Japan: peculiarities of social stratification

In the course of the first post-war decades, Japanese society, while remaining class-based by nature, underwent changes that led to the formation - both in the academic community and in the mass consciousness - of ideas about its transformation into a classless society or a middle-class society. In this society, the overwhelming majority of citizens have approximately the same level of material well-being, lead approximately the same lifestyle, and share common values. The economic turmoil of the 1990s - 2000s led to the transformation of these perceptions. The issues of class structure and social inequality have returned to scientific discourse and media, and soon the thesis about the transformation of Japanese society into a divided society (kakusa shakai, or gap society) became generally accepted. Using both economic analysis and sociological tools, the author of this article tried to prove that the real state of affairs in Japanese society does not provide grounds for asserting a radical change in its character - the transformation from a middle-class society into a kakusa shakai. Contrary to the generally accepted ideas about the growth of economic inequality, the article shows that, due to the redistribution of initial incomes, the inequality in which is really increasing, in terms of income after the redistribution, the gap not only does not increase, but even decreases in trend. There are no dramatic changes in the status differentiation as well. Thus, the peculiarities of the gender and age composition of the category of "non-permanent workers" largely "extinguish" the status differences between permanent and non-permanent employment that exist in Japan. At the same time, thanks to a noticeable increase in the level of education of the Japanese, as well as an increase in the proportion of people with prestigious professions in the professional structure of the employed, in the class structure, there is a shift in favor of strata occupying higher positions. Of course, now, as before, the Japanese find themselves in different niches, their life paths largely depend on which stratum they belong to. Moreover, due to the diversification of lifestyles and preferences of people, the social structure of Japanese society has become more complex and diverse. And yet, at its core, it remains a middle-class society, as evidenced by the feelings of the Japanese themselves, reflected in opinion polls conducted the Cabinet Office since the mid-1960s.