This article examines, primarily through the views of sociologists, how inequality has widened in Japanese society as the hope that “effort will be rewarded” fades under neoliberalism, and how this has led to the concept of a “hope gap society.”
Beginning with the background to the publication of “Hope Gap Society” in 2004, the article points out that many young people in contemporary Japan have lost sight of the future. Although there is little anger or protest, satisfaction with daily life is rising, while people’s outlooks for the future of society as a whole are becoming increasingly divided. The author explains how the division between society’s winners and losers advanced during the Heisei era, and how hope was gradually lost.
It is argued that the framework of Showa-era Japanese labor practices and the family model based on gender-based division of labor continues to influence institutional design. As systems centered on regular employment and preferential tax, pension and insurance treatment for full-time homemakers are maintained, non-regular employees and single people are being excluded from their benefits. These factors are said to be causes of entrenched inequality in both work and family life.
The influence of the Showa-era system also extends to the employment environment. As practices such as mass hiring of new graduates and lifetime employment remain in place while employment opportunities decline, the path to regular employment is narrowing. This has created a situation in which people from the employment ice-age generation find it difficult to obtain regular positions even as they grow older.