Abstract
This paper explores changes of intergenerational mobility in postwar Japan, using the Social Stratification and Mobility National Survey data taken every 10 years during the period 1955 through 1995. The changing patterns of actual, forced, and pure mobility rates and Yasuda indices show that equalization become prominent especially in the periods of 1955-65 and 1985-95. This finding was confirmed by the cohort analyses, whose results also indicated that pure mobility rates increased continuously and forced mobility rates decreased after the increase. Yasuda indices, the ratios indicating the extent of the realization of equal opportunity, also increased in the two periods, but those trends of cohorts seem to be constant from 1965 to 1985. These results do not coincide with any of the industrialization hypotheses emphasizing the changing patterns of mobility and inequality in relation to industrialization.
