Doctor of Philosophy

dissertationThis dissertation investigates from a gender perspective whether and how trade openness along with domestic factors affected manufacturing employment and wages in Japan during 1985-2014. This is the first comprehensive gender analysis of employment and wages impacts of Japanese trade and technological advancement. Cross-country analyses that include Japan have confirmed the feminization of manufacturing employment in developing countries for the pre-1995 period but did not find the counterpart defeminization effect in developed countries. Therefore, the first objective of this dissertation is to revisit this asymmetry in the post-1985 period by focusing on Japan. The second objective is to identify the gendered effects of trade on employment and wages while controlling for domestic factors to see whether and how significant the trade effects were. The third objective is to contribute evidence on Japan to the debates on whether industry competitiveness emanating from increased international trade lessened gender wage inequality. Based on industry-year panel data from establishments with five or more regular employees, the main findings are as follows. Import penetration, particularly from developing economies, is associated with lower female intensity of employment and greater gender wage inequality. On the other hand, export orientation contributes to gender equality in employment and wages by adversely affecting men more than women. However, in both cases, trade effects are relatively small. As for technological iv advancement, increased capital investment generates downward pressure on women's employment, indicating that women are the first to go. However, those who remain employed, including men, experience lower wage growth. Finally, in contrast to neoclassical theory, rising industry competitiveness owing to international trade in concentrated industries and high-technology industries is associated with discrimination against women