Changes in Work and Family Life in Japan Under COVID-19 (Population Studies of Japan)

This book describes how the COVID-19 pandemic has affected the way of work, the division of household labor, and family formation in Japan. One of the characteristics of Japanese employment practices is a stable employer–employment relationship and seniority-based wage system. In return, long working hours, especially for men who are called “salarymen” (salaried workers, or “company men”), are required. The pandemic has led to an expansion of telework and has reduced their working hours, which has made them return to their homes to work. In contrast, non-regular employees, who are mostly women, has become more unstable in employment and their incomes fell. This tendency has become even stronger under the pandemic. Compared with conditions in Western countries, in Japan wives have a greater responsibility for domestic chores. In the pandemic, as children's classes shifted to online and childcare support facilities were temporarily closed, the burden of housework and child-rearing increased for wives. However, husbands who worked from home shared a part of the housework, and popular home delivery services helped to reduce the burdens on wives. Japan is one of the developed countries with low fertility rates. Under the pandemic, many Japanese postponed starting a family, which further shrank the country’s birthrate. There was a remarkably significant tendency to postpone having children among economically disadvantaged and socially isolated families. This book provides a portrait of Japan’s experience regarding the notable impacts of the pandemic on work and family life. Contents Contributors 1 Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Japanese Society 1.1 Occurrence of the COVID-19 Pandemic 1.2 Japan’s Infection Status and COVID-19 Countermeasures 1.3 Impact of COVID-19 on Japan’s Economic Activities 1.4 Impact of COVID-19 on Japanese Work and Family Life 1.4.1 Employment and Telework 1.4.2 Family Life 1.4.3 Family Formation Under Low Fertility References 2 How Does Telework Contribute to Generating Inequality During the COVID-19 Pandemic? The New Origin of Inequality in Japan 2.1 Introduction 2.2 Previous Research 2.2.1 Scope and Definition of Telework 2.2.2 Utilization of ICT, SBTC Hypothesis, and Telework Practice 2.2.3 COVID-19 Pandemic as an Environmental Factor 2.2.4 The Consequences of Telework 2.2.5 Context of Telework in Japan 2.3 Analytical Strategies 2.4 Data, Methods, and Variables 2.4.1 Data and Methods 2.4.2 Variables 2.5 Home-Based Telework During the COVID-19 Pandemic 2.5.1 Descriptive Statistics 2.5.2 Inequality in Access to Telework 2.5.3 The Consequences of Home-Based Telework 2.6 Discussion and Conclusion References 3 Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on the Gender Gap in Domestic Labor: Evidence from a Two-Wave Survey in Japan 3.1 Introduction 3.2 Previous Research on the Division of Domestic Labor 3.3 The COVID-19 Pandemic and the Gender Gap in Domestic Labor 3.4 Factors Associated with Changes in the Gender Gap in Domestic Labor During the Pandemic 3.5 Methods 3.5.1 Data and Samples 3.5.2 Measures 3.5.3 Analytical Procedures 3.6 Results 3.6.1 Descriptive Statistics 3.6.2 Multivariate Analysis 3.7 Conclusion References 4 The Impact of the COVID-19 on Fertility in Eastern Asia: The Case of Japan 4.1 The COVID-19 in Eastern Asia 4.1.1 The Situation in 2020 and 2021 4.1.2 The Situation in 2022 4.1.3 The Impact of COVID-19 Measures on Fertility in Eastern Asia 4.2 COVID-19 and the Pregnancy Intension of Japan 4.3 Data and Method 4.4 Result 4.4.1 Reviewing Japan’s Low Fertility from the COVID-19 Pandemic 4.5 Conclusion References Conclusion