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The Japanese educational system is characterised by a relatively high degree of standardisation at the compulsory stage and a relatively high degree of stratification at the postcompulsory stage. As well, job opportunities in Japan are highly segregated by educational level. Young people with different educational qualifications rarely compete for the same job and most jobs specify the level of education required of applicants. There is a strong institutional linkage between schools and employer institutions in Japan, with particular employers and high schools often establishing long-term recruiting arrangements. The recruitment of junior college and university graduates is less structured than that of high schools. It is rare for Japanese workers to return to education once they have entered the labour market. This analysis uses nationally representative samples of Japanese men and women residing in Japan in 1985 and investigates the pattern of transition from school to work. It uses class and education schema which allow cross-national comparisons with the studies in other chapters and focuses on the gender differences in the effects of education on first entry positions and cross-cohort comparisons of the pattern of transition from school to work in Japan. Further, the chapter focuses on the institutions within which job allocation takes place, examining the effect of high school quality and college quality on first job attainment.