The Japanese Longitudinal Survey on Employment and Fertility (LOSEF): Essential Features of the 2011 Internet Version and a Guide to Its Users

The Japanese Longitudinal Survey on Employment and Fertility (LOSEF): the 2011 Internet Version was composed of 3 elements undertaken simultaneously via the Internet: 1) creation of a panel data set from transcription of administrative data (history of pension enrolment, salary history, etc.) contained in Social Security Statements; 2) a retrospective panel survey based on the items contained therein (such as career changes, marriage, childbirth, whether or not residing with parents, etc.); and 3) a survey on many other questions relating to current living and working circumstances. In addition to offering an overview of the 2011 Internet Version, this paper compares its basic figures with those from public statistical surveys, thereby elucidating some characteristics of the survey respondents, such as sample selection bias in this survey. Although some bias toward those with higher educational backgrounds was observed, our study confirmed that this survey represents the collection at a single stroke of almost perfect panel data spanning 45 years at maximum. Acquisition of this sort of long-term, almost flawless panel data is unprecedented in Japan- even worldwide, few such examples exist-making this an extremely rare opportunity.