The development of science or technology can intervene in people’s reproduction and ask people to determine their reproduction by themselves. The purpose of this paper is to analyze descriptions of marriage in textbooks on health and physical education for high schools in Japan, in order to clarify the transition on how young people have been expected to get married, become pregnant, and give birth, based on scientific findings on reproduction after WW2. As a result of the analysis, descriptions of marriage after WW2 in textbooks on health and physical education for high schools can be divided into three periods: (1) up to the 1960s, when marriage was placed in the context of eugenics; (2) the 1970s and 1980s, when eugenics faded and family life came to be emphasized; and (3) from the 1990s onwards, when marriage was placed in the individual life course that was premised on pregnancy and childbirth. Although the textbooks have consistently used scientific findings (especially medical findings) as evidence to require marriage, pregnancy, and child birth, the scientific findings based on which marriage was based transitioned from eugenics to fertility. Previous research claimed that health discourses such as the descriptions in the health and physical education textbooks require people to exhibit good behavior for the sake of others, while owing people’s health to themselves. Even though the textbooks appear to encourage youth to make a free choice on marriage, they use medical evidence to present the “good behavior” of getting married at a marriageable age, and ask youth to live “their own life” that reflects social interests. Furthermore, presenting the marriageable age as being based on fertility may limit marriage to a women’s issue and dilute the involvement of men.

    The aim of this paper is to clarify the experiences of parents who recognize that their child is transgender (TG) from childhood (under 10 years old) as they raise their child. The results of a survey showed that the domestic issues of ‘confrontation with the child’ seen in studies of parents with children who are TG in their teens (especially in the second half) or older were not confirmed. Further, it was shown that problems mainly occurred outside the home (in this survey, with the child, parents, teachers, and the system in childcare and education settings), and that parents experienced the ‘process of becoming a problem’ in society. In addition, when people outside the family do not understand the child, three experiences (1) the child clearly expressing their wishes, (2) the presence of medical professionals, and (3) the effectiveness of self-help groups were identified as factors that support parents. From the above, it is suggested that even if you are a parent of a TG child within a system of gender dualism, the timing of your child’s gender awareness will affect the location of your experiences and issues.

    The involvement of professionals with families has primarily been discussed from the perspective of “support” or “control.” In Japan, counseling specializing in marital relationships has gained popularity in recent years as a form of professional engagement with families.
    This paper focuses on the practical process of such counseling, aiming to clarify how third-party professionals participate in adjusting marital relationships and exploring how this involvement can be interpreted sociologically. Semi-structured interviews with counselors from diverse professional backgrounds were conducted to understand the practice of counseling beyond the explicit knowledge of family therapy and family psychology. The data was analyzed using the modified grounded theory approach (M-GTA).
    As a result, 20 concepts and 4 categories were generated for the process of marital counseling in Japan. Building on these findings, it is argued that the practice of marital counseling in Japan, when examined through the lens of emotion management theory, can be understood as the de-individualization of ‘emotion work’ in two ways: “laborization of emotion work” and “pluralization of perspectives in emotion work.”