JAPAN
25 March 2014
How's life in Japan?
How's life in Japan? It's a case of sweet and sour, according to the OECD's Better Life Initiative.
How's life in Japan? It's a case of sweet and sour, according to the OECD's Better Life Initiative.
The OECD places Japan in a "middle performers" group, along with 60% of the OECD membership. It is thus below the top 20% performers group (which includes Australia, Canada and the US), but above a bottom 20% performers group (which has Mexico, Greece, Portugal and Turkey).
There is of course much more to well-being than Gross Domestic Product, as the OECD Better Life Initiative recognizes. Thus the Initiative goes beyond the economic system to look at the diverse experiences and living conditions of people.
The OECD's conceptual framework for defining and measuring well-being also distinguishes between current and future wellbeing.
Current well-being is measured in terms of outcomes and their distribution across the population achieved in the two broad domains: material living conditions (i.e. income and wealth; jobs and earnings; housing conditions) and quality of life (i.e. health status; work-life balance; education and skills; social connections; civic engagement and governance; environmental quality; personal security; and subjective well-being).
But for well-being to have any sense, it must be sustained over time. How, for example, can we be sure that steps taken to improve well-being today do not undermine the wellbeing of people in the future? To assess the sustainability of well-being over time, the OECD focuses on four different types of resources (or “capitals”) that can be measured today, and that matter for the well-being of future generations: economic, natural, human and social capital.
So what are the results? Over the past twenty years, the advanced OECD countries have made considerable progress in terms of overall well-being. But not surprisingly, progress has been uneven between countries and also within some countries. In fact, across the eleven dimensions of well-being, no OECD country performs best in the 11 dimensions.
The global economic crisis has had a profound impact on people’s well-being, reaching far beyond the loss of jobs and income, and affecting citizens’ satisfaction with their lives and their trust in governments. The report finds that new forms of solidarity have emerged during the crisis. Personal and informal networks have strengthened, and a higher proportion of people are volunteering to help those in need. Families have been a source of support, both financial and in-kind, and have provided an increasingly important safety net.
Now to the curious case of Japan.
Japan ranks at the top of the OECD countries for personal security. Anyone who has visited or lived in Japan can testify to the great safety and security of the country. Indeed, Japan is so organized as a country that most crime (and there is lots of it) is organized crime, rather than random street crime.
Japan also ranks above the OECD average for education and skills. Many Asian countries do, although Asian students are usually much better at rote learning and test performance, rather than critical thinking or creativity. As an advanced country, Japan is also above average for income and wealth, jobs and earnings.
The "sour-side" of Japanese well-being shows up in below-average performance for environmental quality, civic engagement, social connections, housing, subjective well-being, health status and work-life balance.
The percentage of Japanese people reporting that they trust the government fell from 24% to 17% between 2007 and 2012, one of the lowest shares in the OECD. This is unlikely to be related to the global financial crisis, as in Europe. Rather, it is more likely to be a reaction to the mismanagement of Japan's 2011 triple crisis of earthquake, tsunami and above all Fukushima nuclear power meltdown, and the calamitous performance of the Democratic Party of Japan administration.
In contrast to other countries, new forms of social solidarity and engagement have not emerged in Japan. Indeed, the percentage of people reporting having helped someone and having volunteered their time decreased by 3 and 4 percentage points, respectively, between 2007 and 2011.
In Japan's state-led society, civil society is underdeveloped, discouraged and even mistrusted. Further, Japanese culture is riddled with social obligation and duty, and many people are reluctant to help each for fear of triggering a series of mutual obligations and duties.
From a well-being perspective, what matters is to have a job of good quality. While Japan has a low rate of unemployment, working is not an antidote to poverty for everyone. In 2010, 13% of Japanese people living in households with at least one worker experienced in-work poverty, while 12% of those living in households with all adult members employed were in poverty, both shares being well above the OECD average. In-work poverty reflects different forms of precarious employment (e.g. low working hours and hourly pay among full-time workers, frequent moves between low-paid work and joblessness, etc), and in Japan today, some 38% of workers have "irregular" employment status.
Gender gaps in well-being, typically in favour of men, have declined in most OECD countries, including in Japan. However, the wage gap between men and women in Japan is one of the largest of the whole OECD. Compared to men, Japanese women are also less likely to have a paid job or be elected to Parliament, and more likely to spend many hours performing household tasks or to feel insecure when walking alone at night. A sizeable share of Japanese women also report having experienced intimate partner violence.
Overall, life satisfaction also declined in Japan (the percentage of Japanese people declaring being very satisfied with their lives decreased from 49% to 43% from 2007 to 2012). But curiously, Japanese women register a higher level of subjective well-being than men!
The data for the OECD's Better Life Initiative was collected before the Liberal Democratic Party, under the leadership of Shinzo Abe, returned to power, and before the advent of "Abenomics".
The initial stimulus of Abenomics lifted Japan's economy and spirits for a brief while. More recently, the economy has been slowing again, and pessimism is returning, while observers wait to see if the third and even fourth arrows of Abenomics depart from the quiver.
The future of well-being in Japan still remains uncertain!
Executive Director
Asian Century Institute
www.asiancenturyinstitute.com
The OECD places Japan in a "middle performers" group, along with 60% of the OECD membership. It is thus below the top 20% performers group (which includes Australia, Canada and the US), but above a bottom 20% performers group (which has Mexico, Greece, Portugal and Turkey).
There is of course much more to well-being than Gross Domestic Product, as the OECD Better Life Initiative recognizes. Thus the Initiative goes beyond the economic system to look at the diverse experiences and living conditions of people.
The OECD's conceptual framework for defining and measuring well-being also distinguishes between current and future wellbeing.
Current well-being is measured in terms of outcomes and their distribution across the population achieved in the two broad domains: material living conditions (i.e. income and wealth; jobs and earnings; housing conditions) and quality of life (i.e. health status; work-life balance; education and skills; social connections; civic engagement and governance; environmental quality; personal security; and subjective well-being).
But for well-being to have any sense, it must be sustained over time. How, for example, can we be sure that steps taken to improve well-being today do not undermine the wellbeing of people in the future? To assess the sustainability of well-being over time, the OECD focuses on four different types of resources (or “capitals”) that can be measured today, and that matter for the well-being of future generations: economic, natural, human and social capital.
So what are the results? Over the past twenty years, the advanced OECD countries have made considerable progress in terms of overall well-being. But not surprisingly, progress has been uneven between countries and also within some countries. In fact, across the eleven dimensions of well-being, no OECD country performs best in the 11 dimensions.
The global economic crisis has had a profound impact on people’s well-being, reaching far beyond the loss of jobs and income, and affecting citizens’ satisfaction with their lives and their trust in governments. The report finds that new forms of solidarity have emerged during the crisis. Personal and informal networks have strengthened, and a higher proportion of people are volunteering to help those in need. Families have been a source of support, both financial and in-kind, and have provided an increasingly important safety net.
Now to the curious case of Japan.
Japan ranks at the top of the OECD countries for personal security. Anyone who has visited or lived in Japan can testify to the great safety and security of the country. Indeed, Japan is so organized as a country that most crime (and there is lots of it) is organized crime, rather than random street crime.
Japan also ranks above the OECD average for education and skills. Many Asian countries do, although Asian students are usually much better at rote learning and test performance, rather than critical thinking or creativity. As an advanced country, Japan is also above average for income and wealth, jobs and earnings.
The "sour-side" of Japanese well-being shows up in below-average performance for environmental quality, civic engagement, social connections, housing, subjective well-being, health status and work-life balance.
The percentage of Japanese people reporting that they trust the government fell from 24% to 17% between 2007 and 2012, one of the lowest shares in the OECD. This is unlikely to be related to the global financial crisis, as in Europe. Rather, it is more likely to be a reaction to the mismanagement of Japan's 2011 triple crisis of earthquake, tsunami and above all Fukushima nuclear power meltdown, and the calamitous performance of the Democratic Party of Japan administration.
In contrast to other countries, new forms of social solidarity and engagement have not emerged in Japan. Indeed, the percentage of people reporting having helped someone and having volunteered their time decreased by 3 and 4 percentage points, respectively, between 2007 and 2011.
In Japan's state-led society, civil society is underdeveloped, discouraged and even mistrusted. Further, Japanese culture is riddled with social obligation and duty, and many people are reluctant to help each for fear of triggering a series of mutual obligations and duties.
From a well-being perspective, what matters is to have a job of good quality. While Japan has a low rate of unemployment, working is not an antidote to poverty for everyone. In 2010, 13% of Japanese people living in households with at least one worker experienced in-work poverty, while 12% of those living in households with all adult members employed were in poverty, both shares being well above the OECD average. In-work poverty reflects different forms of precarious employment (e.g. low working hours and hourly pay among full-time workers, frequent moves between low-paid work and joblessness, etc), and in Japan today, some 38% of workers have "irregular" employment status.
Gender gaps in well-being, typically in favour of men, have declined in most OECD countries, including in Japan. However, the wage gap between men and women in Japan is one of the largest of the whole OECD. Compared to men, Japanese women are also less likely to have a paid job or be elected to Parliament, and more likely to spend many hours performing household tasks or to feel insecure when walking alone at night. A sizeable share of Japanese women also report having experienced intimate partner violence.
Overall, life satisfaction also declined in Japan (the percentage of Japanese people declaring being very satisfied with their lives decreased from 49% to 43% from 2007 to 2012). But curiously, Japanese women register a higher level of subjective well-being than men!
The data for the OECD's Better Life Initiative was collected before the Liberal Democratic Party, under the leadership of Shinzo Abe, returned to power, and before the advent of "Abenomics".
The initial stimulus of Abenomics lifted Japan's economy and spirits for a brief while. More recently, the economy has been slowing again, and pessimism is returning, while observers wait to see if the third and even fourth arrows of Abenomics depart from the quiver.
The future of well-being in Japan still remains uncertain!
Author
John WestExecutive Director
Asian Century Institute
www.asiancenturyinstitute.com