2008 Volume 20 Issue 2 Pages 2_48-2_59
The purpose of this paper is to examine the so-called phenomenon of “individualization of the family” by focusing on how children are referred to in the case of divorce. The recent rise in divorce rates is considered as a result of the increase of choices in modern Japan, and evidence of the further advancement of “individualization of the family.” However, an analysis of remarks on children and divorce in personal advice columns seem to indicate a different picture, about which this paper will further elaborate on. Firstly, people seeking advice in the columns continue to judge the validity of a divorce request from the perspective of the interest of child, although the child in this case is a third party. Secondly, since the 1980s, advisers have begun to emphasize the importance of “personal choice,” but this is with the assumption that a parent's choice will not undermine the child's. So divorces today cannot be said to have been freed from the “child restriction,” and certain aspects of the “individualization of the family” may not actually be progressing.
