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AIM

• To examine the different ways of conceptualizing the ‘quality of life (QoL)’, and

• To assess the QoL of Japanese people

in a historical and to a certain extent comparative context.

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Objectives:

1) To introduce different approaches in defining ‘QoL’,

2) To evaluate in what ways Japanese people can be regarded as having a ‘good’ or ‘bad’ QoL in a historical context,

3) To evaluate in what ways Japanese people can be regarded as having a ‘good’ or ‘bad’ QoL in a comparative context, and

4) To look at a new phenomenon of an emerging division in the middle class.

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Introduction

Objective & subjective ways for assessing the quality of life.

From “economic power” to a “lifestyle superpower”

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014Objective indices and

Subjective interpretation • Objective measures of the QoL

• collected in terms of indices: longevity, per capita GDP, how the wealth in a society is

distributed, material possessions and their distribution (car, home appliances, TV sets, etc…)

• However, some statistics include subjective judgments, e.g.,: having a high per capita GDP gives a higher QoLconsumer goods improve your QoL, and so on.

Material possessions interpreted as QoL based on a faith in

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Subjective evaluation

• May include what kind of life is enjoyed: Is just being alive an adequate measure?Should we include the way life is lived? In old age: nursing care rather than physicians, family

support rather than being isolated.

• In all societies, wealth is distributed unequally.

QoL　has　a　social-QoL　has　a　social-interpersonal　interpersonal　dimension.　dimension.　

Is there any measure of evaluation if suffering of others in society affects one’s QoL?Does the North/South disparities, famine and despair in a developing world reduce QoL in the developed world?

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Absolute vs. relative QoL

• Certainly, an absolute increase in longevity can be used as an objective measure:

The longer you live, at least the greater opportunity there is for a quality life.

Yet, if everyone else is living longer, there is no relative potential increase in your QoL.  

Or, if having an automobile would increase your QoL, if everyone else possesses a car, does your relative QoL only increase if you have a better car, or two cars?

These involve philosophical and moral issues, beyond the scope of a discussion here – but should be borne in mind.

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PM Miyazawa’s scheme

• PM Kiichi Miyazawa’s a policy speech on the issue of QoL @ an extraordinary session of the Diet on 8 November 1991 :Desire to make Japan into:a ‘nation of quality’ (hinhaku aru kuni), and a ‘lifestyle superpower’ (seikatsu taikoku).The goal was to create:A vibrant, well-rounded country whose standard of living is

such that it can truly be called “developed”. This, not only in a material sense (high levels of income, etc)

but also in terms of the rich QoL enjoyed by people through its abundant social capital and aesthetic beauty.

•

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PM Kiichi MIYAZAWA

With PM Ikeda

At the diet in his PM years

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Miyazawa’s view

1. At least in terms of the material aspects of life, Japan was a developed country by the beginning of the 1990s.

2. In other words, it had a high standard of living in terms of per capita GDP.  

3. Despite the material wellbeing, people did not enjoy a high QoL in terms of social capital.

4. Economic growth had been placed on making the country rich rather than improving the lives of ordinary Japanese.

5. This had led to the economic bubble, with rapid and unsustainable increase in asset prices. 

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Citizen’s QoL and the State

• PM Miyazawa’s plan shows a view that:• The state is meant to play a role in the leisure

life of Japanese people

• Suggests how the state intervenes directly in the QoL of the people, even down to their leisure activities and aesthetic experiences.

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014The “Lifestyle

Superpower” plan A 5-year economic plan with 5 interrelated

objectives: ① Shorter working hours; ② Affordable housing; ③ Improved social infrastructure; ④ Harmonious external relations, achieved in part through

a reduction of Japan’s trade surplus involving the stimulation of domestic demand

⑤ Meaningful international contributions (“Tomorrow’s ‘Lifestyle Superpower’ ” 1992)

Improving the QoL, as in reducing working hours, is of particular concern.

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Approaches to QoL

Comparative – temporal & spacialHistorical

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possible• Comparative approach: Take an objective measure and examine it, as in a

measurement across the temporal dimension within the same society.

Example: if we take the question of longevity across time, these are the figures for Japan (WHO).

Life expectancy at birth

Male Female Difference

1960 65 70 5

1980 73 79 6

2003 78 85 7

2012 82 86 4

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Life expectancy in Japan

The life expectancy kept increasing. The male - female difference is now decreasing.

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What the stats says

• Crude statistics:• Life expectancy increased across time.• In 1935, the average longevity was about 45 and in

1950 about 60. • Spatial comparison: Japan vs. UK

• Life expectancy in 2012 is 78 for men and 82 for women, whereas in 1980-2 the longevity for men was 71 and for women 77.  Longevity in both Japan and the UK has increased for

both male and female.Japan has greater longevity than the UK.Women in both countries live longer than men.

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Increasing 65+ population

• Increase in longevity has brought into focus the question of the subjective QoL, as more and more people survive into old age.

Percentage of over 65s in Japan and in the UK

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014Prospect of Japanese

Economy and Society

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Possible causes

Low fertility and high life expectancies

•Small families higher education, later marriage, employment problems, lower income, lack of privacy, small living spaces, increasing costs of child care & education, lack of family support, lack of social support system for child bearing & caring•Culture: Parasite Singles, Herbivore men ( 草食

系男子 Sōshoku-kei danshi)

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Problems ahead

• The increased % of older people brings up the question of QoL in a number of areas:  At a G8 meeting of employment ministers in March 2005,

savings and pensions were discussed as serious issues.  

With a declining population, Japan faces the challenge of how to pay for a large proportion of the population not involved in paid activity, and not able to rely on an extended family to look after them.

• Japan’s Government Pension Investment Fund

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“senior” customers• New business opportunities targeting “baby

boomers (b. 1946-1965)” & “senior” customers.

• Assisted/Adjustable furniture• Mobility aids• User-friendly electric appliances• Meal Delivery• Home care services (incl. bathing, etc.)• Senior fashion, leisure, travel, etc.

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014‘Good’ or ‘bad’ QoL in a

historical context

The question of ‘good’ or ‘bad’ QoL brings us into the area of subjective judgment on QoL.

A number of measures that could be considered an indication.

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Positive indices

• To a certain level, the living standards enjoyed by people can be taken as a positive indices of QoL.

• Living standards are a combination of private consumption and collective consumption:

What members of society consume, as well as what the government spends for the collectivity.

Some of this collective expenditure may be seen as wasteful, as when the Japanese government spends money to build bridges to nowhere.

But at least expenditure on e.g. education and health, can be regarded as positive.

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Japan’s GDP per capita

1980 1990 2000 2002 20128,135 18,340 25,928 26,690 36,179Historically,

the GDP per capita has continued to increase in

PPP terms.

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014Quality of life in historical

context

Positive indices:•Per capita GNP

Negative indices:•Working hours

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Negative indices

• Reducing the number of hours worked was one of the goals of PM Miyazawa.• Some improvement seems to have been made. • If we take all industries, then there has been a

slight decrease in the hours worked.

• However, this is an average, including female and part-time workers.

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convey

• These average statistics for men do not take into account: • Discrepancies between occupations.

Men working in the transportation industry averaged 48.6 h/week in 1997 and 49.3 h/week in 2002.

• Unpaid, unclaimed overtime, reputed to be the case in the finance sector and other white-collar jobs or transportation sector.

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014Another parameter:

holidays• Holidays entitlement not used:

In 1991 the number of paid holidays was 15.2 days/year, but the actual amount taken was 7.8, i.e. about half (51%)

In 2003 the number of paid holidays was 18.2 days/year, but the actual amount taken was 8.8 days/year, less than 50% (48%)

In 2011, the number of paid holidays was 18.3 days/year, but the actual amount taken was 8.6 days/year, still less than 50% (49%) .

• Despite the increase in the amount of holiday entitlement, the actual days taken remains low.

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Use of entitled holidays

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014Is the quality of life in Japan

good or bad?

Similarities and differences between Japan and the UKPer capita GNPHolidays and working hoursWealth distributionSpending on educationSpending on healthCrime rate

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014‘Good’ or ‘bad’ QoL in a

comparative context • Warning: Comparison fails to take into account

many of the important subjective QoL questions on whether people prefer one country for its QoL than another. • The 2003 per capita GDP in Japan was ca.

£20,000, about 20% higher than in the UK, ca. £15,800.

• The 2014 per capita GDP in Japan is estimated £24976.04, while in the UK it is estimated at £27216.54

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014Working conditions in

Japan and in the UKMale workers working hours in Japan and in the UK

 • UK employers have a legal requirement to give at

least four weeks annual leave, Trade Union Council claims more than 400,000

workers are cheated out of the full amount. In other cases, due to a loophole in the Working Time

Regulations (1998), some employers count bank holidays as part of the allowance.

Also, the UK has only eight bank holidays compared with a minimum of 15 in Japan.

Country 1997 2002 2011Japan 46.6 h/week 46.8 h/week 45.5 h/week

UK 41.8 h/week 40.9 h/week 39.0 h/week

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What do these mean?

• Overall, it would seem that, in terms of hours worked and holidays, the British QoL is better than the Japanese.  

• But what if you gain social meaning from work relations, and enjoy what you do?

• As long as it does not harm health, does working longer hours mean you have a poorer QoL?

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Wealth distribution

• Wealth distribution in a society has been an issue for thinkers for centuries:

• The 19th century philosopher John Stuart Mill’s proposal of utilitarianism.  

• According to the utilitarians, actions are morally right if they promote the greatest happiness for the greatest number.

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Issues with utilitarianism

• In the utilitarian perspective, what happens to the minority?

• Is the way wealth distributed in society simply a result of the effort of individuals?

• What role should the state play to distribute the wealth of society (e.g. through taxes) and take a role in caring for the less fortunate.  

• These are issues of major concern for political parties in both Japan and the UK.

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014Wealth distribution,

poverty• If we take household income or consumption by

percentage share:In 1993 the lowest 10% in Japan consumed 4.8%,

whereas the highest 10% consumed 21.7%.In the UK, in 1995 the lowest 10% consumed 2.3%

and the highest 27.7%. In short, the poorest 10% are worse off in the UK

than in Japan, suggesting more unequal distribution of wealth.

• In 2010-11, 16.1% of the UK population lived below the poverty line vs.15.7% in Japan.

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Government and equality

• Under the recent government, committed more to the equality of opportunity rather than equality of results, the gap between the rich and the poor can be expected to increase.

• This inequality may be acceptable for a society, so long as there is equality of opportunity...

• ...but, the equality of opportunity, as, for instance, with education, is strongly related to the occupation of parents and income levels.

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Education expenditure

• Spending on education in Japan in 2012 was 3.7% of GDP, and spending on education and skills in the UK was 3.7% as well 

• Parental expenditure on education in Japan for fiscal 2009 was as follows:

Public Private Kindergarden 669,925 1,625,592

Lower secondary 1,443,927 3,709,312

Upper secondary 1,545.853 2,929,077

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Other QoL factors

1960 1990 2001 2010Japan 1.8 4.6 6.2 7.6

UK 3.3 5.0 6.2 8.1

1960 1990 2001 2008-9Japan 1 1.7 1.9 2.2

UK 0.8 1.5 2.0 2.7

2010, OECD

Public expenditure on health as percentage of GDP

Number of physicians per 1,000 population

1960 1990 2001 2009Japan 1 1.7 1.9 0.9UK 0.8 1.5 2.0 2.2

Murder rate per 100,000 population

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014Emerging division in the

Japanese middle classEconomic stagnation & the government’s

economic reform in 1996.

The IT-revolution of economy.

The ‘Hills tribe’.

The Japanese middle class remaining as the ‘winning’ group.

The emerging ‘losing’ group.

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014Division emerging in the

Japanese middle class • Under the high and stable economic growth the

self-perception of the Japanese has long been one of being ‘middle class’.• A very large portion categorized as ‘middle class’.

• However, a class division is emerging within the middle class since the end of the bubble, the effects felt are: • The Government’s economic reform in 1996.• The IT-revolution of economy. 

• The bubble economy increased the value of properties/assets such as land, buildings, etc.

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After the bubble economy

• The long period of economic stagnation and subsequent restructuring lead to: Restraints on salary (some cuts in salaries) for some parts

of the work force, the reduction in the number of regular employees.

Increase in the number of irregular employees, especially in the latter half of the 1990s.

Little opportunities for those without property and superior educational background to obtain a source of income.

IT-revolution in the economy has created economic competition over the control of information, and a gap between those who can take advantage of it and those who cannot.

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What resulted

• Of the middle class emerged: At the top, a super-wealthy subclass, ca. 0.1% of

the Japanese population, such as the Hiruzu zoku (the Hills Tribe, after the fancy life-styles of those who live in Roppongi Hills, Tokyo)

At the middle, those who have managed to remain as the middle class with a stable job, a decent income and a house

At the bottom, the wâking puā (working poor), barely surviving with a low salary, with unstable employment and with little entitlement to social benefits.

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The working poors

• The majority of the people who have fallen into the last group are: • Mid-30s or over (incl. graduates of shûshoku-hyôga-

ki ‘ Employment Ice Age’ a.k.a. Japanese lost generation of 1994-2004).

• Those laid off and found a new job with less salary, usually without stability.

• Young people, including university graduates, who have more difficulty in finding a regular employment in the severe economic situation in Japan.

• Those regarded as “sukiru pua (skill-poor)”.

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Among those people are...

• The haken shain, full-time workers who are hired on a temporary contract (via an agency).

• The furîtâ, permanent part-time workers.• The unemployed youth, the nîto, Japanese term

for ‘NEET’ (Not in Education, Employment, or Training) • They cannot be economically independent • Live with their parents in their late 20s or even in

their 30s (the parasaito shinguru, standing for ‘parasite single’).

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014Freeters and NEETs

over the last 28 years

Unit: in million persons. Source: Cabinet Office (CO) and MoHLW, 1982-2010.

Employment “Ice Age” for the Lost Generation

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Win or Lose

• The popular termskachi-gumi (winners’ group) make-gumi (losers’ group)

• Became a popular term among the Japanese media and young people in 90’s – now spread across generations.

• This created a strong sense of emerging disparity and inequality in Japan.

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The Gap is officialized

• A nation-wide debate on the class division has become very active following the publication of a report by the MoHL in June 2004• The result of a new survey showed that the gap

in income has widened since the last survey conducted in 2001.  

• The Economic White Paper of 2006 further mentioned that:• Statistically, the gap in income has widened

among the younger generation, between 30s and 40s and among male workers.

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The gap and the education

• Children in a household with a higher income receive better education and perform better at school.• Graduates from a better school tend to be

advantaged in getting better employment with a higher income in Japan

• This is an indication that the current widening gap in income will be passed on to the following generations. 

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Opinion of the young

• Both the Asahi poll (January 2006) and the Yomiuri poll (March 2006) showed that the younger generations are: • More in favour of a big state compared to those

in the older age group.

• Hope for the government to intervene to ensure social benefits are available.

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Government’s move

• Towards neo-liberal economic policy which promotes free competition, by:• Reducing the income tax for those with high incomes

(75% in 1983 to 37% in 2003, now 40%)• Reducing inheritance tax (70% to 50% in 2003)

• Meanwhile: • Increasing the consumption tax: 3% when adopted in

1989, 5% in 1997, increase to 8% in 2014, 10%..?),• Abolishing tax exemptions for people with low

income, and • Reducing the welfare budget and education, etc.

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Government’s view

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Neoliberal values

• Some prominent political and business leaders are expressing a rather positive view on kakusa, • The wealth is an outcome of individual effort and

ability.

• Claim for kakusa as a social problem is an argument of a dependent person.

• This shows neoliberal values have their supporters in Japan. 

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Work-Life Balance

A balanced prioritization between "work" (career and ambition) and "lifestyle” (health, family, pleasure, leisure, spiritual, social and community activities).

MoHLW launched “Work-Life Balance Promotion Project” in 2008 inviting 10 leading companies to participate.

“Guidelines for Measures to be taken by employers to help balance work life and family life for workers

Solution to aging society, health care/welfare expenditure for aged, & declining Child birth?

who take care or are going to take care of children or other family members”.<http://www.mhlw.go.jp/general/seido/koyou/ryouritu/english/e5.html>

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Conclusion

• The different ways of conceptualizing and assessing the ‘quality of life’.

• The different approaches in defining ‘quality of life’.

• The quality of life in Japan in a historical context.

• The quality of life in Japan in a comparative context.

• The emerging division in the Japanese middle class.