Comprehensive Study on Structure and Change of Social Stratification System in Contemporary Japan

本研究课题的目的是发展社会分层和社会流动的新理论，以解释两种似乎相互矛盾的社会现象：社会分层的流动化和固定化。为此，我们进行了五次社会调查，以收集数据，并开发分析数据的理论。2005年在日本、韩国和台湾进行了类似的问卷调查。2007年，针对受到劳动力市场流动化强烈影响的青年进行了一次邮件调查和一次网站调查。对这些调查中收集的数据进行分析的结果以十五卷报告的形式向文部科学省公布。除了在报告中发表论文外，课题成员还在学术会议上发表论文，并出版论文和书籍。本课题是关于社会分层和社会流动的综合课题，因此从多个角度进行了研究。因此，本摘要中并不能介绍项目的所有结果，但以下结果具有代表性。1)佐藤俊树（Toshiki Sato）认为，上层白领员工的代际流动性越来越封闭，但2005年的情况并非如此。2)受教育程度较低的人和妇女比受过良好教育的人和男子更有可能成为非正规工人。3)正式劳动者和非正式劳动者的收入差距虽然很大，但要判断差距是否扩大，还需要进行更详细的分析。特别值得注意的是，本研究是首次对东亚地区的社会分层和社会流动进行全面的比较研究。这项比较研究的部分结果发表在题为《东亚社会分层的动态》的报告第十三卷中。

The purpose of this research project is to develop new theories on social stratification and social mobility that explain two social phenomena that seem to be contradictory to each other : The fluidization and the immobilization of social stratification. For this purpose we conducted five social surveys for data collection as well as developing theories with which to analyze the data. Surveys in Japan, Korea, and Taiwan were conducted in 2005 with similar questionnaires. A mail survey and a website survey targeting the youth, who have been strongly influenced by the fluidization in the labor market, were conducted in 2007. The results of the analyses of the data collected in these surveys are published in fifteen volumes of the report to the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology. In addition to publication in the report, project members presented papers at academic conferences and published papers and books.We studied social stratification and social mobility from various perspectives because this project is an integrated project on this topic. Thus not all the results of the project can be presented in this abstract, but the following findings are representative of the results. 1) The increasing closure of intergenerational mobility of upper white-collar employees, which was argued by Toshiki Sato, is not the case in 2005. 2) Less-educated people and women are more likely to become non-regular workers than well-educated people and men. 3) Income disparity between regular and non-regular workers is large, but we need more detailed analysis to judge whether the disparity has become larger or not.It is particularly worth noting that this project is the first full-blown comparative study of social stratification and social mobility in East Asia. Some of the results of this comparative study are published in the thirteenth volume of the report titled Dynamics of Social Stratification in East Asia.