| Retour à la page d'accueil |
| Back to Home page |
REVIEW OF POPULATION AND SOCIAL POLICY, 1999, N° 8
The public pension and the labor supply of older women in Japan.
This paper, while describing the revised Japanese public pension scheme for housewives and showing the actual receipt of public pensions by women according to occupational group, empirically estimates the effect of the public pension on labor supply and home production activities of older women. Data are drawn from two sets of national sample of females aged 55-69 surveyed in 1983 and 1992, when a decline in extended families, an increase in older couples, and a rise in the general pension level was observed. As the pension receipt in-creased, a large retirement effect and an increase in housekeeping activities was estimated for females with formal paid work experience, while a slight rise in leisure activities was esti-mated for housewives.
(JAPAN, WOMEN, AGED, RETIREMENT PENSIONS, LABOUR SUPPLY).
English - pp. 27-48.
N. Nagase, Ochanomizu University, Japan.
***
The cost sharing of child and family care leave.
Child care leave and family care leave are necessary for employees to cope with both work and family. This article examines the cost distribution of the child care leave and family care leave systems. It finds that exemption from social insurance premiums and benefits paid through employment insurance reduce the opportunity cost of child care leave. But there are various problems related to the payment of benefits. In the case of child care leave, the cost to the corporation is relatively high, whereas in the case of family care leave the burden of cost falls mainly on the employee. On the other hand, the cost to society is minor. Therefore, to reduce the burden on the corporation created by the payment of insurance premiums and to secure a balance among industries, it will be necessary to establish some form of benefits or tax concessions for private corporations and to have society take on more of the burden asso-ciated with child care and family care. Because an employee's salary is usually reduced when he or she changes jobs, the effect of preventing retirement through the leave system is signifi-cant. In addition, there are advantages to increasing the number of workers who remain on the payroll with respect to tax and social insurance revenue.
(ECONOMIC DEMOGRAPHY, MATERNITY LEAVE, COST OF CHILDREN, COST ANALYSIS, SOCIAL SECURITY, CHILD CARE).
English - pp. 49-74.
K. Maruyama, Keisen University, Japan.
***
TAKAHASHI, Shigesato; KANEKO, Ryuichi; ISHIKAWA, Akira; IKENOUE, Masako; MITA, Fusami.
Population projections for Japan: Methods, assumptions and results.
The National Institute of Population and Social Security Research officially announced a new round of population projections for Japan in January 1997. This article outlines the projection results and describes the methods used to obtain them. The projections, made following the release of 1995 census data, provide three variants based on three different scenarios of fertil-ity prospects: medium, high, and low fertility variant projections. According to the medium projection, the population of Japan will increase from 125.6 million in 1995 to a peak of 127.8 million in 2007, followed by a constant decrease to 100.5 million in 2050. The proportion aged 65 and over will expand from 14.6% in 1995 to 32.3% in 2050. The projected loss of population and aging will be due mainly to the continuous below-replacement fertility rate during the past and coming decades. The projections incorporated some factors of low fertility such as later and fewer marriages. This article explains how the fertility and mortality pros-pects were provided for the projections as well as the results of analyses on which the pros-pects were based.
(JAPAN, POPULATION PROJECTIONS, METHODOLOGY, DEMOGRAPHIC AGEING, POPULATION DECREASE, BELOW REPLACEMENT FERTILITY).
English - pp. 75-115.
S. Takahashi, R. Kaneko, A. Ishikawa, M. Ikenoue and F. Mita, National Institute of Popula-tion and Social Security Research, 1-2-3 Kasumigaseki, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo 100-0013, Ja-pan.
***