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Summary of Second Basic Complete Tabulation Results
1 Labour Force Statistics
The labour force in 1995 was 67.02 millions in Japan, an increase of 5.4 percent from 1990, and there has been a continued rise of about 5 percent annually since 1980. In a breakdown according to sex, there was a 4.9 percent increase of males and a 6.2 percent increase of females in the labour force since 1990 (see Table 1).
A breakdown of the labour force ratio by age shows a high plateau of 94 to 97 percent for males between the ages of 25 to 59 years and a M-shaped curve for females, that peaked at 74.2 percent for females between the ages of 20 to 24 years, 69.2 percent for females between the ages of 45 to 49 years, and 53.3 percent for females between the ages of 30 to 34 years (see Table 2, Fig 1).
A breakdown of the labour force ratio from 1975 according to each age group showed a drop in the ratio for males 60 years of age and over, but this trend appeared to reverse and the ratio rose in 1995. In the case of females, the ratio showed a continued drop for females between the ages of 15 to 19, but showed a consistent rise for females between 25 to 54 years of age.
Of the aged population, the labour force ratio was lower than half for males 70 years of age and females 60 years of age.
A breakdown of the labour force ratio for females by marital status showed a lower ratio of the married females between the ages of 30 to 34 years and 35 to 39 years of age, but the ratio of never married females between the ages of 30 to 34 years and 35 to 39 years of age has increased sharply in comparison to 1990.
A breakdown of the labour force ratio by prefecture and sex shows that Shizuoka-ken had the highest ratio for males (81.9 percent) and Kumamoto-ken had the lowest (73.8 percent). Fukui-ken had the highest ratio for females (56.1 percent) and Nara-ken had the lowest (40.7 percent) (see Table 4).
The number of employed persons 15 years of age and over in 1995 was 64.14 millions a 4.0 percent increase from 1990. A breakdown of this statistic according to sex showed a 3.4 percent increase for males and a 4.8 percent increase for females (see Table 1).
A breakdown of the number of employed persons according to type of activity showed a ratio of 96.8 percent for the males who were "Mostly worked", in contrast to a ratio of 64.3 percent of the females who were "Mostly worked"and 33.0 percent who were "Worked besides doing housework" (see Table 1).
Table 1. Population by Labour Force Status and Sex - Japan (1990,1995)(Excel:18KB)
Table 2. Labour Force Ratio by Age and Sex - Japan (1990, 1995)(Excel:17KB)
2. Employment status
A breakdown of the number of employed persons by employment status showed that there were 48.29 million employees (75.3 percent of the employed), 7.82 million self-employed persons (including "Persons doing home handicraft") (12.2 percent of the employed), and 4.24 million family workers (6.6 percent of the employed). The ratio of the employees has increased uniformly since 1960.
A breakdown of employed persons by employment status and age showed that the employment ratio for both sexes dropped with an increase in age. The ratio for employed males and females 65 years of age and over was the highest in the self-employed and family worker categories, respectively.
A breakdown of employed persons by employment status and prefecture showed that Kanagawa-ken had the highest ratio of employees (81.8 percent) , Wakayama-ken had the highest ratio of self-employed workers (18.1 percent), and Aomori-ken had the highest ratio of family workers (11.5 percent).
3. Industry
A breakdown of the number of employed persons by the three industrial sectors showed that there were 3.82 million persons employed in the primary industry sector(6.0 percent of the employed), 20.25 million persons employed in the secondary industry sector(31.6 percent of the employed), and 39.64 million persons employed in the tertiary industry sector(61.8 percent of the employed). The ratio of the employed in the tertiary industry sector continues to rise uniformly (see Table 3, Fig. 2) .
A breakdown of the number of employed persons by Industry (major groups) showed that "Service"had the highest number of employed persons at 15.93 million workers (24.8 percent of the employed), followed by "Wholesale and retail trade, and eating and drinking places" with 14.62 million workers (22.8 percent of the employed), and "Manufacturing"with 13.56 million workers (21.2 percent of the employed) (see Table 3). In comparison to 1990, "Services" and "Construction"showed a high growth rate exceeding 10 percent at 14.7 percent and 13.5 percent, respectively.
A breakdown of the number of employed persons by industry (major groups) and sex showed that "Finance and insurance"had the highest ratio of female workers (52.7 percent), followed by "Services"(50.8 percent), "Wholesale and retail trade, and eating and drinking places" (49.2 percent), and "Agriculture"(46.2 percent). In comparison to 1990, the ratio of female workers had risen in 11 industries, excluding "Agriculture"and"Manufacturing" (see Table 3).
A breakdown of the number of employed persons by industry (major groups) and prefecture showed that Shiga-ken had the highest ratio of workers in the "Manufacturing" (32.0 percent), followed by Gifu-ken (30.5 percent); Fukuoka-ken had the highest ratio of workers in "Wholesale and retail trade, and eating and drinking places"(26.5 percent), followed by Osaka-fu (26.2 percent); and Okinawa-ken and the Tokyo-to had the highest ratio of workers in "Services"at 31.4 percent and 30.0 percent, respectively (see Table 4).
Table 3. Employed Persons by Industry (Major Groups) and Sex - Japan (1995) (Excel:19KB)
Table 4. Major Index by Prefectures (1995)(Excel:44KB)
4. Labour force status of Foreigners
The number of employed foreigners 15 years of age and over was 0.6 millions or 0.9 percent of the total number of people employed in Japan. This was an increase of 38.0 percent from 1990.
A breakdown of the number of employed foreigners by industry (major groups) showed that "Manufacturing"had the highest number of employed foreigners at 0.2 millions, followed by "Wholesale and retail trade, and eating and drinking places"with 0.14 million employed foreigners, and"Services" with 0.13 million employed foreigners. These three categories of industry employed more three-fourths of the total number of Employed workers in Japan. In comparison to 1990, the ratio of employed foreigners had greatly increased in "Manufacturing"and"Services"with a ratio of 61.6 percent and 35.2 percent, respectively.
