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The Last or Lasting Samurai? The Impact of Secondary Education Expansion on Elite Attainment and Occupational Sorting after Japan’s Meiji Restoration

Author

Listed:
  • Ichimura, Hidehiko

    (University of Arizona, Department of Economics)

  • Sawada, Yasuyuki

    (University of Tokyo, Faculty of Economics)

  • Takayasu, Yutaro

    (Hitotsubashi University, Hitotsubashi Institute for Advanced Study)

  • Tanaka, Mari

    (University of Tokyo)

Abstract

When societies transition from hereditary to meritocratic systems, to what extent does educational expansion broaden access to elite positions and change inherited patterns of occupational sorting? We study Japan after the Meiji Restoration, which abolished samurai hereditary privileges in public-sector positions and modernized education. Exploiting cohort-specific discontinuities in access to secondary schooling created by the expansion of public secondary schools, we find that greater access increased elite attainment among both samurai and commoner families, but most additional elites entered sectors historically associated with their family background. Many had non-elite fathers, indicating greater upward intergenerational mobility into elite status.

Suggested Citation

  • Ichimura, Hidehiko & Sawada, Yasuyuki & Takayasu, Yutaro & Tanaka, Mari, 2026. "The Last or Lasting Samurai? The Impact of Secondary Education Expansion on Elite Attainment and Occupational Sorting after Japan’s Meiji Restoration," IZA Discussion Papers 18924, IZA Network @ LISER.
    • Handle: RePEc:iza:izadps:dp18924
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    Keywords

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    JEL classification:

    • J62 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Mobility, Unemployment, Vacancies, and Immigrant Workers - - - Job, Occupational and Intergenerational Mobility; Promotion
    • I24 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - Education and Inequality
    • I26 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - Returns to Education
    • N35 - Economic History - - Labor and Consumers, Demography, Education, Health, Welfare, Income, Wealth, Religion, and Philanthropy - - - Asia including Middle East

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