Changes in the Demand for Skilled Labor within Japan's Manufacturing Sector:Effects of Skill-Biased Technological Change and Globalization

This paper examines the demand shift toward workers who are university graduates in terms of skill-biased technological change (SBTC) and globalization, both of which utilize relatively more workers with specific skills. According to the results of our empirical study, which used the major groups of Japan's manufacturing panel data from the 1988-2003, it is clear that the increase in the relative demand for university graduates is closely related to the R&D expenditures ratio (SBTC) and the import ratio from the East Asian countries or the foreign production ratio (globalization). This suggests that there has been a demand shift toward highly educated workers in Japan's manufacturing sector due to both SBTC and globalization.