Labor market conditions have been tightening across Japan, and the active job openings-to-applicants ratios recently have exceeded 1 in all prefectures, which was not observed even in the bubble period. At the same time, the unemployment rate has declined in a wide range of regions. An improvement in the labor market has been widespread across generations as well.
For example, the unemployment rate of the younger generation aged 15-24 rose substantially amid the Japanese financial crisis of the late 1990s, and declined only moderately for a long time after that (Chart 4). However, the situation has changed dramatically in the past few years.