The Japanese Family System: Change, Continuity, and Regionality in the Long Twentieth Century (Population Studies of Japan)

This book offers a new perspective and empirical evidence that are relevant for understanding changes in family structures, intergenerational relationships, and female labor force participation in the “strong family” societies and that also shed light on those in the “weak family” societies. Focusing on the stem family and the gender division of labor, presenting detailed quantitative evidence, and testing the theories on family change and gender revolution, the book provides a comprehensive examination of change, continuity, and regionality in the Japanese family system over the twentieth century. By analyzing data from a nationally representative life course survey with event history techniques, it investigates factors affecting post-marital intergenerational co-residence and proximate residence along with those influencing continuous and/or discontinuous employment of married women across the life course. In this way, it reveals the mechanisms underlying the stem family formation and those behind married women’s M-shaped employment pattern. It further explores regionality in the Japanese family system, applying a demographic mapping method to data from a nationally representative community survey and official statistics. The mapping analyses demonstrate persistent geographical contrasts between two types of living arrangements (single-household versus multi-household) in the stem family accompanied by two types of maternal employment (full-time versus part-time). They also reveal a historical correlation between traditional communal parenting systems and modern childcare services, linking past to present from the late nineteenth to the early twenty-first century. Acknowledgments Contents 1 Background and Questions 1.1 Introduction 1.2 High Economic Growth, Population Migration, and the Proliferation of Nuclear Family Households 1.3 Re-examining the Family Nuclearization Theory 1.4 Questioning the Gender Revolution Theory 1.5 About This Book References 2 Change and Continuity in the Stem Family 2.1 Introduction 2.2 The National Family Research of Japan Special Survey 2001 2.3 Intergenerational Co-residence Across the Life Course 2.3.1 Neolocal Residence at Marriage 2.3.2 Delayed Co-residence After Marriage 2.4 Theoretical Background and Analytical Approach 2.4.1 Conjugal Family Ideology 2.4.2 Industrialization and Urbanization 2.4.3 Intergenerational Transfer of Family Property and Reciprocity 2.4.4 Discrete-Time Logistic Regression Models for Intergenerational Co-residence 2.5 Factors Affecting Patrilocal Co-residence 2.5.1 Love Marriage and Private Domesticity Separated from Community 2.5.2 Employment Status and Educational Attainment 2.5.3 Size of City of Residence 2.5.4 Home Ownership and Intergenerational Transfer and Support 2.5.5 Period Effect and Regional Variation 2.6 Factors Affecting Matrilocal Co-residence References 3 Change and Continuity in the Gender Division of Labor 3.1 Introduction 3.2 M-Shaped Employment Pattern Across the Life Course 3.3 Theoretical Background and Analytical Approach 3.3.1 Causal Forces Forming the M-Shaped Employment Pattern 3.3.2 Incompatibility Between Child-Rearing and Full-Time Paid Work 3.3.3 Intergenerational Co-residence, Proximate Residence, and Support 3.3.4 Socioeconomic Status 3.3.5 Other Background Factors 3.3.6 Discrete-Time Logistic Regression Models for Leaving and Re-entering the Labor Force 3.4 Factors Affecting Continuous and Discontinuous Employment of Married Women 3.4.1 Age of the Youngest Child 3.4.2 Intergenerational Living Arrangements, Child-Rearing, and Nursing Care for Elderly Parents 3.4.3 Couple’s Educational Attainment and Husband’s Occupational Status 3.4.4 Other Family-Related Variables 3.4.5 Regional Characteristics 3.4.6 Economic Growth and Labor Market Conditions 3.4.7 De-Housewifization Ideology 3.4.8 Expansion of Childcare Services References 4 Regionality in the Japanese Family System: Linking Past to Present 4.1 Two Types of Stem Family: Persistent Contrast 4.2 Intergenerational Proximate Residence Across the Life Course 4.3 Two Types of Maternal Employment: Persistent Contrast 4.4 Childcare Availability and Maternal Employment 4.5 Multiple Parenting System: Past and Present References 5 Discussion and Conclusions 5.1 Relative Shift from the Single-Household to Multi-Household Type Stem Family 5.2 Reversal to the Intergenerational Division of Labor 5.3 Strong Family Versus Weak Family 5.4 Developmental Idealism and Family Change References