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The Nuclear Energy Agency carried out an independent peer review of Japan’s siting process and criteria for the geological disposal of high-level radioactive waste in May 2016. The review concluded that Japan’s site screening process is generally in accordance with international practices. As the goal of the siting process is to locate a site – that is both appropriate and accepted by the community – to host a geological disposal facility for high-level radioactive waste, the international review team emphasises in this report the importance of maintaining an open dialogue and interaction between the regulator, the implementer and the public. Dialogue should begin in the early phases and continue throughout the siting process. The international review team also underlines the importance of taking into account feasibility aspects when selecting a site for preliminary investigations, but suggests that it would be inappropriate to set detailed scientific criteria for nationwide screening at this stage. The team has provided extensive advisory remarks in the report as opportunities for improvement, including the recommendation to use clear and consistent terminology in defining the site screening criteria as it is a critical factor in a successful siting process.

This book provides an overview of the key challenges faced by Japan and OECD's main policy recommendations to address them. Drawing on the OECD’s expertise in comparing country experiences and identifying best practices, the book tailors the OECD’s policy advice to the specific and timely priorities of Japan, focusing on how its government can make reform happen.

With 25 years of sluggish economic growth, Japan’s per capita income has fallen from a level matching the average of the top half of OECD countries in the early 1990s to 14% below that today. Weak growth, together with rapid population ageing, has driven public debt into uncharted territory. Revitalising growth is thus the top priority for the Japanese government. With the labour force shrinking more rapidly than the population, per capita output can only grow through improvements in labour productivity and labour force participation. Japan’s highly-skilled labour force and its technological leadership can help close the gap with leading OECD countries in per capita income. But broad-based structural reforms, as envisaged in the third arrow of Abenomics, are needed to allow these strengths to fully achieve their potential. The initial impact of Abenomics in 2013 was impressive, and the reform process needs to continue.

Japan has achieved a comparatively high level of well-being: skill levels are high, unemployment is low and life expectancy at birth is the highest in the OECD. Since its launch in 2013, Abenomics has had a positive effect on the economy, and per capita output growth has picked up. However, to achieve inclusive growth and greater well-being, Japan needs to address important challenges to foster fiscal sustainability, narrow the productivity gap with leading OECD countries and manage the demographic transition. A new fiscal plan going beyond achieving a primary surplus should lay out concrete measures to raise revenues and control spending. As Japan’s population ages, using all available talent in the labour market and achieving gender equality are key to overcome labour shortages. Boosting productivity, which has been stagnant, will require increasing returns from R&D, capitalising on the digital economy, fostering the dynamism of SMEs, and reducing barriers to foreign direct investment and trade to promote greater integration into global value chains. Japan’s education system is one of the top performers in the OECD, but there is scope to further invest in teachers and schools. Finally, further action to foster green growth and environmental quality as well as effectively leveraging upcoming international sports events, such as the Rugby World Cup 2019 and the Olympic and Paralympic Games 2020, would also boost local development and inclusive growth. The complementarity of reforms needed to achieve inclusive and sustainable growth in in an aging society makes a compelling case for a comprehensive approach.

This second edition of Job Creation and Local Economic Development examines how national and local actors can better work together to support economic development and job creation at the local level. It sheds light on a continuum of issues – from how skills policy can better meet the needs of local communities to how local actors can better engage employers in apprenticeships and improve the implementation of SME and entrepreneurship policy. It includes international comparisons that allow local areas to take stock of how they are performing in the marketplace for skills and jobs. It also includes a set of country profiles featuring, among other things, new data on skills supply and demand at the level of OECD sub-regions (TL3).

This third edition of Job Creation and Local Economic Development examines the impact of technological progress on regional and local labour markets. It sheds light on widening regional gaps on job creation, workers education and skills, as well as inclusion in local economies. Drawing on new data, it examines the geographical distribution of the risk of automation and whether jobs lost to automation are compensated by the creation of jobs at lower risk of automation. Building on data from labour force surveys, the report looks at the rise of non-standard work, highlighting the main regional determinants of temporary jobs and self-employment. Finally, it considers determinants of productivity and inclusion in regional and local labour markets, as well as policies to foster greater inclusion of vulnerable groups into the labour market. Individual country profiles provide an overview of regional labour markets and, among other things, an assessment of the performance in terms of “quality” jobs created among different regions.

The impact of COVID-19 on local jobs and workers dwarfs those of the 2008 global financial crisis. The 2020 edition of Job Creation and Local Economic Development considers the short-term impacts on local labour markets as well as the longer-term implications for local development. Chapter 1 explores the immediate local employment impacts of the crisis, the divides within and across local labour markets even prior to the pandemic, and the likely diverging recovery patterns. Chapter 2 considers the underlying trends that COVID-19 will accelerate (digitalisation, the automation of jobs and polarisation of skill profiles; a transition to greener jobs) or slow down (reconfigured global supply chains, concentration of the high skilled in largest cities). Chapter 3 explores local action in the recovery. It highlights the strategies to strengthen local employment services and training providers to meet the increased demand for job placement and skills upgrading, particularly for the most disadvantaged workers (youth, low-skilled, women) or business development to serve the hardest hit firms and sectors (tourism, culture, hospitality). It also considers strategies and tools to “rebuild better” by rethinking local development futures, taking advantage of the changing geography of jobs due to remote working or other opportunities such as the social economy. Individual country profiles are available online.

The green transition is changing jobs, skills, and local economies. It poses new challenges but also opportunities, both of which will differ across places within countries. This report, Job Creation and Local Economic Development 2023: Bridging the Great Green Divide, provides novel evidence on those risks and opportunities across regions in 30 OECD countries. It examines the geography of green-task and polluting jobs and examines the impact of the green transition on gender and socioeconomic inequality by identifying the characteristics of workers in those jobs. Furthermore, the report tracks the progress regions have made in greening their labour market over the past decade. The report provides actionable policy recommendations that can help deliver a green and just transition. It looks at past and other ongoing labour market transitions and identifies local success drivers that can help communities prepare for and manage the impact of the green transition. Finally, it points out actions for ramping up and adapting local skills development systems to meet the demands of the green transition and equip their workforce with the right skills for the future.

Jobs-rich Growth in Asia discusses some of the most pressing issues that countries in Southeast Asia are facing in regard to boosting local employment and skills development while advancing social protection strategies in emerging, fast-growing labour markets. A joint OECD/ILO initiative, this book analyses local approaches in Asia to modernise labour markets and skills strategies and shows how local recovery is taking place through a combination of policy measures on employment creation, skills development and social protection.

When immigrants arrive in a new country, they are confronted with new labour market requirements such as language proficiency, familiarity with job search procedures and work practices which they are not always able to satisfy. These obstacles affect not only new immigrants, but, surprisingly, their children too, even if the children are born and educated in the receiving country.  This publication presents reviews of the labour market integration of immigrants and their children in four OECD countries (Australia, Denmark, Germany and Sweden), and provides country-specific recommendations. Governments have a role to play in promoting language and vocational training, and encouraging diversity in the workplace. Immigrants themselves must accept the requirements of the host country employers. The viability of future migration policies, in particular greater recourse to immigration, will depend to a large extent on how successful OECD countries and immigrants are in achieving these objectives.

When immigrants arrive in a new country, they are confronted with new labour market requirements such as language proficiency, familiarity with job search procedures and work practices which they are not always able to satisfy. These obstacles affect not only new immigrants, but, surprisingly, their children too, even if the children are born and educated in the receiving country. This publication presents reviews of the labour market integration of immigrants and their children in four OECD countries (Belgium, France, the Netherlands and Portugal), and provides country-specific recommendations. Governments have a role to play in promoting language and vocational training, and encouraging diversity in the workplace. Immigrants themselves must accept the requirements of the host country employers. The viability of future migration policies, in particular greater recourse to immigration, will depend to a large extent on how successful OECD countries and immigrants are in achieving these objectives.

Today, the global youth population is at its highest ever and still growing, with the highest proportion of youth living in Africa and Asia, and a majority of them in rural areas. Young people in rural areas face the double challenge of age-specific vulnerabilities and underdevelopment of rural areas. While agriculture absorbs the majority of rural workers in developing countries, low pay and poor working conditions make it difficult to sustain rural livelihoods. Potential job opportunities for rural youth exist in agriculture and along the agri-food value chain, however. Growing populations, urbanisation and rising incomes of the working class are increasing demand for more diverse and higher value added agricultural and food products in Africa and developing Asia. This demand will create a need for off-farm labour, especially in agribusinesses, which tends to be better paid and located in rural areas and secondary towns. It could boost job creation in the food economy provided that local food systems were mobilised to take up the challenge of higher and changing domestic demand for food.