AbstractThis paper estimates Japanese labor market mismatch between 2000 and 2019 by using the method of Sahin et al. (“Mismatch Unemployment.” The American Economic Review 104 (11): 3529–64, 2014). We quantify contract-type (regular or non-regular), employment-type (full or part-time), and occupational mismatch and their respective contributions to changes in unemployment. All three types of mismatch show a countercyclical pattern, sharply increasing during the global financial crisis (GFC), but slowly declining during the recovery. Contract-type and occupational mismatch accounted for a significant portion of the rise in the unemployment rate during the GFC, each accounting for around 30 and 20–40 percent, respectively. Employment-type mismatch, on the other hand, accounted for much less–at around 15 perecent of the rise in unemployment for the same period.