1: Introduction: “diverging destinies” and “pattern of disadvantage” as part of the second demographic transition -- 1.1: General patterns of change -- 1.2: Posited implications -- 1.3: Posited explanations -- 1.4: Variation across time and space -- 2: Summary of previous research on Japan -- 2.1: Theoretical value of focus on Japan -- 2.2: Summary of previous work on educational differ…