Measurement of Occupational Status in Contemporary Japan

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This project explores ways in which social status is measured in contemporary Japanese Society. Occupational prestige has most frequently been used to indicate the status of an individual (i.e., the incumbent) in social science research. There is a question, however, as to how valid such a measure may be, since the prestige evaluation is elicited on various occupational titles differentiated solely by a single attribute, i.e., occupational category primarily indicating the tasks involved. There are other features of occupations that affect the perceived status of an occupation, especially in Japan, such as the industry in which the occupation is performed, as well as the firm size in which the incumbent is employed. This project employed a survey with a factorial design, asking respondents to rate occupational names incorporating firm size, industry, as well as task. The results confirmed that prestige evaluation of occupations is dependent on all of the three factors mentioned above. In addition, there was an interaction effect between industry and occupational category on the occupational status. Based on these results, a new prestige scale was constructed based on multiple dimensions (i.e., industry, firm size, and task) of occupational characteristics.