The Support Structure for Public Expenditure on Education in Japan: A Comparative Perspective Wataru Nakazawa Osaka University, JAPAN World Congress of Comparative Education Societies 2013 in Buenos Aires June 25, /6/251

The Public Expenditure on Education OECD, Education at a Glance, 2009 As a percentage of total public expenditure As a percentage of GDP 2013/6/252

The Relative Proportions of Public Expenditure on Educational Institutions, for all level of education OECD, Education at a Glance, /6/253

The General Government Expenditures as a Percentage of GDP OECD, Government at a Glance, /6/254

The Japanese Government and Welfare Services The lowest public expenditure on education A limited government (in terms of government expenditure, number of public servants) However, the Japanese government did not ignore the social services (e.g. universal pension and health insurance system were established in 1961) (Miyamoto, 2008) Corporate organizations arranged welfare services. These services compensated for the shortage of welfare services provided by the government. The postwar economic growth also supported this structure. Women were excluded from the primary labor market, and thus, they supported the family life. Their unpaid work also compensated for the shortage of welfare services provided by the government. The Japanese government abated taxes and encouraged citizens to start personal savings for children’s education, housing, or for their old age (Ide, 2012). 2013/6/255

Japanese Dissatisfaction at the Government Corporate organizations cannot afford to provide good welfare services. Attitudes toward gender role are changing. →The government cannot cope with these changes. The welfare services provided by the government are still poor, and citizens are dissatisfied with the government. Difficulty in saving money, uncertainty about the future, and a poor environment for childrearing promote a low fertility rate. 2013/6/256

Hypothesis (1) In aging society, an expenditure on social security such as pension, health insurance, and long-term nursing care accounts for the large proportion of public expenditures. On the other hand, only people with children are interested in educational policy. Welfare services such as pension, insurance, and nursing care have priority over education for most people because everyone becomes old and has a risk to become ill. →If the proportion of children in the total population is higher, the number of people who agree with the increase of public expenditures on education will increase. 2013/6/257

Hypothesis (2) In principal, politicians do not persuade their constituencies to increase taxes. Under the limited government, the competition for how to distribute limited public resources would be severe. The majority of citizens require full welfare services such as pension, insurance, and nursing care. →1) A limited government does not increase public expenditure on education. Under the large government, citizens demand the decrease of heavy tax burden. It is difficult for people who completed their education or do not have a child to recognize the merit of education. →2) People in a country with a large government will be less likely to agree on an increase in public expenditures for education. 2013/6/258

Hypothesis (3) Public policies on redistribution are more likely to be supported by their beneficiaries (Van Oorschot and Meuleman, 2012). →People with children will be more likely to expect an increase in public expenditure on education. Education differs from other social security or welfare policies because people with high socioeconomic status tend to be highly educated. →People with high socioeconomic status are more likely to be in favor of public investment in education. 2013/6/259

Data International Social Survey Program (ISSP) Topic of the survey: “Role of Government” conducted in 2006, 33 nations joined. Samples: aged 20 and 64 years (N=23,234) Cross-sectional, internationally comparative survey. Obtained from the ZACAT/ GESIS Data archive. Japanese Life Course Panel Survey (JLPS) Conducted by the Institute of Social Science, the University of Tokyo. Started in 2007, followed up annually. Samples are men and women aged between 20 and 40 years as at the end of (N=4,714) 2013/6/2510

Dependent Variables Would you agree or disagree with the following opinions? The ISSP data analysis “Government should spend more money on education.” The JLPS panel data analysis “The school you graduate largely determines the rest of your life,” 5-point scale Larger values indicate greater agreement. I treated these values as continuous for computational simplicity. 2013/6/2511

Models (HLM: Raudenbush and Bryk, 2002) 2013/6/2512

Models (Panel Data Analysis) 2013/6/2513

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The Distribution of Attitude toward the Meaning of School Education in the Course of Life 2013/6/2515

Result (HLM) 2013/6/25 16

Result (OLS & Fixed-effects) base category full-time, income (ten thousand yen/yr) Liberal Democratic Party high school 2013/6/2517

Conclusion High public expenditure on education were more likely to be supported in countries where the proportion of children was higher. People in countries with a high tax burden were less likely to support high public expenditure on education. Japan, with a low tax burden, had a similar outcome compared to countries with a high tax burden. While respondents with children were more likely to support high public expenditure on education, this tendency weakens in countries with a high tax burden. The result implies that the attitude gap between with or without a child became clearer in Japan. Those who originally had high income or high educational qualification do not think that their educational background had a crucial influence on their life course in Japan. 2013/6/2518

2013/6/2519

References Halaby, Charles L “Panel Models in Sociological Research,” Annual Review of Sociology, 36: Ide, Eisaku Zaisei-Akaji no Engen (The Origin of Government Debt), Tokyo: Yûhikaku. (in Japanese). Miyamoto, Taro Fukushi Seiji: Nihon no Seikatsu Hoshô to demokurashî (The Politics of Welfare: Democracy, Employment and Welfare in Japan), Tokyo: Yûhikaku. (in Japanese). Raudenbush, Stephen W. and Anthony S. Bryk Hierarchical Linear Models: Applications and Data Analysis Methods: 2 nd edition, Thousand Oaks: Sage. Van Oorschot, Wim. and Bart Meuleman “Welfare Performance and Welfare Support,” Stefan Svallfors ed. Contested Welfare States: Welfare Attitudes in Europe and Beyond, Stanford: Stanford University Press, /6/2520

Acknowledgement This research was supported by Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (S) (number and ) and (C)( ) from the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS). The research support in conducting the panel surveys from the Institute of Social Science, University of Tokyo and the Outsourcing Company is gratefully acknowledged. The permission to use the panel data is obtained from the Research Planning Committee of the Japanese Life Course Panel Surveys. I obtained the ISSP data from ZACAT, GESIS Data Archive. ※ ISSP Research Group (2008): International Social Survey Programme: Role of Government IV - ISSP GESIS Data Archive, Cologne. ZA4700 Data file Version /6/2521