This is a bookshelf where authors can speak about their own works selected
for a UTokyo Grant for Academic Publications (UTokyo Jiritsu Award for Early Career Academics).

The cover is white, with the title and author's name aligned to the right in horizontal text. On the left, there are geometric shapes—rectangles in yellow, gray, and white

Title

MINERVA Series in Sociology 70 Shinsotsu Saiyo to Fubyodo no Shakaigaku (What Quantitative Analyses of Organizations Show Us)

Size

248 pages, A5 format

Language

Japanese

Released

March 20, 2025

ISBN

9784623098910

Published by

Minerva Shobo

See Book Availability at Library

Shinsotsu Saiyo to Fubyodo no Shakaigaku

Japanese Page

view japanese page

In today's Japanese society, many graduates from universities or master's degree programs enter the labor market. While some choose to become doctors, public officers, or entrepreneurs who start their own businesses, most find employment in the private sector because of the persistent practice of recruiting new graduates. This book focuses on the so-called “big-name” large companies in Japan and shows how these companies create employment inequality when hiring new graduates.

Inequality in society is a main topic in sociological research, and hiring inequality is no exception. Extant studies on social stratification and the sociology of education, by analyzing large-scale surveys of individuals, have shown that individual characteristics, such as social class of origin or college attended, affect employment outcomes.
 
However, in Japanese sociology, analyses from the perspective of employers, the other labor market actors, are insufficient, partly because of the difficulty in accessing relevant data. This book approaches hiring inequality from the employer’s perspective by analyzing data from several firm-level surveys, including “Shushoku Shikiho,” published by Toyo Keizai Inc.
 
When you read the title of this book, A Sociological Analysis of Inequality in New Graduate Hiring, what did you think? Since you know that employment discrimination based on demographics is prohibited by law, some of you must believe that there is no inequality. Other students may think that there are “advanced companies” that continue to make progressive efforts toward equality and “lagging companies” where inequality persists. Not surprisingly, you would like to avoid the latter in your job search.
 
However, this book reveals that such “advanced companies” do not always engage in equal hiring practices. Even if they have made progress in terms of gender equality at the managerial level, this does not immediately increase the percentage of women hired (Chapter 5). Establishing a dedicated department to promote diversity does not result in increased hiring of women or persons with disabilities (Chapter 6), and companies offering well-developed work-life balance policies tend to discourage hiring women during economic downturns (Chapter 7).
 
While mainly focusing on gender inequality, this book also highlights inequality regarding schooling and disability and clarifies the mechanisms that generate such inequalities. It then goes one step further to interpret what is happening in companies in a way that is consistent with the analysis results to understand why inequalities are generated and maintained. As an author, I would be delighted if those who read this book would pay attention not only to the chapters' findings, but also to how I handle and interpret firm-level data.
 

(Written by: YOSHIDA wataru / September 29, 2025)

Related Info

Award:
The 5th UTokyo Jiritsu Award for Early Career Academics (The University of Tokyo 2024)
https://www.u-tokyo.ac.jp/ja/research/systems-data/n03_kankojosei.html