This study examines (1) whether the experience of long-term parental absence due to parental migration in China has a negative effect on children’s educational expectations, and (2) whether such a negative effect can be explained by a deficit in the educational involvement of the primary caregiver, which is known as the Parenting Hypothesis. The 2010 China Family Panel Studies (CFPS) dataset was used for analysis and the following findings were obtained. First, the effect of parental absence on children’s educational expectations varied by gender and type of parental absence. Boys who did not live with both parents showed significantly lower educational expectations than girls in the same situation. This could be the result of the grandparents serving as the left-behind children’s primary caregivers, as well as gender differences in internalizing prosocial norms. Second, the primary caregiver’s educational involvement had a positive effect independent of parental absence. Thus, the effect of a primary caregiver’s educational involvement did not explain the negative relation between parental absence and children’s educational expectations.

Most previous studies on childcare networks in family sociology have focused mainly on the supportive functions of the personal networks of mothers of preschool children. Since education becomes more important as the child grows, however, exploring the referring function of the personal networks of parents is a significant issue. Furthermore, the increase in dual earner households seems to indicate a growing need for research regarding fathers. Therefore, using NFRJ18 data, we examine the influences of referring to personal networks on the parenting attitudes of both fathers and mothers of children from preschool to adolescence. We made the following findings. 1) Among both males and females, referring to the spouse is associated with receptive attitudes. 2) Among only females, referring to relatives and the parents of children’s friends correlates to rejective attitudes. 3) These differences between males and females seem to reflect gender differences in involvement in child rearing.

In this article, we examine the socioeconomic differences in parents’ educational aspirations and expectations. Recent empirical studies have shown that parents’ educational aspirations/expectations construct one of the processes in which inequality of educational opportunity occurs in Japan. On the other hand, some researchers have argued that educational aspirations and expectations are conceptually distinct. In addition, there is a strong association between them. However, only a few studies have explicitly distinguished between educational aspirations and expectations, and none has investigated different effects of independent variables on parents’ educational aspirations and expectations simultaneously. Thus, by using the interdependence model, we examine the effects of socioeconomic backgrounds on parents’ college aspirations and expectations, controlling for the association between the two. The results show that both parents’ college aspirations and expectations are related to parental education, family income and number of children. These results suggest that the socioeconomic differences in parents’ educational aspirations/expectations reflect differences in parents’ wishes and realistic appraisals.

Studies suggest that parentocracy is exacerbating working mothers’ responsibility for children’s education as well as social class discrepancy. This study examines how working mothers with preschool children perceive their education at home and how they share the responsibility with their husbands. Based on semi-structural interviews with 42 mothers from various educational backgrounds and occupations, the child-rearing of “educating families” diverged into four patterns, distinguished by the couple’s relationship as well as the logic behind child-rearing. The model suggests that the logic of child-rearing and also the ways in which the couples share educational responsibility are relevant to a mother’s working dilemma. It also implies that educational inequality in the home environment is already formed during early childhood through different approaches to child-rearing and a father’s educational involvement. These results call for policies and practices that provide support to families who have limited financial and relational resources for children’s educational opportunities. They also suggest the need to support a father’s engagement in children’s education and thus ease the burden of working mothers.

The effect of poverty on children’s mental health in Japan is still not well understood. This study examined the relationship between relative poverty, defined by equivalent household annual income, and psychological distress in junior high school students through a quantitative analysis of two-parent families in Japan. The analysis was based on survey data from the “Survey on Life Attitudes of Parents and Children, 2011,” conducted by the Japanese Government Cabinet Office. The results were as follows: 1) boys from poor households did not show high psychological distress, but girls with the same background did; 2) this tendency among girls was mediated by poor relationships with their parents and by chronic strain experienced within the family, including “parental matters (problems the parents faced)” and “money.” These results suggest that there is gender discrimination among poor and low-income families, and that girls tend to recognize and be more sensitive to family problems compared with boys. It is imperative to disentangle the processes that generate these differences.

Using nationwide survey data from the China Family Panel Studies (2016), we examined gender differences in intergenerational relationships between adult children and their parents in urban Chinese families. This survey collected information on a household basis, which enabled us to explore the gender gap within individual couples instead of the general gender gap between men and women, as in previous studies. The results show that husbands co-reside with their parents five times more as compared to wives. Furthermore, gender differences differ according to various aspects of intergenerational relationships. In terms of household chores and personal care, husbands are more likely to maintain a mutually supportive relationship with their own parents compared to wives; nonetheless, wives are more likely to have more frequent contact with their parents compared to husbands. Regression models show that education can arguably be an important parameter that influences gender differences in intergenerational relations. Higher education—especially that of the wife—significantly contributes to gender equality in intergenerational relations, indicating that women’s access to resources is an essential stimulus for a gender-neutral intergenerational relationship.

This special issue concerns the reconciliation between family and work life in several industries in Japan. This paper is the foreword to this issue. First, we consider this theme from theoretical and methodological perspectives. There are general family theories, but this special issue is based on structure and agency as part of contemporary social theory. The articles that follow are based on specific areas in Japan. Broadly, these studies are case studies in methodology. We would like to share recent methodological discussions on case studies. Finally, we point out the impact of this issue on future studies in family sociological research.

In this special issue, we explore ways of studying people’s struggle with work and family life. We believe that during Japan’s rapid economic growth period, many industries forced structural shift and the migration of individual workers, resulting in severe social divergence, which was the beginning of the current social stratification. This special issue examines the regional characteristic features of industrial labourers and their families, focusing on agriculture, the textile industry, and the coal mining industry. We seek to find new directions in the study of the family.

In this paper, we analyze the dynamics of the household economy and labor force allocation among suburban farm households in the 1930s. For this purpose, we use data from the “Survey of Farm Household Economy” conducted by the Fukuoka Agricultural Association from 1931 to 1941. We analyzed the cases of 13 households in the “labor augmentation period,” the “tightening period,” and the “contraction period,” and we examined the family strategies that farm households as a unit of production, consumption, and labor supply adopted in response to market economies. As a result, it became clear that (1) family strategies vary by life cycle, and (2) the wide expansion of the male regional labor market in the Kitakyushu Industrial Zone has an influence on family strategy in each life stage.

This paper introduces the process by which coal mining technology was transformed and the miners’ labour and their families’ lives changed. During the development stage of the industry, miners and their families aimed at maintaining and enriching their lives, actively engaging with company management through their work, the mining community, and the union. The characteristics of miners’ labour, which involved heavy labour underground and shift work by the week, directly influenced their families’ daily living hours. They had to make a priority of the reproduction of miners’ labour, so miners and wives divided their roles by gender. However, when the industry faced decline, it became difficult for them to continue their lifestyle. In the end, the miners’ lifestyle changed to that of manufacturing industry workers, who earned a fixed salary and had their own house.

This article aims to explore why miners’ children became miners during a rapid growth period in Hokkaido. For this purpose, we use company materials and interview data on graduates of mining schools. From the late 1950s, the coal industry in Japan declined, but leading companies trained miners’ children at mining schools in order to survive. Miners’ children considered their family situation and decided whether to enter a high school or a mining school. Students of mining schools worried about their future, but they used the promotion system for graduates of mining school and became leading miners. This article indicates that career decision studies focusing on the character of an industry and region can help to explore the intergenerational succession of laborers and their family lives.

This paper offers a critical analysis on the hypothesis that the modern family model, incorporating male breadwinners and housewives without jobs, that was extended nationwide has not been examined based on Japanese historical background after WWII. Taking into consideration that it is necessary to pay attention to the movement toward employment among married women during the period of rapid economic growth, this paper addresses the case of a textile industry district where married women continued working. Interview data of women weavers and schoolteachers in this district who did not leave their jobs, regardless of marriage, childbirth, and child rearing, will be used. Through examining the two types of working women above, this paper will clarify the influence of community norms concerning married women’s work. Finally, it will explore the way to recognize the meaning of work for these women by analyzing the handling of their income.