Osamu Umezaki’s research while affiliated with Hosei University and other places

This study analyzes the relationship between college quality and obtaining first job after graduation among new graduates in the Japanese labor market. Although lively debate prevails in Western countries regarding the economic effects of college quality, no consensus has been reached concerning the effects of college quality on labor market outcomes. Additionally, few studies have examined the effects of college quality on labor market outcomes in Japan owing to data limitations. Therefore, this study analyzes the correlation between college quality and obtaining first job after graduation in Japan using newly available data that accurately match individual-level survey data and institutional-level data. This study’s empirical results indicate that college quality has a limited relationship with first job after graduation in the Japanese labor market—similar to previous studies’ findings. College characteristics do not appear to be a determining factor for recent graduates in obtaining first job after graduation in the Japanese labor market.

This study analyzes the influence of college quality on obtaining initial employment after graduation in the Japanese labor market with respect to new graduates. Although there is lively debate in Western countries on the economic effects of college quality, no consensus regarding the effects of college quality on labor market outcomes has been reached at the present time. In addition, there are few studies about the effects of college quality on labor market outcomes in Japan because of data limitations. Therefore, we came up with the following questions: 1) what roles do universities play in the Japanese labor market; and 2) what are the effects of college quality on obtaining initial employment after graduation? Using newly available data that accurately matched individual survey data and institutional data, this study analyzes the effects of college quality on obtaining initial employment in order to attempt to answer these questions. Empirical results show that graduates from top universities are more likely to obtain initial employment than are graduates from lower tier universities, and that the effects of college quality, excepting university rank, on obtaining employment after graduation became indistinguishable from zero, similar to some previous research. College quality, therefore, does not appear to be a determining factor of obtaining initial employment in the Japanese labor market for recent graduates.