Study On The Relationship Between Japan's Unemployment And Industrial Structure Change From 1990s

Up until the 1990s, the Japanese economic system reflected the high level of economic growth that had been achieved, and was highly regarded throughout the world. The employment state of Japan even nearly reached "full employment " in the 1960s. However, since the 1990s, there has also been more focus on its problems as the Japanese economy has stagnated. With the collapse of the bubble economy, the rate of unemployment soared constantly.We can divide Japan's unemployment into structural unemployment and unemployment caused by deficiency of effective demand. This thesis does not analyze structural unemployment under conditions of the labor market clearing, but under non-equilibrium system. However, Japan's unemployment can not be solved by simply expanding aggregate demand because of it's structural characteristic.Many economists explained unemployment by "insider-outsider theories" (Lindbeck-Snower, 1986, 1987 and1988),"efficiency wages" (Solow, 1979; Shapiro-Stiglitz, 1984; Greenwald-Stiglitz 1993). "implicit contract" (Rosen, 1985). But to Japan, the following reasons are more important.The lagging adjustment of Industrial structure resulted in deficiency of effective demand and unemployment with a large number of vacancy posts. In addition, Japan's employment policy , human resource management style, "three sacred treasures" —the lifetime employment system, the seniority-based wage system, the separate labor unions system for each company, are also the reasons causing Japan's structural unemployment.Through the research on structural characteristic of unemployment, several points are put forward, as upgrading Industrial structure, making the labor market more flexible. On the basis of pointing out reasons causing china's unemployment and in view of lessons from Japan's experience, supplies some advice on how to solve China's structural unemployment.