Social Inequality in Post-Growth Japan

<p>In recent decades Japan has changed from a strongly growing economically successful nation regarded as prime example of social equality and inclusion to a nation with a stagnating economy a shrinking population and a very high proportion of elderly people. Within this new forms of inequality are emerging and deepening and a new model of Japan as 'gap society' (<i>kakusa shakai</i>) has become common-sense. These new forms of inequality are complex are caused in different ways by a variety of factors and require deep-seated reforms in order to remedy them. This book provides a comprehensive overview of inequality in contemporary Japan. It examines inequality in labour and employment in welfare and family in education and social mobility in the urban-rural divide and concerning immigration ethnic minorities and gender. The book also considers the widespread anxiety effect of the fear of inequality; and discusses how far these developments in Japan represent a new form of social problem for the wider world.</p>