Abstract
The burden of care is increasing in Japan as the result of the aging of the population, on the one hand. On the other hand, more women are working now as the industrial structure changes, the rate of economic growth decreases, and more women hold positive attitudes toward work. Did such social changes after the World War II affect the experiences of care-giving among women? If so, how and in what aspects were they changed? Using National Survey of Family Research Japan 2001 (NFRJs01), this paper compares the three cohorts of women on their care-giving experiences and their determinants from the life course perspectives.
As a result of the analyses, I found that the likelihood of care-giving significantly increased in among those who were born after the 1940s, so that the experiences of "care-giving for at least period of time in their middle age" have become more common for this cohort. As for the determinants of caregiving, the likelihood of care-giving among the women whose husbands are the eldest son across cohorts is constantly higher across cohorts, as they are more likely to live with the parents of husbands, on the one hand. On the other hand, the low likelihood of care-giving among full-time workers is observed only among the most recent cohort.
