Abstract
This paper examines two topics related to intergenerational class mobility: long-term trends in class mobility in post-war Japan and cross-national comparison. First, the trends in relative class mobility, which is the indicator of societal openness, show an overall stability in post-war Japan. There was no evidence to support the notion of increased rigidity and mobility barriers in recent Japan. This notion was probably derived from the changes in class structure and absolute mobility. Both the share of the upper white-collar class and the proportion of upward mobility were reduced; at the same time, both the share of the unskilled manual class and the proportion of downward mobility were increased. These changes probably affected people's perception of increased rigidity in class structure.
Second, this paper examined Japan's position in relation to other industrial societies in the 1970s and 1990s. With regard to relative mobility rate, Japan was located in the middle position, implying that it is neither more fluid nor less fluid than other industrial societies. With regard to absolute mobility rate, Japan showed a trend of a rapid increase in total mobility rate following the process of industrialization, just like other late-industrializing societies. The paper examined the relative location of all the nations in our analysis by taking into account the trends of both absolute mobility rate and relative mobility rate during the process of industrialization.
