The Shift to the Dual-Earning Family Model in Japan and Its Surprising Ramifications

• In Event: 1552 - Section on Asia and Asian America Roundtable Session
  In Refereed Roundtable (60 min): Table 11: Inequalities in Japan

Abstract

In this paper, I use an interview survey of 26 men and women conducted in two large enterprises to consider the significance of the slow decline of the male-breadwinner family model, as indicated by macro data, for gender relations in Japan. The strength of a “gender triad” consisting of company employees, housewives, and corporations that formed during the nation’s years of high economic growth has been partly responsible for Japan’s lateness in shifting from the male-breadwinner family model to the dual-earning model. However, today, as the cost-benefit balance of the male-breadwinner family model worsens, the employment continuation rate among women is finally on the rise. The survey data suggest that the companies have taken various measures to support work-family balance and women continue employment by actually using these systems. Inspired by role models in their workplace, more women commit to continuing employment and, as a result, there are now not a few men and women who plan their lives based on the assumption that both will work. In most Western societies, women’s employment is associated with the dismantling of traditional gender relations. The survey data show, however, that the more companies develop systems that support work-family balance and the more women use them, the more men seem to be exempt from doing work at home. The paper argues that Japanese women’s stronger commitment to work is accompanied, at the same time, by the risk of a more solid fixation of their traditional mothering and housewifely roles.

Author

• Yuko Ogasawara, Nihon University