Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/324311 
Year of Publication: 
2025
Series/Report no.: 
RF Berlin - CReAM Discussion Paper Series No. 29/25
Publisher: 
Rockwool Foundation Berlin (RF Berlin) and Centre for Research & Analysis of Migration (CReAM), Berlin and London
Abstract: 
Official government estimates show a gradual decline in union density in Japan over several decades akin to that in other countries with decentralized bargaining structures. However, new evidence from various social surveys indicates that union density has been rising in Japan. Using one of these social surveys - the Survey on the Work and Life of Workers (SWLW) - we show union density has risen by 7.3 percentage points to 29.1% in the Japanese private sector between 2011/13 and 2020/24. We decompose the growth in union density since 2011/13 to establish how much of it is attributable to changes in workforce composition. Conditioning on union presence at the workplace, compositional change accounts for 47% of the increase in union density. The remaining 53% is due to within-group change with unions increasing membership across all types of worker including some with traditionally low rates of unionization. However, establishing a union at the workplace remains key since virtually all the growth in union membership (97%) is in unionized workplaces.
Subjects: 
union membership
union density
union presence
Japan
decomposition
JEL: 
J51
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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