Do Bad Marital Relationships Cause Bad Parent-Child Relationships?

The Transformations of Emotional Relationships in Japanese Modern Family

Abstract

The purpose of this essay is to explore how people have viewed emotional relationships between the family members, and how the view has changed in modern Japan. The whole analysis focuses on two things : (1) the connection between marital relationships and the happiness of the children, and (2) the connection between marital relationships and parentchild relationships. To seek the answer, this essay looks into the articles from the Japanese famous personal advice column 'Jinsei-Annai' (1914-2003). It is found out from the analysis that (1) until the 1930s marital relationships had not seen as something important to the happiness of the children and the two had been considered completely separate things, and that (2) it is only after the 1970s that people began to see the causal connection between marital relationships and parent-child relationships. This essay argues that the view of emotional relationships between the family members has changed even within modern Japan, and that it is only a recent phenomenon that different relationships in the family are thought to be strongly connected and easily affected by each other.