Studies in humanities and social sciences have rarely discussed the problem of male infertility. This paper examines the background of this relative silence through an analysis of statements by obstetricians and gynecologists from the 1930s to the 1950s, taking notice of motherhood protection and infertility, especially artificial insemination by donor (AID). It also aims to present materials to develop discussion concerning assisted reproductive technologies in family studies.
    The two following points are made clear. First, although AID is a kind of male infertility treatment, it was used for women who had an infertile husband in relation to motherhood protection, which unified pregnancy and child nurturing. Second, AID went against the norm of the family in the period around the end of World War 2 because it used donated sperm. However, it was compatible with the “couple-based family,” which was promoted by post-war reforms.

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    Diversity of families is a presupposition in today's family research. Globalization has brought diversity to many spheres of society - the workplace, the family cultural patterns, and so on. We know various types of families and have contact with them in our own neighborhood. They differ from others in the neighborhood in their lifestyle, ethnicity, religion, values, norms, nationality, and so on. This type of diversity can be named “diversity outside families”.
    Now, however society is stepping into a new phase of diversity, where many people experience diversity even in their own families. They may differ from their family members in ethnicity, religion, cultural origin, birthplace, and country of residence - even perhaps differing from their own family members at the biological or genetic relationship level. Beck, and Beck-Gernsheim (2011) called this type of globalization “inner globalization”, and declared that “the global other is found in our midst”. They named this type of family a “world family”. It could also be described as “diversity within families”.
    As occurs with adoption-placement or step-kin relationships through parent remarriage, assisted reproductive technology, especially that involvihg artificial insemination by donor (AID), ovum donors, and surrogate mothers, brings rich diversity into families. These families may consist of multiple mothers and fathers. We discuss the sociological meaning of this multiplicity of parent-child relationships. The issues we select are, first, family identity and descent problems when we are faced with diversity within our families, and second, possible relations between diversity within families and diversity outside families, i.e. globalized society characterized by complexity and diversity. A related question is wherher diversity within families can or cannot contribute to the harmonization / integration of globalized complex societies.

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    This paper examines the relations between criticism of the city and family norms, and reconsiders the comparison structure called ‘urban vs. rural' implied in family studies. The object of analysis is a magazine for urban blue-collar workers: the urban version of Ie no Hikari. Originally, it was published as a magazine for rural families. The urban version targeted city dwellers and was published from 1935 to 1941. This analysis focuses on articles called ‘home articles.' It can be seen that urban culture was considered wasted culture, the life of the farm village was shown as a model for rural families, and the family had both a private and a public existence. Furthermore, in both the urban version and the rural version, the importance given to the role of the “housewife” was shared. In other words, in the urban version, rural culture was reflected, and the relations between city and farm village were considered to be mutual.

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    Kizaemon Aruga is known for his empirical studies on “Ie” that utilizes monograph, but his political standpoint has scarcely been remarked upon. However, Aruga carried out many discussions on “Ie” and “democracy” in a style different from that of postwar reformists and conservatives. This paper analyzes the formation of such discussions by Aruga and also explores the position of his discussions in the postwar family studies. As a result of examination, Aruga's awareness of issues and viewpoints in which “Ie” is “democratized (modernized)” is revealed. In the concluding section, Aruga's viewpoints are positioned not as democratization of “family” but as democratization of “Ie” and his views are discussed.

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    The purposes of this study are to: (1) analyze the decision-making process among gay couples and (2) examine the nature of democracy between gay partners. Data are drawn from qualitative interviews. The results found that the democratic decision-making process of negotiations and mutual agreements between partners relates to a lack of models of gay family life and this result is in accord with the findings of previous studies. However, the analysis found that disagreements, disparities of power, and heteronormativity hinder democratic decision-making. The necessity of establishing decision-making models to counter difficulties in effective democratic decision-making between partners is discussed.

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