Male and Female Happiness in Japan During the 2000s: Trends During Era of Promotion of Active Participation by Women in Society

Abstract

Female happiness has been paradoxically declining over recent decades in reverse proportion to expanding opportunities for women in developed countries, but this subject has not been explored in Japan. Using JGSS, we found that Japanese women have been slightly happier in both absolute and relative terms to men in the 2000s. While happiness of men aged 35–49 and 65 and over temporarily declined in the first half of the decade, women in age groups 20–34 and 65 and over gained happiness in the second half. Moreover, trends in life satisfaction in terms of economic aspects are similar for men and women, slightly advantageous to men in marriage, and largely advantageous to women in non‐market and non‐family aspects.

Understanding women’s well-being in Turkey

“…A potential explanation for this observed relationship is that in addition to being correlated with economic well-being and mental and physical health, education increases women's agency and capability to control their own lives. These findings are in line with those of Mitsuyama and Shimizutani (2019), who found that higher levels of education were positively associated with self-reports of life satisfaction among women living in Japan. Therefore, education can be considered a key resource for women's empowerment.…”

“…These findings suggest that factors associated with empowerment increased the life satisfaction levels of women in both groups. Furthermore, this study produced results that corroborate the findings of a large number of previous studies in this field (e.g., Ali and ul Haq 2006;Booth and Van Ours 2009;Böhnke 2005;Ç akıroglu-Ç evik 2016;Mencarini and Sironi 2012;Mitsuyama and Shimizutani 2019).…”

“…When we looked at the impact of women's employment status on life satisfaction, we found that this factor was not significant. This may be because among the surveyed women, accepting a more traditional gender role and household wealth status was a more important factor in their life satisfaction than their own economic status (Clark 1997;Mitsuyama and Shimizutani 2019;Torosyan and Pignatti 2020).…”

“…Similar to income, the relationship between employment status and happiness among women is a controversial issue, because even though having paid work can contribute to a woman's personal autonomy and self-fulfilment, it does not always produce concrete well-being outcomes. While some studies have shown that being employed has a positive impact on women's subjective well-being (e.g., Tay et al 2014), others have found that being in paid work can have a negative impact on women's life satisfaction, because women may experience work-family conflicts, as well as pressure to take on nonconforming gender roles, especially for motherhood (e.g., Booth and Van Ours 2009;Böhnke 2005;Mencarini and Sironi 2012;Mitsuyama and Shimizutani 2019;Stutzer and Frey 2006;Torosyan and Pignatti 2020). Thus, there is evidence that, on average, housewives report having higher levels of life satisfaction than women with paid work and a regular employment status (Haller and Hadler 2006;Treas et al 2011).…”

“…Thus, there is evidence that, on average, housewives report having higher levels of life satisfaction than women with paid work and a regular employment status (Haller and Hadler 2006;Treas et al 2011). Furthermore, education has been shown to have a positive influence on the subjective well-being of women, as it increases their decision-making power within the household and their capability to control their own life (Mitsuyama and Shimizutani 2019). Regarding agency, Ali and ul Haq (2006) have pointed out the contribution of women's autonomy to levels of self-reported life satisfaction among Pakistani women.…”