Description
Book SynopsisThis book is a concerted attempt by economists to investigate and offer remedies for some of the difficulties associated with an ageing labor market.
The economic problems of ageing combined with a declining population manifest themselves most acutely in the present Japanese economy. Demographic trends present serious social and economic problems for Japan, and the rest of the global community is affected by the ways in which it copes with these difficulties. The contributors to this book study Japan's experience, which is crucial for understanding the nature of ageing problems and for developing feasible policies to address them. Ageing labor markets could distort the employment mechanism, create youth unemployment, and disrupt incentives for human capital formation in younger workers. Though an economic approach is the core methodology in the book, it also encompasses diverse perspectives including sociological considerations of labor markets and negotiating behaviour within households. The international implications of the problems are emphasized in the chapters that deal with immigration and capital markets.
This book will be an indispensable tool for economists, policy makers and students concerned with the effects of ageing societies throughout the world.
Trade Review'. . . the book is to be highly recommended to economic and labour market analysts as well as academics and graduate students for raising some important questions and coming to grips with many new interesting puzzles in economics. Hamada and Kato have raised the bar of economic analysis of ageing and elderly care.' -- Herb Thompson, Journal of Contemporary Asia
'This book is no doubt one of the key recent works on Japan's population aging and policies. While the material is primarily confined to the Japanese context, the Japanese experience with rapid population aging and policy responses may serve as a baseline for discussing important policy issues related to population aging in Europe and Asia. . . this volume lends itself to helping these policymakers in formulating and implementing effective policies to cope with various problems arising from unprecedented population aging in their countries.' -- Journal of Pension Economics and Finance
'The book is successful in analyzing various issues such as employment, growth, elderly care, etc. of ageing in Japan, and presenting various policy recommendations to deal with these serious problems. One interesting aspect of the book is the analysis regarding the way Japan interacts with the world in terms of immigration and foreign investment, which has received little attention in the literature. It is certainly a valuable book.' -- Toshiaki Tachibanaki, Kyoto University, Japan
'This wide-ranging collection of papers will be of value to anyone interested in the economics of ageing and the policy choices faced by the Japanese.' -- Mark Rebick, Nissan Institute of Japanese Studies, UK
Table of ContentsContents: Preface Professor Kuroda, President, ESRI Introduction 1. Ageing and Employment in Japan Yuji Genda, Hiroshi Teruyama, Souichi Ohta, Ryo Kambayashi, Mamiko Ishihara 2. Factors Affecting Labor Force Participation in Japan: Empirical Study of Labor Supply of the Elderly and Females Hirotsugu Sakai and Hitoshi Asaoka 3. Labor Force Ageing and Economic Growth in Japan Masaya Sakuragawa and Tatsuji Makino 4. Ageing and Elderly Care in an Open Economy Koichi Hamada and Lakshmi K. Raut 5. Immigration vs. Foreign Investment to Ease the Ageing Problems of an Ageing Open Economy Lakshmi K. Raut 6. Ageing Society and the Choice of Japan: Migration, FDI and Trade Liberalization Junichi Goto 7. Retirement in Non-Cooperative and Cooperative Families Erik Hernæs, Zhiyang Jia, and Steinar Strøm Index
