The Effect of Education on Society Reconsidered

2017 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 15K03818
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Section: 一般
• Research Field: Sociology
• Research Institution: Tokyo Metropolitan University
• Principal Investigator: NAKAO Keiko 首都大学東京, 人文科学研究科, 教授 (10274995)
• Co-Investigator(Renkei-kenkyūsha): HAYASHI Takuya 奈良女子大学, 人文科学系, 教授 (90322346) ; OHTSUKI Shigemi 首都大学東京, 人文科学研究科, 助教 (20589022) ; WAKITA Aya 立教大学, 社会学部, 助教 (00750647)
• Research Collaborator: HOSOKAWA Chihiro ; SAITOH Yuya
• Project Period (FY): 2015-04-01 – 2018-03-31
• Keywords: 学歴社会 / 社会階層 / 学歴と職業 / 国勢調査 / 国際比較 / 時系列比較

Outline of Final Research Achievements

This study focused on the relationships between the level of a person’s education and the status of the occupation he/she achieves after completing that education. We applied statistical techniques using several larger datasets at the national level. When we analyzed the Japanese census data over the years, we found that the relationship between education and occupation has weakened dramatically especially in recent years. This implies that the benefit of a higher education is decreasing. We tried to find explanations. We also looked at the data in the United States for a cross-national comparison. We found the differences between the two countries in the following manner: in Japan, regardless of the level of education, we see a difference between males and females in the type of occupation they achieve; however in the U.S., such gender difference disappears once one achieves a higher education.

Free Research Field

社会学