国際結婚が家族社会学研究に与えるインパクト

抄録

After the mid-80' s, when Japan' s economic power increased due to the Plaza consensus, the number of “international marriages” in Japan increased drastically. And the nationalities of foreign spouses have also changed. However, there is a sexual difference among these changes. More Japanese men have married foreign wives than Japanese women have married foreign husbands. The brides are Philippinos, Thais, Koreans and Chinese. One reason for this is that men move around more than women during the process of economic internationalization, but we should consider other intermediate factors that have influenced change in the Japanese spouse selection pattern; especially related to “nationality”. Migrant entertainer girls and brides found by professional matchmakers for the rural villages are functionally equivalents of young Japanese girls who left from the villages and service industry. Marriages with these women may influence mate selection pattern and thus conjugal relationships among Japanese. Parent-children relationships especially between mother and child living in the father' s country, face linguistic socialization hardships. Both the resource and norm theories can be used to interpret the extra hardships of the partner who lives in the spouse' s country. Family sociologists in Japan need to be more concerned with the legal rights offoreign spouses and partners as well as those of children of “international marriage”.