Kiyomi Morioka’s Typology of Family Systems

Abstract

Kiyomi Morioka has undoubtedly played a significant role in Japanese family studies. The classification and typology of family are the foundation of Morioka’s research on family. This paper focuses on Morioka’s ideas regarding the stem- and conjugal- family systems and examines their problems. Morioka’s notions of the stem- and conjugal- family systems, to which he devoted much of his research life, are based on combinations of the existence or non-existence of two elements: the principle of co-residence with the children’s family and the lineal reproduction of the family. The reason for this can be identified by tracing his process of concept formation. The origin of Morioka’s concept of family typology lies in Eitaro Suzuki’s theory that conceptualized the direct lineal reproduction typical in traditional Japanese families. Morioka’s typology reconstructed this concept using George P. Murdock’s nuclear family theory; however, Morioka’s typology could not eliminate the typicality of Japanese families.