2008 Volume 20 Issue 2 Pages 2_34-2_47
Abiding by the norms of patriarchy, a married couple prioritizes the relationship with the husband's parents over the relationship with the wife's parents. However, the norms have weakened under the influences of the social and demographic changes after the war, and the bilateralization of the intergenerational relation is vigorously discussed recently. This article focuses intergenerational support relations (financial/physical) in the cases where respondents live separately from their parents and from parents-in-law, and analyzes balance between husband's side and wife's side and factors affecting this balance, using the newest data of the Japanese General Social Survey (JGSS-2006). It is hypothesized that with the weakening of the norms of patriarchy, not only the vector of equilibrating the support relation between wife's side and husband's side but also the vector of giving priority to the wife's side works. Results are as follows: 1) compared to support to parents, support from parents is more balanced between wife's side and husband's side; 2) compared to financial support, practical support is more balanced; and 3) regardless of content and direction of support, situational factors affect strongly.
