In this paper, we use panel data on occupations, industries and inequality in Japan between the years 1985 to 2005 and analyse their change in global and nonglobal regions. Considering the social polarization hypothesis from the global cities theories implying specific character of changes in such cities, our results show that growth of specific occupations and industries in Tokyo and Osaka was not faster than in other regions, that there is only partial support for the proposed casual relation between industrial and occupational change, and most importantly, that these changes in particular occupations and industries do not lead to higher growth of inequality in global regions. Consequently, it can be argued that social polarization in the terms of previous theories is not characteristic for global cities in Japan. Thus, income inequality is indeed growing and is relatively strongly affected by de-industrialization, yet it leads to greater inequalities in the middle stratum rather than bipolarization of the income groups. This leads us to conclude that both Tokyo and Osaka, while strongly engaging in the global economy, are still heavily influenced by, and reflect, the national markets rather than global economy which causes a relative lack of difference with other regions as well.