Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-t7fkt Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-24T17:23:48.670Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Income Inequalities in Japan and the UK: A Comparative Study of Two Island Economies

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  12 March 2013

Dimitris Ballas ,
Danny Dorling ,
Tomoki Nakaya ,
Helena Tunstall  and
Kazumasa Hanaoka
Dimitris Ballas
Affiliation:
Department of Geography, University of Sheffield E-mail: [email protected]
Danny Dorling
Affiliation:
Department of Geography, University of Sheffield E-mail: [email protected]
Tomoki Nakaya
Affiliation:
Department of Geography, Ritsumeikan University E-mail: [email protected]
Helena Tunstall
Affiliation:
School of Geosciences, University of Edinburgh E-mail: [email protected]
Kazumasa Hanaoka
Affiliation:
International Research Institute of Disaster Science, Tohoku University E-mail: [email protected]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

This article builds on recent work entitled The Spirit Level by Richard Wilkinson and Kate Pickett suggesting that Japan is one of the most harmonious affluent countries in the world, whereas the United Kingdom (UK) is one of the most unequal and hence disharmonious. In particular, the article revisits The Spirit Level evidence according to which Japan is a more equitable society in terms of income than any other industrialised country, but especially contrasts with a country such as the UK. The article provides a brief review of appropriate data in both Japan and the UK that could be used for the analysis of income inequality and identifies the best available microdata that would be most suitable for this purpose: the Japanese National Survey of Family Income and Expenditure microdata and the UK Family Resources Survey and Household Below Average Income survey microdata. It then presents a comparative analysis of income inequality measures in Japan and the UK and a discussion of the income distribution in both countries based on these data sets over the past twenty years. The findings suggest that the UK is much more unequal than Japan in terms of income distribution.

Keywords

Samplingsurvey datasocial cohesioninternational comparisons
Type
Themed Section on Comparative Perspectives on Poverty and Inequality: Japan and the United Kingdom
Information
Social Policy and Society , Volume 13 , Issue 1 , January 2014 , pp. 103 - 117
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2013 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Abe, A. K. (2011) ‘Measurement of poverty and social exclusion in Japan’, paper presented at the Second Peter Townsend Memorial Conference, Measuring Poverty: The State of the Art, Bristol, 22–23 January.Google Scholar
Adams, N., Barton, A., Bray, S., Johnson, G. and Matejic, P. (2010) Households Below Average Income: An Analysis of the Income Distribution 1994/95 to 2008/09, London: Department for Work and Pensions, Office for National Statistics.Google Scholar
Alvaredo, F., Atkinson, T., Piketty, T. and Saez, E. (2011) The World Top Incomes Database, on-line document, http://g-mond.parisschoolofeconomics.eu/topincomes [accessed 01.07.2011].Google Scholar
Ballas, D., Dorling, D., Nakaya, T., Tunstall, H. and Hanaoka, K. (2011) Social Cohesion in Britain and Japan: A Comparative Study of Two Island Economies, Daiwa Anglo-Japanese Foundation end of award report, Project ref: 8006/8599 (copies available on request, ).Google Scholar
Bauer, J. and Mason, A. (1992) ‘The distribution of income and wealth in Japan’, Review of Income and Wealth, 38, 4, 403–28.Google Scholar
Brinckmann, H. (2008) Showa Japan: The Post-War Golden Age and Its Troubled Legacy, Tokyo: Tuttle Publishing.Google Scholar
Burniaux, J., Dang, T., Fore, D., Förster, M., Mira d'Ercole, M. and Oxley, H. (1998), Income Distribution and Poverty in Selected OECD Countries, Working Paper No.189, Paris: Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development, http://www.oecd.org/tax/publicfinanceandfiscalpolicy/1864447.pdf [accessed 04.08.2012].Google Scholar
Cabinet Office (2007) ‘A note on the difference between the income redistribution survey and the national survey of family income and expenditure’, Konshu-no-shihyo, No. 834, http://www5.cao.go.jp/keizai3/shihyo/2007/1001/834.html (in Japanese).Google Scholar
Chiavacci, D. (2008) ‘From class struggle to general middle-class society to divided society: Societal models of inequality in postwar Japan’, Social Science Japan Journal, 11, 1, 5–27.Google Scholar
Chiavacci, D. (2010) ‘Divided society model and social cleavages in Japanese politics: no alignment by social class, but dealignment of rural–urban split’, Contemporary Japan, 22, 1/2, 47–74.Google Scholar
Department for Work and Pensions, (2011), Family Resources Survey, on-line document, http://research.dwp.gov.uk/asd/frs/ [accessed 15.04.2011].Google Scholar
Else, E. (2012) ‘Of wealth and health’, New Scientist, 28 July.Google Scholar
Förster, M. and Mira d'Ercole, M. (2005) Income Distribution and Poverty in OECD Countries in the Second Half of the 1990s, OECD Social, Employment and Migration Working Papers No. 22, Paris: OECD.Google Scholar
Frank, R. (2007) Falling Behind: How Rising Inequality Harms the Middle Class, Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.Google Scholar
Freeth, S. and Sowman, P. (2005) The Family Resources Survey: Report of the 2001 Census-Linked Study of Survey Non-Response, London: Office for National Statistics.Google Scholar
Funaoka, F. (2001) ‘Investigation on income differentials in Japan’, Economic Research, 52, 2, 117–31 (in Japanese).Google Scholar
Hamada, K., Kashyap, A. K. and Weinstein, D. (eds.) (2011) Japan's Bubble, Deflation and Long-term Stagnation, Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.Google Scholar
Jacobs, D. (2000) ‘Low inequality with low redistribution? An analysis of income distribution in Japan, South Korea and Taiwan compared to Britain’, CASE paper 33, Centre of Analysis of Social Exclusion, London: London School of Economics.Google Scholar
Jones, R. S. (2007) Income Inequality, Poverty and Social Spending in Japan, OECD Economics Department Working Papers No. 556, Paris: OECD.Google Scholar
Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare (2011) Comprehensive Survey of Living Conditions, online document, http://www.mhlw.go.jp/english/database/db-hss/cslc.html.Google Scholar
Mira d'Ercole, M. (2006) ‘Income inequality and poverty in OECD countries: how does Japan compare?’, The Japanese Journal of Social Security Policy, 5, 1, 1–15.Google Scholar
Moriguchi, C. and Saez, E. (2008) ‘The evolution of income concentration in Japan, 1886–2005: evidence from income tax statistics’, The Review of Economics and Statistics, 90, 4, 713–34.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Nishizaki, F., YamadaY. and Ando, E. Y. and Ando, E. (1997) ‘Income Distribution and Poverty in Japan’, Discussion Paper no. 80, Economic Research Institute, Tokyo: Economic Planning Agency.Google Scholar
OECD (2011a) Social Justice in the OECD – How Do the Member States Compare? Sustainable Governance Indicators 2011, Gütersloh, Germany: Bertelsmann Stiftung.Google Scholar
OECD (2011b) Society at a Glance 2011 – OECD Social Indicators, Paris: OECD, www.oecd.org/els/social/indicators/SAG.Google Scholar
OECD (2011c) Divided We Stand: Why Inequality Keeps Rising, Paris: OECD, http://dx.doi.org/10.1787/9789.Google Scholar
OECD (2011d) ‘Power purchasing parities’, on-line document, http://www.oecd.org/department/0,3355,en_2649_34357_1_1_1_1_1,00.html.Google Scholar
Picketty, T. and Saez, E. (2006) ‘The evolution of top incomes: a historical and international perspective’, American Economic Review Papers and Proceedings, 96, 2, 200–5.Google Scholar
Rebick, M. E. (2007) ‘Review of “Nihon no Fubyōdō” by F. Ohtake’, Social Science Japan Journal, 10, 1, 151–4.Google Scholar
Sanandaji, N., Malm, A. and Sanandaji, T. (2010) The Spirit Illusion: A critical Analysis of How ‘The Spirit Level’ Compares Countries, London: The Tax Payers Alliance.Google Scholar
Saunders, P. (2010) Beware False Prophets: Equality, the Good Society and the Spirit Level, London: Policy Exchange.Google Scholar
Saxonhouse, G. and Stern, R. (eds.) (2004) Japan's Lost Decade: Origins, Consequences and Prospects for Recovery, Bodmin: Blackwell.Google Scholar
Snowdon, C. J. (2010) The Spirit Level Delusion: Fact-checking the Left's New Theory of Everything, London: Democracy Institute/Little Dice.Google Scholar
Tachibanaki, T. (1998) Confronting Income Inequality in Japan, reprint, Boston: MIT Press, 2008.Google Scholar
Tachibanaki, T. (2006) ‘Inequality and poverty in Japan’, The Japanese Economic Review, 57, 1, 1–27.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
United Nations (2011) Human Development Report 2011 – Sustainability and Equity: A Better Future for All, New York: Palgrave.Google Scholar
Wilkinson, R. and Pickett, K. (2009) The Spirit Level: Why Equality Is Better for Everyone, London: Allen Lane.Google Scholar
Yamada, A., Shikata, M., Tanaka, S. and Komamura, K. (2010) ‘Poverty standard by OECD, standard by “Seikatsu Hogo” in Japan, and equivalence scale’, Hinkon-kenkyu (Journal of Poverty), 4, 55–66 (in Japanese).Google Scholar
Yamada, A., Komamura, K., Shikata, M. and Tanaka, S. (2011) ‘Means-testing: how it affects the take-up of public assistance in Japan’,Mita Journal of Economics, 110, 573–586 (in Japanese).Google Scholar
Yonezawa, K. and Kaneko, J. (2007) ‘The distributions of the employee's household income among Japanese official surveys’, Statistics (Toukei), 93, 20–34 (in Japanese).Google Scholar