ABSTRACT
As discussed in the introduction to this volume, a societal model of Japan as a middle-class society gained prominence in Japanese public discourses from the mid-1960s. The background of these discourses was a significant improvement in the economic position of the majority of the Japanese population following the 1950–1960s high economic growth eras. However, the economic recession following the burst of the bubble economy in the early 1990s, demographic changes, and deregulation of the labour market have led to an increase in income inequality and a rising number of people in relative poverty (Hommerich 2013). In line with this, the middle-class societal model became the focus of heated debates and a new model of “Japan as a divided society” (kakusa shakai) reached a dominant position (Chiavacci 2008).
