This paper examines the hypothesis that women’s labor market participation will increase the disparity between households, which is pointed out as a common cause of income inequality in developed countries. After pointing out that the proposition assumed by previous research is not applicable to Japan, I examine a generating process of macro-level inequality through the individual’s life course of women’s employment and income changes, using the Japan Life-Course Panel Study. The results of the analysis are summarized in the following three points. First, the equalizing hypothesis that women’s employment relieves inequality among households was supported. Second, the “loose” relationship between women’s better access to higher education and labor market participation was indicated, as prior studies have pointed out. Third, it was suggested that the income of both husbands and wives among married couples with a high educational background and continuous standard employment will increase and contribute to household income inequality, but this group accounts for only a small proportion of the total, and as a whole the wife’s employment reduces household income inequality.

This research explores how urbanization in China, which began in the 1990s, has impacted on intergenerational relations, conducting a case study of a suburban area in Zhejiang Province. It pays attention to the sandwich generation aged between 45 and 59 years old, both the parental generation and the offspring generation of whom live in a village of this area and, in particular, to this generation’s intergenerational relations with them. By virtue of the process of urbanization, the economic capacity of local people has been improved, enjoying the benefits of social welfare. As a result, the parental generation has been financially less dependent upon the sandwich generation, and at the same time, the offspring generation has come to live with and count on the sandwich generation for finance, housework, childcare, etc. However, such a transformation of intergenerational relations does not mean that family-oriented values have changed. Rather, it connotes a kind of family strategy or intergenerational cooperation based on a “family-centered way of thinking” that means the close-knit family’s interests take priority over all other considerations, including individual interests.

This article aims to investigate the structure of income inequality among single-parent families and its changes from the 1990s to the 2000s in Japan, using the Employment Status Survey collected nationally in 1992 and 2007.

The analysis provides the following findings. First, the variance in household income of Japanese families with children has increased over 15 years, and income inequality has expanded more seriously among single-mother/father families without other adult members than among other household types. Second, educational expansion greatly improves the educational level of single parents, whereas we can still confirm the concentration of the less educated among single-parent families. Third, the decomposition analysis shows that the educational differentials in household income contribute to the greater income inequality within single-parent families. However, coresidence with other adult members plays an important role in buffering the social differentiation of household income among single-parent families.

These results suggest that there are gradually growing income disparities within single-parent families, and a welfare-to-work policy that emphasizes the responsibility of the family may result in the worsening economic well-being of disadvantaged single parents and their children.

The purpose of this study is to analyze the life stories of eight house husbands as an unusual aspect of Japanese society. Through the analysis, this paper discusses the course of becoming a house husband and conflicts that occur along the way. The life stories reveal that the trigger of retirement is a physical/mental illness caused by Japanese-style human resource management. Wives had a significant influence on the retirement of husbands and the shift to being a house husband of the interviewees. In particular, the wife’s way of accepting the shift to house husband has enormous importance. It affects the husband’s reorganization of his masculinity and lifestyle as a full-time or sidelined house husband. Similarly, interviewees continue to exhibit psychological conflict about being a house husband—their social position and self-value; a sense of inferiority toward their friends; and having a wife who has a job and is continuously building her own career. Finally, this paper discusses the relation of Japanese-style human resource management and hegemonic masculinity in Japanese society.

This study discusses transformation in the imposition of responsibility on families in “ijime trials” (bullying trials) and in the view of the family accepted by the justice system. Specifically, content analysis was conducted on 94 “ijime trials” from 1979 to 2016. Results revealed that (1) since 1990, the degree of imputation of responsibility to the families of victims is higher than that to the families of perpetrators; (2) negligence has come to be pursued, stepping even into details of the family environment; (3) parents are more strongly asked to take primary responsibility for children’s education; and (4) certain idealized family images in which “parents are their child’s best teachers” are sought. The background to these changes suggests that discourse of the “educational power of the family” may have penetrated justice. This paper showed the necessity of two types of further analysis: (1) researching family discourses in justice and (2) whether families are victims or perpetrators.

The educational attitudes of parents serve as the key intervening variables between their own socioeconomic status and the educational attainment of their children. Recently, some have reported an association between the educational attainment of children and the educational credentials of their extended family members, such as grandparents, uncles, and aunts. It is reasonable to assume that these outcomes reflect the fact that the educational credentials and educational attitudes of respondents’ significant others, such as the parents and siblings of the respondents, affect the educational attitudes of the respondents. Likewise, the educational credentials and educational attitudes of respondents’ friends who are also significant others of the respondents seem to have similar effects. Accordingly, this paper elucidates the effects of mothers’ personal networks that include both family members and friends on their own educational attitudes.

We analyze the data of a survey for mothers of elementary and junior high school students. The main findings are as follows: 1) The educational credentials of siblings, husbands’ parents, and friends have a positive association with mothers’ educational attitudes. 2) Network members’ positive attitudes toward educational attainment have positive effects on mothers’ attitudes. 3) The social status indices of respondents and their husbands do not have a direct effect on respondents’ attitudes. In conclusion, we consider the implications of the results from the standpoints of both social stratification and social network.

This study aims to empirically evaluate two hypotheses regarding the emotional benefits of work roles for married women. The role overload hypothesis claims that holding multiple roles is harmful for psychological well-being. The role expansion hypothesis, on the other hand, emphasizes the rewards of multiple roles. The former predicts that possessing work roles increases psychological distress for married women, while the latter presumes multiple work and family roles to be psychologically beneficial. Past empirical studies have not supported either hypothesis for Japan, but they have relied on cross-sectional data. Using data from National Family Research of Japan, 2008–2012 Panel Study, I found that employed married women exhibit less distress than when they are not employed. This finding is consistent with the role expansion hypothesis and suggests the potential rewards for married women of possessing work roles. The methodological and data limitations of the present study are discussed in the last section.

This symposium reports and discusses the present situation and transformation of families by focusing on household composition, couples’ gender division of labor, and child rearing in Asian countries. Three large-scale surveys were used: National Family Research of Japan, East Asian Social Survey, and Comparative Asian Family Survey. The discussion led to the following three conclusions. First, patriarchal consciousness and a couple’s housework and childcare in the domestic sphere have poorly changed or changed slowly compared with the changes in education (i.e., higher education) and employment (i.e., rising women’s employment rate), which were common to many Asian countries, including Japan. Second, the actual conditions and changes in the domestic sphere were not uniform; however, there were common features regarding family among several countries/regions. Lastly, the social survey needs to focus largely on family diversity in Asia in the future.

This article explores recent family changes in Japan focusing on changes in intergenerational coresidence. The study analyzed the frequency and determinants of coresidence between married and never-married children and their parents using three waves of National Family Research of Japan (NFRJ1998, 2003, 2008). Coresidence of married children with their parents (-in-law) somewhat decreased, whereas coresidence of never-married children with their parents significantly increased during the ten years. Logistic regression analyses showed that most of the determinants of parent–child coresidence remained stable during the decade, with some exceptions indicating changes in the coresidence pattern between a married son and his parents. The findings suggest that a new pattern of intergenerational coresidence has begun to emerge in recent years.

Compressed modernity is occurring in East Asia, with fertility rates plummeting, the average age of marriage on the rise, and more people not marrying. East Asia began to show an ultra-low fertility rate at the end of the 20th century. The region is experiencing a contraction of household size, a reduction in the rate of elderly people living with their children, and an increase in the number of single households and in the divorce rate. These phenomena can be understood as a product of individualization. In this paper, I present an argument for this individualization and the East Asian familial-cultural background. I then conduct a comparative analysis among Japan, South Korea, China, and Taiwan based on the EASS. The results of this analysis have revealed the following: firstly, the patriarchy model in East Asia impacted both the family and gender roles in the latter half of the 2000s; and, secondly, there is gender inequality, especially in the domestic domain, in East Asia. In conclusion, I consider the mechanism that produces the tendency of people to marry later or remain unmarried.

Asian societies have witnessed a rapid decline in fertility and are moving toward having small families. Are Asian family values and practices converging? Asian societies have also experienced a rapid growth in women’s educational opportunities. What effects does this expansion have on family values and practices in Asian societies? Based on EASS 2006 and CAFS (Comparative Asian Family Survey), this paper attempts to clarify the similarities and differences in gender-role attitudes and the gendered division of domestic chores in Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, China, Vietnam, Malaysia, Thailand, and Turkey. The results of analysis show that the rapid expansion of women’s higher education leads to changes in attitudes toward gender roles in those Asian societies. However, it is evident that changes in attitudes do not correspond to everyday domestic practices in these societies. The Thai case is intriguing: while Thai people support gendered family values, Thai domestic practices are more egalitarian than those in the other societies. This paper points out that Asian family changes give rise to complex mixtures of expanding modern institutions and traditional socio-cultural contexts.