The Great Hanshin-Awaji (Kobe) earthquake in 1995 has had a significant detrimental effect on the economic conditions of southern-central Japan. However, the earthquake also led people to acknowledge the importance of the many volunteer activities in Japan at that time. Using a large sample of...

A Japanese General Social Survey is used to re-examine how voluntary giving is associated with inequality aversion, and how the relationship differs between high- and low-income groups. This paper also investigates how social capital influences that relationship. The key findings are that (1)...

The Japanese General Social Survey was used to determine how individual preferences for income redistribution are affected by family structure, such as the number of siblings and birth order where individuals grow up. After controlling for various individual characteristics, the important...

This paper explores how a perceived tax burden is influenced by the degree that neighbors prefer income redistribution. Further, this paper investigates how the influence of neighbors is affected by the degree of interaction between neighbors. For these purposes, individual-level data and place...

This paper explores how a trust in government shared by neighbors is associated with individual preferences for income redistribution and individual perceptions regarding income tax burden. Three measures for trust in government are used: “trust in ministries and government agencies”,...

Smokers are more impatient and, unlike nonsmokers, they tend to prefer current benefits. In this paper, individual-level data from Japan are used to examine how preferences for divorce and extramarital sex are different between smokers and nonsmokers. After controlling for various individual...

This paper investigates whether and the extent to which the Fukushima nuclear accident 2011 affected human behavior based on a natural experiment with the Japanese Professional Baseball League. Comparing the duration of games in the 2010 and 2011 seasons reveals the following. (1) The duration...

Based on prefecture-level panel data from Japan for 2010 and 2012, this paper investigates how the 2011 Fukushima nuclear accident influenced the body mass index (BMI) of students aged between 5 and 17 years old. A differences-in-differences approach was used to show that (1) students’ BMIs...

The Great Hanshin-Awaji (Kobe) earthquake hit Japan in 1995, causing devastating damage to the economic landscape of southern-central Japan. However, the earthquake also caused people to realize the importance of social capital in Japan. Based on a large, individual-level database comprising...

The Japanese Professional Football League (J-league) was established in 1993. Based on individual level data, this study investigated how emergence of the league affected Japanese people playing football using the differences-in-differences method. The following main findings were obtained. (1)...