Abstract
Scientific studies of families in Japan began with “Family Composition” by prof. Teizo Toda in 1937. He made clear that the Japanese family is composed mainly of a married man and woman with their children, although in individual cases one or more additional persons may reside with them through the statistical analysis of the National Census in 1920.
Thereafter, some followed Toda and other criticized him, through which the sociology of the family in Japan developed rapidly. Prof. Takashi Koyama adopted Toda's scientific method and applied it to the analysis of large families at the remote mountain villages in the “Hokuriku” districts. Prof. Eizaburo Suzuki criticized Toda's definition of the family as a group and insisted that the Japanese family, “ie” have to be analyzed as an institution. He explained the Japanese family through the “ie” norm and status system. Prof. Kizaemon Ariga commented Toda's small family theory on the viewpoint of functionalism and pointed out that Toda should not exclude non-kin members from the family, analyzing the family in connection with “dozoku”. However, at first he included the “dozoku” with the large family into the same category of the large family form. Prof. Hiroshi Oikawa pointed out the mistake of Ariga at this point because the branch family is an independent family separated from the stem family and cast a light on the importance of the “dozoku” in the bilateral kinship system through the analysis of the living customs of both marriage and funeral. Prof. Seiichi Kitano was the first designator of the “dozoku” and cleared up the difference of the “dozoku” from the patron-client relationship, while Ariga categorized them into the same category.
Sociological studies of the Chinese family developed well, too during the same time. Prof. Tatsumi Makino made clear the continual existence of the small family in the Chinese history, while Prof. Morimitsu Shimizu pointed out the reduction of the large family and increase of the small family through the introduction of stratification.
