Paper Title
Comparison of Occupational Structure and Job Prestige Rankings in China, Japan and Korea
Abstract
We investigate the level of socio-economic development in three East Asian societies by comparatively
examining the structures of industry and occupation. Peoples' preference for occupation is also examined to estimate the
level of convergence among those societies. By the support of empirical data, it is found that there is a quite huge time gap in
the socio-economic developmental stage of the three East Asian societies. While the convergence of the industrial and
occupational structures is slow, the convergence in prestige ranking of occupations is relatively fast. This represents that the
perceptions and attitudes of Chinese show a rapid converging tendency with more advanced societies, but the speed of
structural transformation of China is retarded. The results only partially support convergence hypothesis. However, this limit
of modernization theory does not support heterogeneity or speciality theories by culturalists.
Indexterms- industrial structure, occupational structure, occupational prestigeranking, East Asian societies, convergence
theory.