Yuri Okina

Jul 7, 2024 | eastasiaforum.org | Mary C. Brinton |Yuri Okina |Hiroshi Ono |Sourabh Gupta

It seems that Japan’s economy — and with it, its workers — are on the move. People are changing jobs and that’s at last produced a boost to productivity. After a quarter of a century of stagnant prices, GDP and wage growth, pay packets are slowly rising, as are nominal GDP, tax revenues and productivity. What’s driving the change is that Japan is running out of its biggest asset — its people and talent. Japan’s population peaked in 2010 at 128.1 million and is now an estimated 121.2 million.

Jul 7, 2024 | eastasiaforum.org | Mary C. Brinton |Yuri Okina |Hiroshi Ono |Yuhan Zhang

For many years, women’s labour force participation patterns in Japan and South Korea were distinct from those in other post-industrial economies. Both countries had a so-called M-shaped age curve for female labour force participation, with large numbers of women exiting the labour force upon marriage or childbearing and then returning to paid work once their children entered school. While this pattern has persisted in South Korea, it has undergone considerable change in Japan in the past 15 years.

Jul 6, 2024 | eastasiaforum.org | Yuri Okina |Hiroshi Ono |Yuhan Zhang |Sourabh Gupta

In Japan’s labour market, an increase in people changing jobs is occurring in the middle of a growing labour shortage, and changing traditional features of Japanese corporate culture such as lifetime employment and seniority-based remuneration. Under the administration of Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, labour market reform is a major theme in Japan’s growth strategy with increased government spending on the development of individual skills.

Aug 28, 2023 | asiatimes.com | Yuri Okina

In June 2023, the Japanese government published a revised version of the implementation plan for Prime Minister Fumio Kishida’s “new capitalism” initiative. The original 2022 version, titled “Grand Design and Action Plan for a New Form of Capitalism,” had outlined ambitious goals calling for increased investment in people, start-ups, green and digital transformations, science, technology and innovation.

Jun 13, 2023 | international.thenewslens.com | Yuri Okina

What you need to know The Technical Intern Training Program has been criticized internationally for potential human rights violations, and trainees are widely used to fill labor shortages rather than being provided with training opportunities. By Yuri OkinaIn an interim report released in May 2023, the Japanese government’s expert panel on foreign worker integration recommended abolishing the Technical Intern Training Program.