ABSTRACT
For decades, Japan considered itself a homogeneous middle-class society of economic equity and equal opportunity. However, in the last two decades, Japan has entered a new era of post-growth. After the burst of huge speculation bubbles in real estate and stock markets in the early 1990s, Japan turned suddenly from a success story of growth into an economic problem case of enduring stagnation. Moreover, the still young and growing Japanese population of the late 1980s transformed into the oldest national population worldwide in less than two decades, marked by shrinkage and a total fertility rate far below replacement level. This economic and demographic stagnation has led to structural changes and a completely new self-image of Japan as a ‘gap society’ (kakusa shakai) with increasing differentiation and new forms of social exclusion.
