Miho Iwasawa

Marriage Market Mismatches in Japan: An Alternative View of the Relationship between Women's Education and Marriage

In Japan, unlike in most other industrialized societies, the decline in marriage rates has been most pronounced among highly educated women. Theoretical interpretations of this distinctive pattern of change have typically emphasized increasing economic independence for women and reductions in the gains to marriage. In this paper, the authors develop and evaluate an alternative explanation that emphasizes womens continued dependence on mens economic resources and decline in the relative supply of highly educated men. Using data from four rounds of the Japanese National Fertility Survey, the authors decompose the observed decline in marriage rates into changes in the propensity to marry and changes in the educational composition of the marriage market. Results indicate that change in the availability of potential spouses accounts for one-fourth of the decline in marriage among university-educated women and explains a substantial proportion of the growing educational differences in marriage. The conclusion is that the relatively large decline in marriage among highly educated Japanese women likely reflects both increasing economic independence and continued economic dependence on men.

Cohabitation and family formation in Japan

This article documents the prevalence, duration, and marital outcomes of cohabiting unions in Japan. It then examines the correlates of cohabitation experiences and also describes differences in the family-formation trajectories of women who have and have not cohabited. Cohabitation has increased rapidly among recent cohorts of women, and cohabiting unions in Japan tend to be relatively short in duration and are almost as likely to dissolve as to result in marriage. Life table analyses demonstrate that the cumulative probabilities of marriage and parenthood within marriage are roughly similar for women who did and those who did not cohabit. The most notable difference is in the pathways to family formation, with women who cohabited more likely both to marry subsequent to pregnancy and to delay childbearing within marriage. Taken as a whole, these results suggest that cohabiting unions in Japan are best viewed as an emerging prelude to marriage rather than as an alternative to marriage or singlehood. We conclude with speculation about the likelihood of further increases in cohabitation in Japan and the potential implications for marriage and fertility.

Marriage, Abortion, or Unwed Motherhood? How Women Evaluate Alternative Solutions to Premarital Pregnancies in Japan and the United States.

In this article, the authors argue that to understand the very low incidence of outside-of-marriage childbearing in contemporary Japan one needs to take into account perceptions of all possible solutions to a premarital pregnancy: marriage, abortion, and childbearing outside wedlock. To demonstrate the particular impact of these perceptions in Japan, the authors compare them with those in the United States, a country where many more children are born outside wedlock. Using mixed methods, the authors demonstrate that for a typical Japanese woman, giving birth outside marriage is the morally inferior solution. For many American women, in contrast, choosing to bear a child outside wedlock rather than rushing into a marriage or having an abortion is often seen as a sign of greater maturity. These preferences play an important role in maintaining the norm of childbearing within marriage in Japan and also contribute to our understanding of how this norm has waned in the United States.

INTERGENERATIONAL PROXIMITY AND THE FERTILITY INTENTIONS OF MARRIED WOMEN

Explanations for very low fertility in ‘strong family’ countries emphasise the relatively high costs of childrearing but pay little attention to the potentially offsetting influences of distinctive living arrangements. In this paper, we use data from nationally representative surveys of married women of reproductive age in Japan and Italy to demonstrate that intergenerational co-residence and residential proximity to parents(-in-law) are positively associated with fertility intentions. We also examine ways in which relationships between living arrangements and fertility intentions may depend on family circumstances associated with the opportunity costs, psychological costs and economic costs of childrearing. Contrary to expectations, we find no evidence that intergenerational residential proximity is associated with higher fertility intentions among women for whom the opportunity costs of childrearing are thought to be the greatest. However, there is some relatively limited support for hypothesised moderating influences of the psychological and economic costs of childrearing.

Aging in Rural Japan—Limitations in the Current Social Care Policy

Owing to equal and increased opportunities for education and employment, todays trend in Japanese marriages is characterized by late and less frequent marriage. This paper discusses unavoidable diversity in rural families to point out the anticipated consequences of aging in rural areas and to discuss limitations in current public social care policies. Specifically, the averaged proportion of never-married and single persons at ages 45 to 49 and 50 to 54 in legally recognized depopulated cities, towns, and villages in Japan is calculated to illustrate the expected diversity in families in rural depopulated areas. It also illustrates the need for future studies to develop better social care policies for increasing numbers of single caregivers and single elders.

The Sexual Behavior of Adolescents and Young Adults in Japan

Few studies have focused on the sexual behavior of Japanese during the transition from adolescence to adulthood, and little is known about the level of sexual activity or the prevalence of unsafe sex among young Japanese. Drawing upon large, nationally representative sample surveys, this chapter documents the sexual behavior of Japanese youths (primarily those 18–34 years of age) since the 1970s, comparing trends in the timing of sexual initiation and the determinants of sexual behaviors with those in Western industrial countries. In examining risk behaviors that lead to unintended pregnancy, abortion, and sexually transmitted infections, the analysis focuses on never-married persons because one of the major changes over the period reviewed has been an increase in premarital sex. Birth-cohort and gender differences are considered. The study identifies covariates associated with the likelihood of having premarital sex and not using contraception to shed light on those who are at greater risk of unintended pregnancy and of contracting sexually transmitted infections.

“Diverging Destinies”: A Review of the Research

“Diverging destinies” is a term used by Sara McLanahan in her 2004 presidential address to the Population Association of America to describe growing socioeconomic differentials in family behaviors associated with the second demographic transition.

The Japanese Context and Existing Empirical Evidence

To evaluate claims that empirical patterns based largely on data from a single country are broadly generalizable, two types of comparative research are useful. One involves gathering data from a large number of countries and comparing patterns across those countries.

Union Formation and Dissolution

In this chapter, we describe trends in educational differences for several dimensions of marriage and union formation—early marriage, nonmarital cohabitation, divorce, and husband’s education. Before presenting these figures, we describe the data used for these analyses.

Childbearing and Maternal Employment

In this chapter, we describe trends in educational differences for several dimensions of childbearing including early childbearing, nonmarital childbearing, and bridal pregnancy. We also examine maternal employment. These analyses are based on the data described above in Sect. 3.2 and employ descriptive regression methods similar to those used in Chap. 3.