This study examines the effects of regional disparity on life satisfaction. Two hypotheses were formulized: a relative income hypothesis focused on intra-area disparity and a housing class hypothesis focused on inter-area disparity.

The dataset was based on a survey in Tama city and included areas showing intra-area homogeneity and inter-area heterogeneity in terms of social stratification. The analysis produced different findings among the age groups. Among males of a productive age, results were consistent with the relative income hypothesis, namely that intra-area individual relative deprivation negatively affected life satisfaction. On the other hand, among elderly male residents, inter-area disparity mattered. Here, average income within an area had a positive effect on life satisfaction. The findings raise the possibility that intra/inter-area disparity leads to regional disassociation.

Studies of subjective social unfairness, which form part of the field of class consciousness research, are based on a quantitative analysis using a large-scale data-set. At present, however, there is no attempt to clarify the mechanism on subjective social unfairness because of weak relation between subjective social unfairness and social stratification. In this paper, we apply the Relative Deprivation Index proposed by Yizhaki [1979] to reveal how income comparisons with others affect the formation of subjective social unfairness. Results show that the amount of personal income in and of itself has an influence on subjective social unfairness for males, whereas for females the Relative Deprivation Index in which a comparison is made with the household income of others from the same generation has a negative influence on subjective social unfairness.