Research projects

本研究は、日本における移民の経済統合（移民とマジョリティとの経済的な平等の達成）について、企業や職場における移民労働者処遇のあり方に注目し、職業分離と関係的不平等という理論から考察する。職業分離に着目することで、移民とマジョリティとの職業分離がどの程度存在し、職場内で両者がどのような関係にあるのかを明らかにする。

本研究は、福祉レジームが異なる日本、韓国、イギリス、フィンランドの4カ国を対象に、若者の家族形成意欲の低下に注目して、①少子化のメカニズムの変容、②若者の家族形成意欲を低下させる要因、および、出生率低下の要因が福祉レジームや結婚制度の違いにより国によって異なること、③それらをふまえた、わが国の今後の少子化対策に求められる視点を研究する。主な研究方法は、公的統計データの分析、既存調査の二次分析、独自調査（サーベイ実験）である。研究結果を国内外の学術雑誌への論文や書籍等として発表して、当該分野における国際的研究の発展に貢献する。

This study designed and implemented a panel survey of immigrants living in Tokyo, one of the largest cities in the world, in order to identify their pathway toward integration into the host society. Tokyo is a suitable place for examining the socioeconomic integration of immigrants, because the city has experienced significant social changes in recent years, such as a growing inflow of capitals and people from other countries, changes in industrial structure, and a growing number of highly educated people. The study revealed that in terms of social stratification and economic integration of immigrants, gender inequality in Japanese society has also had a significant impact on the economic integration of immigrants. In terms of immigrants' human capital, the study also found that both the place of education and the field of study in higher education have a significant impact on immigrants' economic integration.

新型コロナパンデミックは、子供の教育格差研究に対し、取り組むべき課題と研究手法との双方に、変革の必要性を迫っている。社会のオンライン化に伴い、家庭環境が子供に与える影響が強まることが懸念されている。また、教育格差拡大を防ぐために、世界各国で、新たな政策的対応の必要性が議論されている。そこで、本研究では、全国の子供を対象とし、オンラインにより、ポストコロナの新たな課題に対応した調査や実験による研究手法を考案する。それらを通じ、コロナ禍が子供の学力や日常生活に及ぼした影響を厳密に分析し、国際比較も行うことで、コロナ後の研究と政策のあり方を提示する。 交付申請段階では、以下の５項目の計画を示していた。 １．調査対象コホートの設計：本研究では、一般コホート、活動記録コホート、介入コホート、経済実験コホートの４サンプルを用意するが、計画通り、年度内に、サンプリングでカバーすべき子どもの年齢（学年）幅と、各コホートへの割り当てを決定した。 ２．全国を対象としたベースラインサンプル抽出：１．での設計に基づき、調査会社を通じて対象自治体の住民台帳から小中学生の子供をもつ世帯を抽出し、調査依頼を行い、全国の子供の大規模なランダムサンプル（ベースラインサンプル）を構築することとしていたが、前例のない調査であることから、調査会社と相談の上、計画を変更し、小サンプルによる１次調査依頼の実施を完了した。大規模サンプルを対象とした２次調査依頼は、令和４年度４月より実施することとした。 ３．ベースライン調査とウェブアンケートシステムの設計：２．で抽出された対象者に実施するベースライン調査の設計チームを編成し、調査の設計を計画通り進めている。また、調査手法については、既存のウェブシステムを改良の上、２回目の調査から活用する方向で計画の微調整を行った。 ４．調査対象者登録システム（マイページ）の構築：調査対象者とのコミュニケーションのベースとなる登録システム（マイページ）を、過去に作成した同様のシステムをそのまま活用する方向で決定した。 ５．個別課題に利用する国の統計調査の利用申請：当初、利用を申請した国の統計調査の内、全国学力・学習状況調査、児童生徒の問題行動等生徒指導上の諸問題に関する調査、学校等の教育の情報化実態調査、国民生活基礎調査を申請・取得し、分析への利用を開始した。 本年度の当初計画では、本研究計画に必要な、大規模な子供のサンプルを構築するために、自治体への住民台帳閲覧と抽出された対象者への調査依頼を、本年度内にすべて終了することとしていた。しかしながら、１０月頃の調査委託先との打ち合わせの中で、今回の調査依頼は前例のないタイプの調査であることから、小サンプルでの調査依頼（１次依頼）を試験的に先行させ、自治体側の反応を確認し、そこで生じた課題を解決しつつ、当初計画していたサンプルサイズの調査依頼（２次依頼）を行うことに計画を変更した。 計画変更は行いつつも、年度内での調査依頼完了を予定していたが、１次依頼での契約手続きと自治体の住民台帳閲覧の承認（調査研究内容に関する自治体からの問い合わせへの対応を含む）に予想以上の時間がかかり、同時にコロナオミクロン株の急速な蔓延による自治体側の事務の停滞もあり、１月時点で、計画よりも２ヶ月の遅れとなることが明らかになった。そのタイミングで２次調査依頼を開始しても、年度内に契約を完了することは不可能であること、年度の切れ目で委託契約を事務的に分割することは、依頼先の自治体への説明の観点から不可能との判断から、現実的対応として、年度明け４月早々に調査委託先と２次調査の契約を行い、残りの自治体への調査依頼を開始することに計画を変更した。 ２次依頼の契約金額は初年度の予算規模の大半を占めているため、かなりの金額が未執行となった。しかし、金額面で想像されるほどの研究計画の遅れはなく、令和４年４月時点で３ヶ月程度の遅れである考えている。２次調査は、令和４年度直接経費を利用して実施しており、令和４年度の研究計画の一部は調整金での交付を待って実施することで、研究の遅延は、令和４年度後半には問題なく解決できると考えている。 また、計画に記載していた国の統計調査データで、年度内に取得できなかったデータがある。 進捗状況で記載したとおり、契約金額の大きい調査の２次依頼が、年度を挟むタイミングを避けるために翌年度の実施となったが、研究計画自体に大幅な遅れはなく、令和４年度半ばまでに計画通りの進捗に戻すために、全力を尽す予定である。 現時点での他の計画変更として、当初、ウェブサーベイシステムの利用を想定していた１回目の調査は、伝統的な紙調査票を使う方向で微修正している。しかしながら、紙調査票の読み取りに、最先端のOCR技術の適用を想定している点で本研究プロジェクトの趣旨に変更はない。今後も、正確で効率的な調査の実施のために必要な程度において、先端技術を適切に利用していく方針である。

Significant earnings disparities exist in Japanese society, particularly between regular and non-regular employees, and between men and women. Using data from an original international comparative survey, this study empirically examined which types of disparities, and to what extent, are accepted as "justified disparities" in the society and whether this acceptance can be explained by people’s assumptions and perceptions regarding categories of workers. Through this analysis, the study revealed an important dimension of the mechanisms through which earnings disparities are accepted and justified.

本研究の目的は、東アジア諸国においてこれまで少子化をすすめてきた背景要因をふまえた上で、新型コロナの感染拡大が各国の結婚・出生に与える影響を解明することである。研究対象国は、日本、韓国、シンガポール、台湾である。主な研究方法は、公的統計データの分析、独自のアンケート調査、パネルデータの二次分析等である。本研究でえられた知見を国内外の学術誌の論文や書籍として発表する。

This study aims to explore the ways in which labor market outcomes among immigrants depend on welfare regimes and industrial structures of local labor marekts. To identify the linkage betweeen welfare regimes and socioeconomic outcomes among immigrants, we compare labor force participation of immigrant women across the three countries with different institutional settings, such as Japan, Sweden and the United States. What we found in this study is that the labor force participation of immigrant women is reflected by the familialistic welfare regime which is characterized as the male breadwinner model. Turning to the results concerning the effect of industrial structures of local labor markets, it is shown that immigrants' unemployment increased in the place with a larger concentration of manufucaturing industries with higher export orientation.

This research focused on three important mechanisms by which inequality is formed, such as class, gender, and ethnicity. It also identified how class, gender, and ethnicity relate to each other and what inequalities arise from them in the family and labor market in Japan. The results of this research project was published as a form of discussion papers in the research report. The first part of the report examines inequality over education and labor market, and discusses the situation of people in peripheral positions in Japan, including decomposition of income inequality. In terms of inequality surrounding immigrants, the report examined inequality in educational opportunities for children of immigrants, unemployment and wages among the first generation. We also examined the relationship between immigrant integration and their subjective well-being.

Four important social changes that affect mobility regime, institutional arrangements organizing life courses, are in progress in contemporary Asian societies: Globalization, the rise of neo-liberalism, the shift to service industry, and the falling birthrate and the aging population. This project focused on these changes, the falling birthrate and the aging population in particular, and studied the effects of changes in mobility regime on risks of employment and livelihood in contemporary Asian societies. A main finding is that the effects of the demographic change on mobility regime vary between strata and, therefore, it is necessary to conduct detailed analysis of the change in risks of employment and livelihood focusing on social stratification.

本研究では、国際移動に伴う階層移動に関する国際比較研究として、ブラジル人移民を主たる事例に、日米比較研究を行った。分析の結果、日本におけるブラジル人はアメリカにおけるブラジル人と比較して、社会経済的な上昇移動が困難な状況におかれていることが明らかになった。とりわけ、移民のホスト社会への同化・適応が、移民の所得にどのような影響を及ぼすか、確認すると、日本の方が、その効果が非常に小さいことも明らかになった。受け入れ社会における労働市場の構造が、移民の社会経済的地位達成と大きな関連があることが、比較を通じて明らかになった。

This study argues how Brazilian immigrants in Japan attain the socioeconomic advancement. Many Brazilian immigrants in Japan have been involved in dispatched employment controlled by labor brokerage agencies, and their employment is highly unstable in the labor market. Nevertheless one in ten Brazilian workers have been employed directly by firms, not employment intermediaries. Empirical evidence suggests that while the human capitals of Brazilian immigrants have weak influences on the likelihood of getting stable employment, their social capital and institutional settings surrounding immigrants in Japan have substantial impacts on the likelihood of attaining the direct employment.

Given the population decline in Japan, this study compared the trajectories of immigrants' integration into the host society by nationality and by residence status. This study explored the way in which the context of reception for immigrants affected a likelihood of becoming unemployed during the period of financial crisis in the late 2000s. In this study, I used the data derived from the surveys for immigrants in Shizuoka Prefecture, conducted in 2007 and in 2009 to examine the economic situations among unskilled immigrants in Japan. What I found in this study is that a likelihood of unemployment in a given group of immigrants depended on the composition of trainees and technical interns in this group. After controling for this status of trainees and interns, we see that Latin American immigrants of Japanese descent were still likely to become unemployed than other immigrants because of their precarios nature of employment contract.

This research theoretically and empirically studied the characteristics of the low fertility which was an academic and policy issue, and its background factors for Japan, South Korea and Singapore. As results of it, the following three points were clarified. First, in these Asian countries, decreasing marriage was directly linked to declining birthrates because of little number of both cohabitation or children and children born out of wedlock. Among those backgrounds, there were employment situation, highly educated, compatibility between work and parenting.　Secondly, young adult's employment had deteriorated particularly in Japan and South Korea, due to globalization, service economy conversion and highly education, that was promoting unmarried. Third, wage disparities between men and women were small in Singapore, but large in Japan. Low fertility in Asia was closely related to employment and education.

This research explores the rewards inequalities among employment opportunities in Japan and examines how structural and institutional factors such as personnel practices, labor relations, and social policies have shaped the inequalities from a comparative perspective. The research proved that the rewards inequalities among employment opportunities in Japan are generally equipped with the norm and logic for the legitimation, and they play an important role in reproduction of the inequalities.

East Asian countries are the regions with the low fertility in the world, and it is an important academic task to clarify it's actual situation and reasons. The purpose of this study is to theoretically grasp the changes in marriage and birth that are occurring in East Asian countries from a different perspective from the "second demographic transition" of European countries. The background factors were empirically analyzed. Specific hypotheses about the backgrounds are (1) deterioration of youth employment, (2) increase in education costs due to higher education, (3) difficulty in balancing work and child-rearing, and (4) changes in individual values. The study target countries are major countries in the / regions. The central research method is event history analysis using panel data and multivariable analysis using independent research data. The findings obtained from this research were compiled into papers and books from academic journals in Japan and overseas.

In order to develop international comparative study of occupational and educational inequality from the standpoint of East Asia, we proposed an East Asian stratification model in which we developed perspectives, conceptions, and methodology for effectively analyzing East Asian properties based on survey data. Within the common framework of educational expansion and rapid late-industrialization, it is important to evaluate influences of the historical and institutional differences with regard to educational institutions, labor institutions and economic organizations, gender, and social groups.

The type and degree of contributions made by foreigners in Japan, a country that has started to show population decline, vary with their nationality and status-of-residence, and regional differences in this regard are not small. Since foreignersare engaged in a variety of occupations, such contributions in contemporary Japan are not necessarily conspicuous. The fertility of foreign women and women within international marriages is nearly equal to, or even lower than, that of Japanese women. The adoption of reliable support measures for foreigners by some of the local municipalities deserves our attention, while the social integration policies of the national government are insufficient and should be improved.

This research project focused on a social mechanism in which global changes change mobility regimes, which in turn change social stratification and the distribution of employment-livelihood risks. Analyzing the mechanism led to the following findings. (1) The inequality between regular and non-regular workers has historical backgrounds. (2) The revision of Part-time Employment Act and Temporary Staffing Services Law contributed to legalizing the existing inequality among workers. (3) Social institutions affect people’s choices of education and occupation in various aspects.

The aim of this study was to discover evidence on the causal relationship between economic disparity and educational disparity. For that purpose, we established a high-quality long-term data base for parents and children, and conducted empirical and experimental studies. Specifically, utilizing academic achievement data equated by the test theory, we conducted international comparative studies of the correlation between academic achievement disparities and economic disparities, an experimental study of the impact of parental values on children's non-cognitive abilities in Japan and the U.S., and a causal analysis of the impact of the child allowance policy in Japan on the parents' educational expenditures and children's academic achievement.

We have down a couple of comparative survey on the relationship between adolescent socialization network and educational attainment, in Tokyo Metropolitan Area and Seoul Metropolitan Area. Research methods we took were both questionnaire and interview. We focused on : (1) relationship between family background and educational aspiration, (2) parental involvement and student grades, (3) socialization network and school life, (4) student's values and attitude about gender issues, (5) student's peer relationship and their life style. We presented these results at annual meetings of the Japan Sociological Society, The Japan Society of Educational Sociology. Papers are appearing in a couple of academic journals.