Income Inequality in Japan in Comparative and Historical Perspectives

The audio and transcript from the event "Income Inequality in Japan in Comparative and Historical Perspectives" a seminar presentation by Chiaki Moriguchi, a Fulbright Visiting Professor at the Walter H. Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center (Shorenstein APARC) during the 2014–15 academic year.

Publication of the Japanese translation of Thomas Piketty’s “Capital in the 21st Century” last December and his visit to Tokyo in January has rekindled a national debate over a growing economic disparity in Japan. Is income inequality rising in Japan? Does it follow in the footsteps of the U.S. and other Anglo-Saxon countries, as Piketty predicts? Is the rich growing richer, or the poor getting poorer? In this talk, Professor Moriguchi reviews recent trends in income disparity in Japan, using top income shares and other measures, and evaluate their significance from both historical and international perspectives.