ABSTRACT
Let us begin with the question that, as I indicated in the introduction, is one of my central research questions. How great a degree of inequality is there in Japan, and where does Japan fit in the spectrum of inequality among other nations? This, the central question of this chapter, requires an examination not only of the state of, and changes in, the income distribution, but also of the changes in population structures and in people’s values and attitudes that lie behind those distributions.
