戦後日本における労働市場の展開

The purpose of this paper is to clarify changes in the spatial structure of the labor market in Japan since the end of World War II. The author therefore discusses the following points: 1) the changes in the labor market in Japan, 2) the spatial structure of labor market in Japan, The results are summarized as follows. In labor market studies, it has been recognized that the labor market is not a homogeneous structure but a segmented one, because there are some differences among the labor force in terms of wage disparity, labor movement, etc. In recent years, much research indicates that the boundaries of the segmentation of the labor market are fluid and indistinct. However, Labor economics are not very interested in issues related to spatial relations. In Geography labor market studies have changed in scope since the 1960s. Since the 1960s a number of manufacturing plants for, notably, textiles and electronics have been located in the rural areas to take advantage of cheap labor. These factories have influenced the local labor market and the occupational structure in this area, as would be expected. Following the collapse of the ""bubble economy"", young people entering the labor market as non-regular workers have increased in metropolitan areas. In the 1990s, production from manufacturing tended to decline in Japan. As a result of this decline, both the proportion of part-time workers and the unemployment rate increased. On the other hand, we can see some growth in the welfare service sector for the elderly in the rural areas in the 1990s. However, this sector can be characterized by such working conditions as low wages and instability of status. In order to develop research methods in this field further, we have some issues to resolve: 1) the character of spatial structure of the labor market in Japan since the 1990s, and 2) the mechanism of the regional differences on the labor market condition.