Organizing rural-urban migration of young workers: roles of labor market institutions in postwar Japan

The Japanese economy’s industrial and occupational structure changed drastically during the high growth period. These structural changes were strongly influenced by the flow of junior high school graduates from rural to urban areas. Between 1955 and 1964, six million fifteen-year-old boys and girls entered the labor market immediately on completing compulsory education, with 30–40% of that total leaving their home prefectures to find jobs nationwide. What made it possible for masses of young workers to find employment on graduation from junior high school? This paper addresses that issue, and sheds light on the critical roles of graduate work placement by public institutions, in particular the nationwide network of Public Employment Security Offices (PESOs) working in cooperation with junior high schools. After looking at the history of graduate work placement from 1925 to 1950, the paper outlines the postwar development of the job placement system and explains the mechanisms used by the employment security administration to organize the rural-urban migration of young workers. Success was, however, achieved at the cost of freedom of occupational choice to which young workers should be entitled by rights. It is argued that an appraisal of the roles of the labor market institutions is no easy matter, since the advantages are intimately interwoven with the disadvantages.