IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/jjieco/v74y2024ics0889158324000340.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Automation and disappearing routine occupations in Japan

Author

Listed:
  • Kikuchi, Shinnosuke
  • Fujiwara, Ippei
  • Shirota, Toyoichiro

Abstract

We examine the implications of automation technology in Japan since 1980, comparing different local labor markets with different degrees of automation exposure. First, we do not find evidence that automation reduces employment rate within demographic groups and automation encourages workers to move from regular to non-regular employment. Second, we show that automation shifts employment from routine occupations in the manufacturing sector to service sectors, while increasing the share of establishments and sales in the manufacturing sector. Finally, we show that this shift in labor demand is attributed to younger generations and non-college-educated workers.

Suggested Citation

  • Kikuchi, Shinnosuke & Fujiwara, Ippei & Shirota, Toyoichiro, 2024. "Automation and disappearing routine occupations in Japan," Journal of the Japanese and International Economies, Elsevier, vol. 74(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:jjieco:v:74:y:2024:i:c:s0889158324000340
    DOI: 10.1016/j.jjie.2024.101338
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0889158324000340
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.jjie.2024.101338?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Clément de Chaisemartin & Xavier D'Haultfœuille, 2020. "Two-Way Fixed Effects Estimators with Heterogeneous Treatment Effects," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 110(9), pages 2964-2996, September.
    2. Toshie Ikenaga & Ryo Kambayashi, 2016. "Task Polarization in the Japanese Labor Market: Evidence of a Long-Term Trend," Industrial Relations: A Journal of Economy and Society, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 55(2), pages 267-293, April.
    3. Shinnosuke KIKUCHI & Sagiri KITAO, 2020. "Welfare Effects of Polarization: Occupational Mobility over the Life-cycle," Discussion papers 20043, Research Institute of Economy, Trade and Industry (RIETI).
    4. Wolfgang Dauth & Sebastian Findeisen & Jens Suedekum & Nicole Woessner, 2021. "The Adjustment of Labor Markets to Robots [“Skills, Tasks and Technologies: Implications for Employment and Earnings]," Journal of the European Economic Association, European Economic Association, vol. 19(6), pages 3104-3153.
    5. Kawaguchi, Daiji & Mori, Yuko, 2016. "Why has wage inequality evolved so differently between Japan and the US? The role of the supply of college-educated workers," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 52(C), pages 29-50.
    6. Rodrigo Ad~ao & Michal Koles'ar & Eduardo Morales, 2018. "Shift-Share Designs: Theory and Inference," Papers 1806.07928, arXiv.org, revised Aug 2019.
    7. David H. Autor & Frank Levy & Richard J. Murnane, 2003. "The skill content of recent technological change: an empirical exploration," Proceedings, Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco, issue Nov.
    8. Fernando Rios-Avila & Gustavo Canavire-Bacarreza & Flavia Sacco-Capurro, 2024. "Recovering income distribution in the presence of interval-censored data," The Journal of Economic Inequality, Springer;Society for the Study of Economic Inequality, vol. 22(4), pages 1039-1060, December.
    9. Daron Acemoglu & Pascual Restrepo, 2020. "Robots and Jobs: Evidence from US Labor Markets," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 128(6), pages 2188-2244.
    10. David H. Autor & David Dorn & Gordon H. Hanson, 2013. "The China Syndrome: Local Labor Market Effects of Import Competition in the United States," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 103(6), pages 2121-2168, October.
    11. Nobuaki HAMAGUCHI & Keisuke KONDO, 2018. "Regional Employment and Artificial Intelligence in Japan," Discussion papers 18032, Research Institute of Economy, Trade and Industry (RIETI).
    12. Kirill Borusyak & Peter Hull, 2023. "Nonrandom Exposure to Exogenous Shocks," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 91(6), pages 2155-2185, November.
    13. Rodrigo Adão & Michal Kolesár & Eduardo Morales, 2019. "Shift-Share Designs: Theory and Inference," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 134(4), pages 1949-2010.
    14. Kitao, Sagiri & Mikoshiba, Minamo, 2020. "Females, the elderly, and also males: Demographic aging and macroeconomy in Japan," Journal of the Japanese and International Economies, Elsevier, vol. 56(C).
    15. Acemoglu, Daron & Autor, David, 2011. "Skills, Tasks and Technologies: Implications for Employment and Earnings," Handbook of Labor Economics, in: O. Ashenfelter & D. Card (ed.), Handbook of Labor Economics, edition 1, volume 4, chapter 12, pages 1043-1171, Elsevier.
    16. Daron Acemoglu & Pascual Restrepo, 2022. "Tasks, Automation, and the Rise in U.S. Wage Inequality," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 90(5), pages 1973-2016, September.
    17. Shinnosuke KIKUCHI & Ippei FUJIWARA & Toyoichiro SHIROTA, 2023. "Automation and the Disappearance of Routine Work in Japan," Discussion papers 23082, Research Institute of Economy, Trade and Industry (RIETI).
    18. Kyoji FUKAO & Sumio HAMAGATA & Tomohiko INUI & Keiko ITO & Hyeog Ug KWON & Tatsuji MAKINO & Tsutomu MIYAGAWA & Yasuo NAKANISHI & Joji TOKUI, 2007. "Estimation Procedures and TFP Analysis of the JIP Database 2006 Provisional Version," Discussion papers 07003, Research Institute of Economy, Trade and Industry (RIETI).
    19. Imai, Kosuke & Kim, In Song, 2021. "On the Use of Two-Way Fixed Effects Regression Models for Causal Inference with Panel Data," Political Analysis, Cambridge University Press, vol. 29(3), pages 405-415, July.
    20. Dekle, Robert, 2020. "Robots and industrial labor: Evidence from Japan," Journal of the Japanese and International Economies, Elsevier, vol. 58(C).
    21. Keisuke KONDO, 2023. "Municipality-level Panel Data and Municipal Mergers in Japan," Discussion papers 23901, Research Institute of Economy, Trade and Industry (RIETI).
    22. Daisuke ADACHI & Taiyo FUKAI & Daiji KAWAGUCHI & Yukiko SAITO, 2020. "Commuting Zones in Japan," Discussion papers 20021, Research Institute of Economy, Trade and Industry (RIETI).
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Shinnosuke KIKUCHI & Ippei FUJIWARA & Toyoichiro SHIROTA, 2023. "Automation and the Disappearance of Routine Work in Japan," Discussion papers 23082, Research Institute of Economy, Trade and Industry (RIETI).
    2. Shinnosuke KIKUCHI, 2024. "Automation and Offshoring on Wage Inequality in Japan," Discussion papers 24046, Research Institute of Economy, Trade and Industry (RIETI).
    3. Charlie Joyez & Raja Kali & Catherine Laffineur, 2023. "Occupational Coherence and Local Labor Market Performance: Evidence from France," GREDEG Working Papers 2023-20, Groupe de REcherche en Droit, Economie, Gestion (GREDEG CNRS), Université Côte d'Azur, France.
    4. Caselli, Mauro & Fracasso, Andrea & Scicchitano, Sergio & Traverso, Silvio & Tundis, Enrico, 2025. "What workers and robots do: An activity-based analysis of the impact of robotization on changes in local employment," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 54(1).
    5. David Autor & Caroline Chin & Anna Salomons & Bryan Seegmiller, 2024. "New Frontiers: The Origins and Content of New Work, 1940–2018," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 139(3), pages 1399-1465.
    6. Brey, Björn, 2024. "The effect of recent technological change on US immigration policy," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 227(C).
    7. Chuan, A. & Zhang, W., 2021. "Non-College Occupations, Workplace Routinization, and the Gender Gap in College Enrollment," Cambridge Working Papers in Economics 2177, Faculty of Economics, University of Cambridge.
    8. Kirill Borusyak & Peter Hull & Xavier Jaravel, 2025. "Design-based identification with formula instruments: a review," The Econometrics Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 28(1), pages 83-108.
    9. Heyman, Fredrik & Olsson, Martin, 2022. "Long-Run Effects of Technological Change: The Impact of Automation and Robots on Intergenerational Mobility," Working Paper Series 1451, Research Institute of Industrial Economics, revised 29 Jun 2023.
    10. Sheida Teimouri & Joachim Zietz, 2025. "Housing prices and import competition," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 68(1), pages 253-280, January.
    11. Mann, Katja & Pozzoli, Dario, 2024. "Robots and immigration," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 227(C).
    12. Blanas, Sotiris & Oikonomou, Rigas, 2023. "COVID-induced economic uncertainty, tasks and occupational demand," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 81(C).
    13. Daisuke Adachi & Daiji Kawaguchi & Yukiko U. Saito, 2024. "Robots and Employment: Evidence from Japan, 1978–2017," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 42(2), pages 591-634.
    14. Hémous, David & Dechezleprêtre, Antoine & Olsen, Morten & Zanella, carlo, 2019. "Automating Labor: Evidence from Firm-level Patent Data," CEPR Discussion Papers 14249, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    15. Hyejin Kim, 2024. "The impact of robots on labor demand: evidence from job vacancy data in South Korea," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 67(3), pages 1185-1209, September.
    16. Cheng, Can & Luo, Jiayu & Zhu, Chun & Zhang, Shangfeng, 2024. "Artificial intelligence and the skill premium: A numerical analysis of theoretical models," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 200(C).
    17. Ghodsi, Mahdi & Stehrer, Robert & Barišić, Antea, 2024. "Assessing the impact of new technologies on wages and labour income shares," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 209(C).
    18. Ekaterina Prytkova & Fabien Petit & Deyu Li & Sugat Chaturvedi & Tommaso Ciarli, 2024. "The Employment Impact of Emerging Digital Technologies," CEPEO Working Paper Series 24-01, UCL Centre for Education Policy and Equalising Opportunities, revised Feb 2024.
    19. Chuan, Amanda & Zhang, Weilong, 2023. "Non-college Occupations, Workplace Routinization, and the Gender Gap in College Enrollment," IZA Discussion Papers 16089, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    20. Fang, Guanfu & Miao, Liya, 2025. "Robot and crime: Evidence from China," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 188(C).

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:jjieco:v:74:y:2024:i:c:s0889158324000340. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/inca/622903 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.