The purpose of this study is to explore the attitudes toward housework of husbands by examining how they recognize their wives’ expectation and appreciation. Qualitative research methodology was utilized in this study. The study was conducted the semi-structured interviews from May to October 2012 with 7 husbands who were involved in household labor every day. The average age was between thirty and forty. The major findings of this study can be summarized as follows: (1) Husbands thought that they should do housework because they and their wives both worked. They were against gender ideology. Some husbands had skills of housework before they got married. Thus they had good groundings in doing housework. (2) Sometimes husbands recognized that the level of expectation of housework was different from their wives. In this case, husbands changed their behaviors and attitudes toward housework. (3) In the early stage, husbands were pleased for the reaction of their wives. But gradually their wives regarded their involvement in housework as a matter of course. So some husbands felt conflicted, while other husbands changed their attitudes toward housework realizing the weight of responsibilities fulfilled by their wives. It was also found that some husbands came to think that doing housework was not only good for their families, but also good for themselves. Thus they redefined their attitudes towards housework, and kept their involvement.

  This paper explores marriage expectations and conflicts of highly-educated single women by focusing on the relation between marriage and other life events.

  Through the interviews of 31 highly educated single women living in Shimane Prefecture, Tokyo and those who moved from the countryside to Tokyo, the following two points are revealed. (1) The marriage expectations and conflicts are influenced by incomes. Regular employees want to have double income after getting married. Low-income interviewees from Shimane Prefecture had strong expectations of their future marriage partner. But they also want to work part-time to support the family after getting married. Among the high-income groups from Tokyo, some of them think there is no need to get married. Some others want to get married because they had been fully satisfied with their career. Some others cannot see the prospect of work and want to give up by getting married. However, male partners would not like to get married with high-income women. (2) The marriage expectations and conflicts are influenced by the living area. Interviewees who are living in their hometown want to get married in the same place. They hope to receive some support from their parents and continue their career afterward. Those who moved from the countryside to Tokyo succeeded in their career. But not having any support from their parents may influence the possibility of them carrying on working.

  As a result, the de-standardization of the post-adolescence transition has been found in the high-income and low-income groups. The rest are expecting a standardized marriage and do not have so much expectations and conflicts.