Career Interruptions and Subsequent Wage in Japan - Reexamination from New Japanese Longitudinal Data

Yukiko Asai, University of California, Berkeley/ Keio University

This paper focuses on the effect of various career interruptions on worker's subsequent wage in Japan. I segment career interruption into three parts(childbearing, unemployment and other reasons) and take into account each interruption length in order to analyze its volume of effect on worker's future wage. Absence from work even for short time is often labeled as being unmotivated or unenthusiastic in Japan; therefore opportunity cost for a worker to have a career interruption expected to be high. Using the Keio Household Panel Survey (KHPS) from 2004 to 2011, I found no evidence that taking time out of work leads to subsequent wage loss both in short-term and middle-term.