Research on international comparisons of education systems has focused on the value of vocational skills and qualifications in the labour market. This study uses new approaches and data analysis to address three research questions:
(1) How well do education levels and fields of study match occupation in Japanese society?
(2) What is the link between vocational education and social stratification?
(3) How do people perceive the issue of bearing the costs of supporting the education system?

Previous research has noted that providing more occupation-specific knowledge and skills through schooling (i.e. high occupational specificity) facilitates young people's transition into the labour market. While such trends have often been examined through macro-level comparisons of national education systems, this study reveals underlying patterns of educational attainment and occupational outcomes at the individual level. In addition, a novel analysis was conducted using survey experiment methods to examine how individuals perceive the financing of the education system.

When the relationship between educational attainment and occupation was decomposed into contributions between and within educational levels, it was found that the contribution attributable to academic discipline and major accounted for approximately 30%. One of the findings also challenges the conventional understanding that the link between fields of study in the humanities/social sciences and occupations is weak in the Japanese society.
Graduating from fields with stronger occupational specificity tends to yield better labour market outcomes. Furthermore, this tendency arises from graduates being matched with occupations that have strong ties to their specific field of study.
When analyzing public opinion on public spending on education, it was found that fiscal constraints reduce support, whereas public debt is more likely to be accepted.

As employment becomes increasingly unstable and the knowledge economy advances, the vocational function of the education system is coming under greater scrutiny. Against this backdrop, this research offers a fresh perspective on the issue of aligning the skills acquired at school with occupations in the labour market.
Furthermore, amid fiscal constraints stemming from a declining birth rate and ageing population, balancing the education system with other public expenditure is essential. This research can enhance our understanding of the processes through which public opinion is formed and polarized, while also providing insights to inform policy design.

• Educational sociology
• Social stratification theory
• Social inequality
• Educational opportunity
• Status attainment
• Inequality
• Causal inference
• Vocational education
• Panel survey
• Fiscal constraints