In Japan, a system
of lifetime employment in many big businesses, a tradition
of employer provided benefits such as housing in many cases, and a
wage system in those kinds
of businesses where workers receive a substantial
share of their annual income in the form
of an annual bonus whose size can be used to buffer good and bad years for a company
sharing risks and rewards with workers instead
of limiting the risks and rewards to an investor class, have contributed to low levels
of income inequality in the Japanese
economy relative to comparably developed countries with comparable levels
of government spending on welfare state type programs in other countries.