A Comprehensive Study of the Structural Change in Social Stratification and the Mechanism of Generating Inequality in the Aging Society with Low Fertility

2017 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 25000001
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Specially Promoted Research
• Allocation Type: Single-year Grants
• Review Section: Humanities and Social Sciences
• Research Institution: The University of Tokyo
• Principal Investigator: SHIRAHASE Sawako 東京大学, 大学院人文社会系研究科, 教授 (00361303)
• Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha): SATO Yoshimichi 東北大学, 大学院文学研究科, 教授 (90196288) ; ISHIDA Hiroshi 東京大学, 社会科学研究所, 教授 (40272504) ; SUDO Naoki 学習院大学, 法学部, 教授 (60262680) ; KIKKAWA Toru 大阪大学, 大学院人間科学研究科, 教授 (90263194) ; NAKAMURA Takayasu 東京大学, 大学院教育学研究科, 教授 (30291321) ; WATANABE Tsutomu 関西学院大学, 社会学部, 教授 (30261564) ; ARITA Shin 東京大学, 社会科学研究所, 教授 (30345061) ; MIWA Satoshi 東京大学, 社会科学研究所, 教授 (20401268)
• Project Period (FY): 2013 – 2017
• Keywords: 社会階層 / 少子高齢化 / 社会移動 / 教育格差 / 労働市場 / ライフコース / 社会意識 / 社会調査

Outline of Final Research Achievements

The most important achievement of this project was that the National Survey of Social Stratification and Social Mobility (hereafter, SSM survey) was successfully conducted in 2015. Besides, empirical studies with this data were conducted on the structure of social stratification in contemporary Japan considering demographic transformation, that is, fertility decline and aging population. The SSM survey has been conducted every 10 years since 1955, and this was the seventh, wherein the upper limit of the age of respondents was increased from 69 to 79 and a new questionnaire was included about leaving the parental home, social status of the spouse at the first marriage, and the educational attainment of the respondents’child(ren). Based on the 2015 SSM data, the ground realities in the structure of social stratification and the mechanism involved in the emergence of social inequality were identified considering the rapid transformation in the demographic structure and in the family in Japanese society.

Free Research Field

社会学、社会階層論からみる少子高齢化、社会的不平等の実証研究