and through illuminating several economic, social, and demographic
factors unique to the Japanese context that shape these patterns. Another contribution is
calling attention to female labor force conditions outside Tokyo and other large
metropolitan areas. Indeed, the bulk of research on working women in Japan is couched
at the national-level, ignoring the influence of conditions specific to a given locale.
Moreover, studies that do address a given sub-national area generally focus on the case of
Tokyo, Osaka, or large urban areas (e.g., Edgington 1990; Fujita 1991a, 1991b).
Accordingly, future research—possibly in the form of intensive case studies of particular
places—needs to incorporate greater attention to the experiences of women outside the
PUIB labor market.
127
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135
APPENDIX A
MANUFACTURING LABOR FORCE IN SELECTED PREFECTURES: INDUSTRIAL GROUPS WITH >10% OF FEMALE OR MALE LABOR FORCE (DATA FOR ALL 22 GROUPS)
136 Chiba Prefecture: PUIB Industry (medium groups) Females Males 1970 1985 2000 1970 1985 2000 Food manufacturing 0.14 0.17 0.24 0.08 0.09 0.1 Textile mill products 0.06 0.03 0.02 0.01 Apparel 0.09 0.1 0.09 0.02 0.02 0.02 Lumber and wood products 0.02 0.01 0.01 0.02 0.01 0.01 Furniture and fixtures 0.01 0.01 0.01 0.02 0.01 0.01 Pulp and paper 0.03 0.02 0.02 0.02 0.02 0.02 Publishing and printing 0.04 0.06 0.09 0.06 0.09 0.09 Chemical products 0.04 0.04 0.07 0.08 0.09 0.1 Petroleum and coal products 0.01 0.01 0.01 0.01 0.01 Rubber Products 0.02 0.02 0.02 0.01 0.01 0.01 Leather products 0.03 0.04 0.02 0.01 0.02 0.01 Ceramic, stone and clay products 0.03 0.02 0.02 0.05 0.05 0.04 Iron and Steel 0.04 0.03 0.04 0.15 0.13 0.1 Fabricated metal products 0.09 0.08 0.07 0.16 0.12 0.12 General machinery 0.03 0.04 0.04 0.09 0.09 0.09 Electrical machinery 0.14 0.18 0.16 0.08 0.12 0.15 Transportation equipment 0.02 0.02 0.02 0.04 0.04 0.03 Precision instruments and machinery 0.05 0.04 0.02 0.03 0.03 0.02 Other manufacturing industries 0.13 0.08 0.07 0.06 0.03 0.03 Total employees (1000s) 104 144 131 280 337 315
Akita Prefecture: remote from PUIB (Tohoku region) Industry (medium groups) Females Males 1970 1985 2000 1970 1985 2000 Food manufacturing 0.14 0.07 0.13 0.12 0.1 0.09 Textile mill products 0.07 0.06 0.02 0.01 Apparel 0.1 0.28 0.32 0.01 0.04 0.04 Lumber and wood products 0.26 0.06 0.03 0.26 0.13 0.09 Furniture and fixtures 0.03 0.01 0.03 0.08 0.05 0.04 Pulp and paper 0.01 0.03 0.02 0.01 Publishing and printing 0.04 0.02 0.04 0.05 0.05 0.04 Chemical products 0.01 0.01 0.03 0.02 0.02 Petroleum and coal products 0.01 Rubber Products 0.01 0.01 0.01 Leather products 0.02 0.02 0.01 0.01 Ceramic, stone and clay products 0.03 0.01 0.01 0.06 0.07 0.06 Iron and Steel 0.01 0.05 0.03 Fabricated metal products 0.02 0.01 0.02 0.09 0.07 0.1 General machinery 0.01 0.01 0.03 0.05 0.06 0.08 Electrical machinery 0.22 0.35 0.28 0.08 0.21 0.3 Transportation equipment 0.01 0.01 0.01 0.04 0.04 Precision instruments and machinery 0.04 0.05 0.01 0.04 0.05 Other manufacturing industries 0.04 0.03 0.03 0.04 0.04 0.02 Total employees (1000s) 27 60 53 38 48 51 Continued Manufacturing labor force in selected prefectures (Source: Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications 1970; 1985b; 2000b)
137 Niigata Prefecture remote from PUIB (Chubu region) Industry (medium groups) Females Males 1970 1985 2000 1970 1985 2000 Food manufacturing 0.1 0.14 0.2 0.06 0.09 0.11 Textile mill products 0.35 0.19 0.05 0.11 0.08 0.04 Apparel 0.07 0.13 0.16 0.01 0.02 0.03 Lumber and wood products 0.03 0.02 0.01 0.06 0.04 0.02 Furniture and fixtures 0.02 0.02 0.01 0.04 0.04 0.03 Pulp and paper 0.02 0.01 0.02 0.02 0.02 0.02 Publishing and printing 0.03 0.02 0.04 0.03 0.03 0.05 Chemical products 0.02 0.01 0.02 0.09 0.05 0.05 Petroleum and coal products 0.01 0.01 Rubber Products 0.01 Leather products 0.01 Ceramic, stone and clay products 0.03 0.02 0.02 0.06 0.05 0.04 Iron and Steel 0.02 0.01 0.02 0.08 0.06 0.05 Fabricated metal products 0.14 0.12 0.12 0.19 0.19 0.17 General machinery 0.05 0.05 0.07 0.15 0.15 0.13 Electrical machinery 0.06 0.2 0.2 0.02 0.11 0.16 Transportation equipment 0.01 0.01 0.02 0.03 0.03 0.04 Precision instruments and machinery 0.01 0.03 0.02 0.01 0.03 0.02 Other manufacturing industries 0.04 0.02 0.03 0.03 0.02 0.02 Total employees (1000s) 111 147 116 145 157 149
Shimane Prefecture remote from PUIB (Chugoku region) Industry (medium groups) Females Males 1970 1985 2000 1970 1985 2000 Food manufacturing 0.21 0.14 0.22 0.13 0.11 0.1 Textile mill products 0.18 0.13 0.04 0.04 0.04 0.01 Apparel 0.13 0.26 0.25 0.01 0.03 0.03 Lumber and wood products 0.08 0.04 0.03 0.17 0.11 0.05 Furniture and fixtures 0.01 0.01 0.05 0.04 0.04 Pulp and paper 0.01 0.03 0.03 0.03 0.03 0.04 Publishing and printing 0.03 0.02 0.03 0.04 0.04 0.04 Chemical products 0.01 0.03 0.01 0.01 Petroleum and coal products Rubber Products 0.01 0.01 0.01 0.01 0.01 Leather products 0.01 0.01 Ceramic, stone and clay products 0.05 0.04 0.03 0.09 0.11 0.09 Iron and Steel 0.02 0.02 0.01 0.11 0.1 0.08 Fabricated metal products 0.02 0.01 0.05 0.07 0.06 0.09 General machinery 0.04 0.03 0.05 0.14 0.11 0.15 Electrical machinery 0.14 0.18 0.2 0.02 0.12 0.17 Transportation equipment 0.01 0.01 0.02 0.05 0.05 0.05 Precision instruments and machinery 0.02 0.03 0.01 0.02 Other manufacturing industries 0.04 0.02 0.03 0.04 0.02 0.02 Total employees (1000s) 29 40 27 31 34 35
Continued
138 Miyazaki Prefecture remote from PUIB (Kyushu region) Industry (medium groups) Females Males 1970 1985 2000 1970 1985 2000 Food manufacturing 0.2 0.24 0.29 0.15 0.17 0.18 Textile mill products 0.17 0.16 0.02 0.03 0.05 0.01 Apparel 0.04 0.2 0.18 0.01 0.03 0.02 Lumber and wood products 0.14 0.06 0.05 0.14 0.1 0.05 Furniture and fixtures 0.02 0.02 0.03 0.05 0.04 0.06 Pulp and paper 0.02 0.01 0.02 0.04 0.03 0.04 Publishing and printing 0.03 0.03 0.05 0.04 0.05 0.08 Chemical products 0.16 0.03 0.03 0.28 0.15 0.09 Petroleum and coal products Rubber Products 0.02 0.01 0.02 0.04 Leather products 0.01 Ceramic, stone and clay products 0.06 0.03 0.03 0.07 0.09 0.07 Iron and Steel 0.02 0.01 0.02 Fabricated metal products 0.02 0.01 0.02 0.07 0.06 0.07 General machinery 0.01 0.01 0.01 0.04 0.05 0.03 Electrical machinery 0.06 0.14 0.18 0.03 0.11 0.17 Transportation equipment 0.01 0.02 0.01 0.01 0.04 Precision instruments and machinery 0.01 0.04 0.01 0.01 Other manufacturing industries 0.04 0.02 0.01 0.03 0.02 0.02 Total employees (1000s) 26 40 38 35 39 41
Nagano Prefecture outskirts of PUIB (Chubu region) Industry (medium groups) Females Males 1970 1985 2000 1970 1985 2000 Food manufacturing 0.08 0.08 0.15 0.08 0.08 0.08 Textile mill products 0.12 0.04 0.01 0.04 0.02 Apparel 0.03 0.04 0.04 0.01 0.01 0.01 Lumber and wood products 0.03 0.01 0.01 0.07 0.03 0.02 Furniture and fixtures 0.02 0.01 0.01 0.04 0.03 0.01 Pulp and paper 0.02 0.02 0.02 0.02 0.02 0.02 Publishing and printing 0.02 0.04 0.04 0.05 0.04 0.04 Chemical products 0.01 0.01 0.02 0.01 0.01 0.01 Petroleum and coal products Rubber Products 0.01 Leather products 0.01 0.01 0.01 0.01 0.01 Ceramic, stone and clay products 0.01 0.01 0.01 0.05 0.05 0.03 Iron and Steel 0.01 0.01 0.02 0.03 0.03 0.03 Fabricated metal products 0.04 0.05 0.08 0.09 0.08 0.09 General machinery 0.04 0.06 0.07 0.13 0.14 0.15 Electrical machinery 0.34 0.41 0.36 0.17 0.27 0.33 Transportation equipment 0.02 0.02 0.03 0.04 0.05 0.05 Precision instruments and machinery 0.13 0.15 0.1 0.1 0.11 0.08 Other manufacturing industries 0.08 0.03 0.03 0.07 0.04 0.03 Total employees (1000s) 137 149 108 147 168 172
Continued 139 Tochigi Prefecture outskirts of PUIB (Kanto region) Industry (medium groups) Females Males 1970 1985 2000 1970 1985 2000 Food manufacturing 0.07 0.09 0.18 0.07 0.06 0.09 Textile mill products 0.16 0.08 0.02 0.08 0.04 0.01 Apparel 0.2 0.16 0.12 0.03 0.03 0.02 Lumber and wood products 0.03 0.02 0.02 0.06 0.03 0.02 Furniture and fixtures 0.02 0.02 0.02 0.04 0.03 0.02 Pulp and paper 0.02 0.02 0.02 0.02 0.02 0.03 Publishing and printing 0.01 0.02 0.02 0.02 0.02 0.02 Chemical products 0.01 0.02 0.02 0.01 0.02 0.03 Petroleum and coal products Rubber Products 0.03 0.02 0.03 0.03 0.03 0.03 Leather products 0.01 0.01 0.01 0.01 Ceramic, stone and clay products 0.02 0.02 0.01 0.06 0.05 0.04 Iron and Steel 0.01 0.02 0.02 0.07 0.06 0.06 Fabricated metal products 0.04 0.06 0.07 0.09 0.1 0.1 General machinery 0.03 0.04 0.05 0.09 0.1 0.09 Electrical machinery 0.18 0.25 0.18 0.12 0.18 0.17 Transportation equipment 0.02 0.03 0.06 0.08 0.14 0.19 Precision instruments and machinery 0.04 0.06 0.09 0.03 0.05 0.06 Other manufacturing industries 0.11 0.05 0.04 0.07 0.03 0.03 Total employees (1000s) 93 106 90 134 168 176
140
APPENDIX B
SUPPLEMENTARY SOCIAL, ECONOMIC, AND DEMOGRAPHIC DATA: JAPANESE SOCIAL INDICATORS BY PREFECTURE
141 Male Female Female % of % Male labor population population labor force prefectural prefectural Prefecture force part. 2004 2004 part. rate pop. less than pop. over rate 2000 (10,000s) (10,000s) 2000 15 years 2004 65 2004
01 Hokkaido 269 7 295 7 46.2 42 73.2 34 13.0 44 20.8 26 02 Aomori 69 28 76 28 50.0 19 74.8 21 13.8 31 21.7 24 03 Iwate 67 31 73 30 52.1 7 76.0 13 13.9 27 23.9 7 04 Miyagi 116 15 122 15 47.6 31 73.8 29 13.9 29 19.3 34 05 Akita 55 36 61 36 47.9 30 73.6 31 12.3 46 26.0 2 06 Yamagata 59 33 63 34 51.5 8 75.3 19 13.6 34 24.9 4 07 Fukushima 103 17 108 18 50.3 17 74.7 22 14.8 5 22.1 21 08 Ibaraki 149 11 150 11 48.4 26 76.2 11 14.2 20 18.5 39 09 Tochigi 100 20 101 21 50.9 11 77.1 6 14.2 16 18.8 38 10 Gumma 100 19 103 19 50.1 18 77.1 5 14.2 15 19.9 31 11 Saitama 355 5 350 5 48.1 29 77.2 4 14.2 19 15.5 47 12 Chiba 302 6 302 6 47.3 33 75.8 15 13.6 36 16.8 43 13 Tokyo 615 1 623 1 48.8 23 73.5 32 12.0 47 18.0 40 14 Kanagawa 441 2 432 3 46.0 43 76.0 14 13.8 30 16.2 45 15 Niigata 119 14 126 14 50.8 13 75.1 20 13.5 37 23.4 11 16 Toyama 54 38 58 38 53.1 5 76.5 10 13.3 40 22.7 18 17 Ishikawa 57 35 61 37 53.0 6 75.4 16 14.2 14 20.3 29 18 Fukui 40 43 43 44 54.0 1 76.7 9 14.7 6 22.2 20 19 Yamanashi 43 41 45 42 50.6 16 76.9 8 14.6 7 21.3 25 20 Nagano 108 16 113 16 54.0 2 78.6 1 14.2 21 23.2 14 21 Gifu 102 18 109 17 51.2 9 77.0 7 14.5 10 20.3 30 22 Shizuoka 187 10 192 10 53.1 4 78.3 3 13.9 28 19.9 32 23 Aichi 360 4 360 4 51.1 10 78.5 2 15.1 4 16.6 44 24 Mie 90 22 96 23 48.7 24 75.3 18 14.2 18 20.8 27 25 Shiga 68 30 70 31 48.2 27 76.2 12 15.5 2 17.5 42 26 Kyoto 127 13 137 13 46.4 41 72.5 38 13.4 39 19.7 33 27 Osaka 428 3 453 2 44.7 44 74.1 26 14.1 22 17.5 41 28 Hyogo 268 8 291 8 44.0 46 73.8 28 14.2 17 19.1 36 29 Nara 68 29 75 29 40.8 47 73.4 33 14.0 26 19.1 37 30 Wakayama 50 39 55 39 44.4 45 72.9 35 13.6 35 23.2 13 31 Tottori 29 47 32 47 53.6 3 75.3 17 14.0 25 23.6 10 32 Shimane 36 46 39 46 50.7 15 74.4 24 13.1 42 26.8 1 33 Okayama 94 21 102 20 48.1 28 73.6 30 14.3 13 22.0 23 34 Hiroshima 139 12 149 12 48.6 25 74.3 25 14.1 23 20.4 28 35 Yamaguchi 71 25 79 26 47.4 32 72.7 36 13.1 43 24.3 5 36 Tokushima 39 44 43 43 47.1 35 70.7 46 13.2 41 23.8 8 37 Kagawa 49 40 53 40 49.6 21 74.5 23 13.8 32 22.6 19 38 Ehime 70 27 78 27 46.6 36 72.6 37 13.4 38 23.3 12 39 Kochi 38 45 43 45 49.9 20 70.2 47 12.9 45 25.3 3 40 Fukuoka 240 9 266 9 46.4 40 70.8 44 14.1 24 19.2 35 41 Saga 41 42 46 41 50.8 12 74.1 27 15.2 3 22.1 22 42 Nagasaki 70 26 79 25 46.5 38 71.3 42 14.3 12 22.8 17 43 Kumamoto 87 23 98 22 49.0 22 70.7 45 14.4 11 23.2 15 44 Oita 57 34 64 33 47.3 34 71.9 40 13.8 33 23.8 9 45 Miyazaki 55 37 62 35 50.7 14 72.3 39 14.6 8 22.8 16 46 Kagoshima 83 24 94 24 46.6 37 71.2 43 14.5 9 24.3 6 47 Okinawa 67 32 69 32 46.5 39 71.6 41 18.6 1 16.1 46 Japan 6,230 6,539 48.9 74.4 13.9 19.5 *Numbers in italics in each column refer to prefectural rankings. Continued Supplementary social, economic, and demographic data (Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications 2006) 142 Average % nuclear % dual % households Annual income number of % single person family income with member per capita Prefecture persons per households households households over 65 years 2002 (1000s household 2000 2000 2000 2000 yen) 2000
01 Hokkaido 2.42 46 60.54 11 29.95 5 24.35 42 30.50 40 2,563 32 02 Aomori 2.86 21 54.20 35 24.08 26 31.97 25 38.99 19 2,213 46 03 Iwate 2.92 14 50.87 44 24.47 22 35.40 13 42.42 9 2,426 38 04 Miyagi 2.80 25 51.96 40 28.59 9 29.03 32 33.04 35 2,576 30 05 Akita 3.00 10 50.48 46 21.24 41 36.35 10 47.77 3 2,320 41 06 Yamagata 3.25 1 45.79 47 19.98 44 42.92 1 49.75 1 2,416 39 07 Fukushima 3.05 7 52.12 39 22.60 33 36.17 11 41.70 11 2,668 25 08 Ibaraki 2.99 11 58.28 20 21.42 40 33.11 20 33.95 32 2,902 12 09 Tochigi 2.97 12 56.47 30 22.42 34 34.90 15 34.95 31 3,044 7 10 Gumma 2.88 19 60.07 13 21.78 37 33.93 17 35.61 29 2,909 11 11 Saitama 2.78 27 65.46 1 23.15 29 28.54 34 25.10 46 2,659 26 12 Chiba 2.70 33 62.55 5 25.45 17 27.10 38 26.75 44 3,070 5 13 Tokyo 2.21 47 52.15 38 40.85 1 19.95 47 25.44 45 4,080 1 14 Kanagawa 2.53 42 62.04 8 29.54 8 23.25 45 24.74 47 3,062 6 15 Niigata 3.07 5 51.07 42 21.69 39 38.59 4 43.77 5 2,713 21 16 Toyama 3.09 3 52.30 37 19.93 45 41.44 3 43.47 6 2,958 10 17 Ishikawa 2.83 23 53.17 36 25.98 15 37.07 9 36.29 28 2,863 14 18 Fukui 3.14 2 50.72 45 20.94 43 42.61 2 43.41 7 2,894 13 19 Yamanashi 2.84 22 57.42 26 24.17 25 34.31 16 38.14 23 2,565 31 20 Nagano 2.89 18 55.17 33 23.13 30 38.08 6 41.74 10 2,718 20 21 Gifu 3.07 6 56.74 29 19.74 46 37.08 8 38.46 21 2,789 18 22 Shizuoka 2.91 16 56.87 28 22.91 31 35.06 14 35.33 30 3,221 3 23 Aichi 2.75 31 59.79 17 26.23 14 30.66 27 28.08 41 3,421 2 24 Mie 2.88 20 59.40 18 21.73 38 33.91 18 37.49 26 2,959 9 25 Shiga 3.02 8 57.50 25 22.22 35 33.52 19 33.67 34 3,188 4 26 Kyoto 2.55 41 57.65 24 30.86 2 25.27 40 31.42 38 2,799 17 27 Osaka 2.51 43 61.90 10 29.78 7 21.33 46 27.21 43 3,030 8 28 Hyogo 2.69 34 63.21 4 24.95 21 25.10 41 32.23 37 2,647 27 29 Nara 2.93 13 64.94 2 19.13 47 25.55 39 33.77 33 2,689 24 30 Wakayama 2.77 29 61.98 9 21.97 36 28.42 35 41.08 12 2,531 33 31 Tottori 3.00 9 51.83 41 22.69 32 38.51 5 44.73 4 2,461 34 32 Shimane 2.90 17 50.97 43 24.02 27 37.69 7 48.06 2 2,405 40 33 Okayama 2.77 28 57.42 27 24.98 20 31.71 26 37.73 25 2,721 19 34 Hiroshima 2.57 38 59.94 14 28.02 10 29.25 30 32.87 36 2,804 16 35 Yamaguchi 2.56 40 59.83 16 26.75 11 29.23 31 39.33 17 2,811 15 36 Tokushima 2.78 26 55.68 32 24.40 23 32.24 24 40.95 13 2,700 23 37 Kagawa 2.75 30 58.53 19 23.81 28 32.92 21 38.88 20 2,709 22 38 Ehime 2.59 37 60.33 12 26.30 13 28.19 36 38.15 22 2,320 41 39 Kochi 2.47 44 57.67 23 29.85 6 29.54 29 40.21 15 2,266 43 40 Fukuoka 2.57 39 57.86 22 30.24 3 24.30 43 31.10 39 2,605 28 41 Saga 3.08 4 55.06 34 20.96 42 36.12 12 42.83 8 2,448 35 42 Nagasaki 2.71 32 59.92 15 25.30 18 28.81 33 39.10 18 2,256 44 43 Kumamoto 2.81 24 56.19 31 25.04 19 32.27 22 40.22 14 2,444 37 44 Oita 2.64 35 58.01 21 26.42 12 29.71 28 39.43 16 2,585 29 45 Miyazaki 2.61 36 62.18 7 25.74 16 32.26 23 36.93 27 2,445 36 46 Kagoshima 2.43 45 62.44 6 30.12 4 27.65 37 38.01 24 2,246 45 47 Okinawa 2.91 15 64.54 3 24.26 24 24.07 44 27.92 42 2,031 47 Japan 2.67 58.42 27.60 28.09 32.16 2,916
Continued
143 Average monthly % % % labor % labor % labor force wages, high school establishments establishments force in force in Prefecture in tertiary graduate or higher: in secondary in tertiary primary secondary sector 2000 males (1000s yen) sector 2001 sector 2001 sector 2000 sector 2000 2004
01 Hokkaido 14.73 45 84.06 4 8.0 21 22.1 46 68.9 6 142.9 40 02 Aomori 14.72 46 84.57 2 14.2 1 25.4 37 59.9 28 140.0 43 03 Iwate 16.68 38 82.33 13 14.2 2 29.5 25 56.2 42 141.2 41 04 Miyagi 17.19 35 82.35 12 6.5 28 26.7 35 65.8 11 145.3 37 05 Akita 18.99 24 80.17 24 11.0 11 30.9 18 58.0 33 138.9 45 06 Yamagata 21.92 18 77.60 32 11.1 10 34.8 11 54.1 46 148.8 30 07 Fukushima 21.38 19 78.10 29 9.6 16 34.7 12 55.2 45 147.1 32 08 Ibaraki 24.05 9 75.55 39 8.0 20 33.5 15 57.6 36 161.6 8 09 Tochigi 24.35 7 75.21 41 7.2 24 36.0 8 56.1 44 155.7 19 10 Gumma 26.16 3 73.49 45 6.9 26 36.4 7 56.2 43 158.9 14 11 Saitama 24.92 5 74.95 42 2.4 44 30.6 19 65.3 13 161.3 9 12 Chiba 17.56 32 82.16 15 3.9 34 24.7 39 69.6 5 165.2 4 13 Tokyo 17.41 33 82.55 10 0.4 47 22.5 44 74.2 1 168.3 1 14 Kanagawa 17.58 31 82.28 14 1.0 45 27.7 32 69.6 4 165.3 3 15 Niigata 24.53 6 74.93 43 7.3 23 34.4 13 57.9 34 150.0 28 16 Toyama 22.44 15 77.10 34 3.9 35 38.4 3 57.4 37 154.3 22 17 Ishikawa 25.49 4 74.18 44 3.9 36 32.6 16 62.9 19 159.3 12 18 Fukui 26.90 2 72.83 46 4.7 32 37.3 5 57.7 35 167.4 2 19 Yamanashi 23.67 12 76.06 36 8.8 19 34.1 14 56.8 39 151.8 25 20 Nagano 24.10 8 75.38 40 11.2 9 35.1 10 53.3 47 156.7 18 21 Gifu 27.84 1 71.81 47 3.8 37 38.7 2 57.4 38 158.0 17 22 Shizuoka 23.79 11 75.98 37 5.4 30 37.5 4 56.6 40 159.3 12 23 Aichi 23.20 13 76.66 35 3.0 41 36.9 6 59.5 29 161.7 7 24 Mie 21.93 17 77.66 31 5.2 31 36.0 9 58.5 31 160.6 10 25 Shiga 24.02 10 75.64 38 3.5 39 38.8 1 56.5 41 152.7 24 26 Kyoto 22.62 14 77.27 33 2.7 42 28.8 31 66.6 8 161.9 6 27 Osaka 20.04 21 79.93 25 0.5 46 30.1 21 67.6 7 163.2 5 28 Hyogo 18.60 25 81.26 20 2.5 43 30.4 20 65.3 12 158.8 16 29 Nara 22.02 16 77.82 30 3.2 40 29.2 27 65.9 10 155.2 20 30 Wakayama 18.23 29 81.50 18 10.6 12 26.4 36 62.2 22 150.7 27 31 Tottori 17.37 34 81.92 16 11.5 7 29.7 23 58.3 32 139.2 44 32 Shimane 19.82 22 79.53 27 10.5 13 28.9 30 60.2 27 146.0 34 33 Okayama 20.26 20 79.37 28 6.5 27 32.4 17 60.4 26 159.8 11 34 Hiroshima 18.44 27 81.25 21 4.6 33 29.6 24 64.7 14 154.8 21 35 Yamaguchi 16.96 37 82.70 9 7.2 25 29.7 22 62.6 20 150.8 26 36 Tokushima 18.45 26 81.11 23 10.3 14 28.9 29 59.4 30 149.1 29 37 Kagawa 19.78 23 79.80 26 7.3 22 29.2 26 63.1 17 158.9 14 38 Ehime 18.14 30 81.34 19 10.0 15 29.0 28 60.8 25 145.9 35 39 Kochi 15.63 43 83.88 5 12.8 4 22.3 45 64.3 15 153.6 23 40 Fukuoka 15.41 44 84.42 3 3.7 38 24.4 41 70.6 3 147.1 32 41 Saga 18.37 28 81.18 22 11.5 8 27.5 33 60.8 24 144.4 39 42 Nagasaki 16.00 41 83.41 7 9.6 18 23.6 43 66.4 9 140.2 42 43 Kumamoto 16.41 39 82.97 8 12.1 5 24.6 40 62.6 21 147.8 31 44 Oita 15.67 42 83.68 6 9.6 17 26.8 34 62.9 18 144.8 38 45 Miyazaki 17.15 36 81.77 17 13.1 3 25.3 38 61.3 23 138.3 46 46 Kagoshima 16.34 40 82.52 11 12.0 6 24.2 42 63.5 16 145.5 36 47 Okinawa 11.70 47 88.03 1 6.1 29 18.8 47 74.2 2 122.4 47 Japan 19.87 79.79 5.0 29.5 64.3 156.1
Continued
144 Average monthly Eating and Barber shops wages, high Large retail Convenience Cleaning drinking and beauty school graduate stores per stores per stores per Prefecture establishments salons per or higher, 10,000 10,000 10,000 per 1000 10,000 people females (1000s people 2001 people 2002 people 2003 people 2001 2003 yen) 2004 01 Hokkaido 138.9 33 6.76 10 17.64 1 44.8 1 299.0 31 100.9 44 02 Aomori 129.5 46 7.01 7 12.42 32 30.2 28 434.3 3 119.4 30 03 Iwate 134.7 39 5.50 32 11.39 41 31.3 24 407.5 4 154.5 6 04 Miyagi 141.7 30 5.36 37 15.61 5 39.7 3 313.5 27 123.5 26 05 Akita 133.3 43 5.78 27 13.01 25 35.4 11 495.7 1 113.6 33 06 Yamagata 137.0 36 5.75 28 12.41 33 34.2 13 444.8 2 144.8 10 07 Fukushima 140.5 31 5.41 35 13.13 22 37.0 7 338.5 17 112.2 37 08 Ibaraki 149.8 17 5.21 39 14.17 9 37.5 5 310.9 28 126.0 23 09 Tochigi 144.4 25 5.90 25 12.34 35 36.7 8 319.9 23 113.3 35 10 Gumma 151.4 12 5.94 24 13.15 20 32.8 17 320.9 22 144.1 11 11 Saitama 152.8 8 4.63 45 13.76 16 31.9 21 221.6 42 137.5 15 12 Chiba 153.7 6 4.81 43 13.64 17 33.3 15 215.1 45 86.6 47 13 Tokyo 160.0 1 8.45 2 16.73 2 43.0 2 218.8 43 103.2 43 14 Kanagawa 155.0 3 5.06 40 13.13 23 35.6 10 178.7 47 93.4 46 15 Niigata 149.9 16 5.52 31 11.73 39 26.8 36 348.3 15 117.9 31 16 Toyama 149.0 19 5.46 33 13.03 24 37.4 6 306.0 29 198.6 2 17 Ishikawa 147.6 21 6.42 14 12.10 37 31.7 22 314.1 26 151.9 8 18 Fukui 147.3 22 6.13 20 11.81 38 30.2 26 323.9 20 162.0 4 19 Yamanashi 150.5 13 7.31 5 13.48 18 38.4 4 333.6 19 121.2 27 20 Nagano 148.7 20 6.17 17 16.69 3 31.2 25 287.5 34 99.7 45 21 Gifu 149.4 18 6.62 11 12.60 31 32.3 19 314.3 25 180.7 3 22 Shizuoka 154.3 5 6.46 13 13.91 13 31.9 20 296.6 32 140.5 12 23 Aichi 155.0 3 7.01 6 14.07 11 33.3 16 227.7 40 136.8 17 24 Mie 150.5 13 5.65 29 12.84 27 22.4 42 301.6 30 150.2 9 25 Shiga 152.1 10 4.04 46 13.89 14 30.2 27 218.6 44 108.9 41 26 Kyoto 153.4 7 6.99 8 14.29 8 28.9 31 245.7 38 111.3 39 27 Osaka 155.4 2 8.16 3 15.06 6 28.3 32 234.3 39 113.5 34 28 Hyogo 151.6 11 6.49 12 13.36 19 23.1 41 225.2 41 103.8 42 29 Nara 152.3 9 3.68 47 14.08 10 21.6 44 212.9 46 130.1 19 30 Wakayama 150.2 15 6.27 15 13.88 15 19.1 46 368.5 8 114.8 32 31 Tottori 142.0 28 5.94 23 12.72 29 24.3 39 346.6 16 128.7 20 32 Shimane 136.8 37 4.87 42 8.54 47 18.4 47 355.5 12 113.1 36 33 Okayama 146.6 23 4.89 41 14.03 12 28.0 34 292.7 33 134.6 18 34 Hiroshima 141.9 29 5.98 22 15.77 4 28.2 33 286.3 35 124.9 24 35 Yamaguchi 134.4 41 5.45 34 10.43 43 24.0 40 314.8 24 152.1 7 36 Tokushima 140.1 32 5.89 26 9.97 45 21.7 43 403.7 5 127.0 22 37 Kagawa 145.1 24 6.13 19 12.71 30 27.5 35 337.4 18 210.7 1 38 Ehime 142.8 27 6.14 18 13.15 21 25.5 38 369.9 7 124.7 25 39 Kochi 134.5 40 7.79 4 14.40 7 21.5 45 393.8 6 110.3 40 40 Fukuoka 144.0 26 6.18 16 12.86 26 33.9 14 260.5 37 137.4 16 41 Saga 133.4 42 5.37 36 9.70 46 32.7 18 284.4 36 111.5 38 42 Nagasaki 136.3 38 5.61 30 10.70 42 29.0 30 321.7 21 120.5 28 43 Kumamoto 137.3 35 4.66 44 12.36 34 36.2 9 358.9 11 138.2 14 44 Oita 132.7 45 6.01 21 12.21 36 26.2 37 360.8 10 156.1 5 45 Miyazaki 133.1 44 6.77 9 10.27 44 29.5 29 362.9 9 119.9 29 46 Kagoshima 138.7 34 5.30 38 12.79 28 31.6 23 355.2 13 128.4 21 47 Okinawa 124.7 47 8.79 1 11.67 40 34.9 12 350.1 14 139.4 13 Japan 147.2 6.24 13.90 32.8 275.0 121.5
145