Research On The Change Of The Income Inequality In Japan During The Heisei Period

The problems of distribution and income inequality as a result of the distribution have been the focus of economic research.In recent years,with the world’s market-oriented reform and economic globalization,some countries continue to expand the income inequality,inequality again highlighted,especially in Japan’s performance.After World War II,Japan has not only vigorously promoted its economic development,but also effectively alleviated the expansion of income inequality,and has achieved the ―100 million nationals are middle stratum‖ equal development.However,since the bubble economy and the collapse of the bubble economy,Japan’s inequality has also been highlighted.Therefore,the author studies the reasons of the income inequality in Japan under the background of market-oriented reform and economic globalization,analyzes the causes of the income inequality in this period,summarizes the new characteristics of the income inequality in this period,and reveals the general law of the income inequality change in this period,which could be an important reference for China.In the stage of the traditional ―Kuznets Rise‖,the study of income inequality focuses on verifying the interaction between economic growth and income inequality.Most scholars’ studies have failed to get rid of the cycle of ―focusing on empirical analysis,despising theoretical research‖.It has been twenty years since the ―Atkinson Revival‖,the introduction of heterogeneity hypothesis,the existence of multiple equilibrium and the rise of new growth theory has laid a new theoretical framework for the study of income inequality.Therefore,based on the review of the development history of income distribution in Japan after World War II,based on the existence of heterogeneity hypothesis and multiple equilibrium,taking the issue of income inequality widening in Japan during the Heisei period(1989 and beyond)as the research focus,by using the method of normative analysis and empirical analysis,this paper analyzes the changes of income inequality in Japan,including the change trajectory,reason and influence of income inequality,and evaluates the trend of response policies or countermeasures and forecasts the future.Japan’s Heisei period income inequality continues to expand,and shows a characteristic of a split between rich and poor,expanding of the gap between Tokyo and other regions,widening of family,age and gender gap,and becomes a typical country of income inequality in OECD countries.The reason for this result is not only the lack of supply of effective system,the long-term economic downturn,the intensification of social composition,the expansion of educational endowment differences and the destruction of major disasters on the direct role of domestic factors,but also the prevalence of neoliberals’ and neo-conservatism,and the outbreak of the economic crisis on the indirect effect of international factors.The increase of domestic social structure and the expansion of educational endowment have had a fundamental and lasting effect on the continued expansion of income inequality in Japan during the Heisei period:(1)Japan’s Heisei period,education investment and income of the uncertainty of the increase have led to the expansion of educational endowment differences,Intergenerational mobility reduction,stratum solidification,and ultimately lead to the widening the income inequality;(2)Japan’s Heisei period,family composition,age,gender and education level of income inequality changes in the contribution of large,under the condition of the other factors unchanged,when the family composition and age changes for a unit,personal income inequality will expand 0.423% and 0.391%,when the gender difference and education level changes for a unit,the personal income inequality will be reduced by 2.234% and 0.442%;(3)The constantly widening income inequality in Japan during the Heisei period was non-appropriate and dented the development of economy,society and politics.The empirical results show that: Under the condition of controlling other variables,the income inequality measured by Gini index is reduced by 0.398% for every 1% expansion.Japan’s per capita spending on spending will be reduced by 14.89 thousand yen for every 1% of Japan’s income inequality.After entering the 21 st century,in order to cope with the problem of continuing expanding of income inequality,the Japanese government have despised taking the minimum wage standards and reduced the unemployment rate,promoted social security and tax integration reform policy.But in the face of the uncertainty of world economic development,Japan’s long-term economic growth,the degree of low birth-rate and aging society deepen,Japan’s income inequality will continue to expand,according to Japanese scholars based on family information analysis model simulation forecast of the Japanese Gini coefficient shows that it will rise from 0.455 in 2025 to 0.486 in 2050.Combined with the case study in Japan,in order to resolve similar problems in China,the following recommendations are put forward in this paper:(1)Draw lessons from the experience of the reform of social security and tax integration implemented in Japan,and promote the reform of income distribution institution in China;(2)Gradual implementation of the tilt of the distribution institution,expanding the proportion of the middle stratum,to avoiding falling into the ―Middle-income Trap‖;(3)In the process of population aging and family miniaturization,properly deal with the contradiction between the reform of urban and rural household registration institution and the implementation of the comprehensive two-child liberalization policy,avoid the negative impact of the widening income inequality;(4)Vigorously promote to take targeted measures in poverty alleviation,attach importance to education in poverty-stricken areas,achieve ―Help the poor,help the mind;Cure poverty,cure ignorance‖;(5)Pay attention to the interactive relationship between income inequality and economic growth,especially the negative impact of the widening income inequality on economic growth,grasp the current strategic opportunity of deepening the reform of China’s income distribution institution,and deepen the reform of income distribution system;(6)Gradually promote the classification of individual income tax collection,reduce the burden of low-income tax burden,achieve the fairness of the tax,the rational use of tax revenue redistribution function.The academic contribution of this paper mainly includes the following three aspects:(1)The new perspective of research perspective.Based on the Maoz and Moav(1999)model,this paper proposes a two-stage uncertainty generation model based on the assumption that the investment and income are uncertain,qualitative analysis of education investment,income inequality and intergenerational mobility of the three relations,from the perspective of uncertainty to study,makes up for the shortcomings of the past only from the perspective of certainty;(2)The frontier of empirical methods.In this paper,nonparametric kernel density estimation,the establishment of multinomial Logit model,membership function coordination model and dynamic panel data model,MLE estimation method,factor analysis method and system GMM estimation method are conducted to quantitatively analyze the change of income inequality in Japan,which makes up for the lack of quantitative research in the past;(3)The systematicness of the research content.This paper systematically analyzes the change of income inequality in Japan,comprehensively grasps the new characteristics of the change of income inequality in the process of market reform and economic globalization,in the research stage,the research content and the empirical analysis respectively focuses on Japan’s Heisei period,the reasons for the income inequality changes and micro-impact factors,which makes up for research defects of such problems in the past.