Björn Becker

I studied economics at the University of Cologne and I am currently doing my Ph.D. in labor economics, supervised by Prof. Laszlo Goerke at the University of Trier. After training as a bank clerk, my economics studies at the University of Cologne allowed me to spend a semester abroad at Hitotsubashi University in Tokyo. During this time, I developed a deep interest in Japan and realized a second stay abroad during my Master’s degree at Sophia University in Tokyo.

When I first started observing the Japanese labor market, I was particularly interested in the differences between the sexes. The combined of fields of economics and equality are enormously interestingly in Japan when observing the differences between regular and non-regular work, career and non-career track, childcare, parental leave, traditional norms and the division of labor between work and household. I therefore wrote my Master’s thesis under the supervision of Professor Michael Krause on the topic of “Female Labor Supply and the Gender Wage Gap in Japan”.

In my current project, I investigate whether there are differences in life satisfaction between Japanese women with higher education than their partner and other married women. I am also examining links to traditional norms and couples’ allocation of time between home and work. At the German Institute for Japanese Studies, in addition to completing this project, I will devote myself into further projects related to the Japanese labor market and differences between men and women.