Marriage intentions, desires, and pathways to later and less marriage in Japan

Family Policy Awareness and Marital Intentions: A National Survey Experimental Study

“…Itshouldbenotedthatthepri marygoaloffer til itypol icyben e fitsisnottoboost mar riage, as the fam ily cul ture in Japan is such that mar riage and fer til ity are widely con sid ered to be jointly deter mined com po nents of the fam ily for ma tion pro cess: most mar riage involves fer til ity (Raymo et al 2020). However, whether these pol i cies are effec tive is debat able.…”

Mapping routine measles vaccination and factors related to uncompleted vaccination in Japan: An ecological study

“…[9,44] Japan has a low birth rate, [45] and the age at first marriage and first childbirth is tending towards increase. [46,47] In this context, areas with a high number of births to those younger than the average age(30.9 years old) can be the focus of active governmental implementing measures on child rearing (e.g., subsidies and grants for childcare, expansion of nurseries, and provision of child rearing courses). Thereby, the government may actively recommend vaccinations for infants.…”

Introduction to the special collection on family changes and inequality in East Asia

“…Men's socioeconomic characteristics are important factors that Japanese women consider in accepting a date offer, and men with less impressive socioeconomic profiles are less likely to intend or desire to marry (Brinton, Mun, and Hertog 2021;Yu and Hara 2020). In Japan the higher prevalence of the 'unplanned drifting' pathway to singlehood among those without university education also illuminates how marriage intentions/desires that can affect the transition to marriage are systematically linked to young adults' socioeconomic conditions (Raymo, Uchikoshi, and Yoda 2021). In Korea the likelihood of having a child increases with men's standard employment status and other socioeconomic indicators, while women's socioeconomic characteristics either do not matter much or their being in standard employment actually lowers the odds of childbirth (Lim 2021).…”

“…The persistent gender norms are particularly striking, given the dramatic expansion of higher education for both men and women. In addition, rising economic inequality and deteriorating labor market conditions (e.g., rising job insecurity and the growth of part-time, irregular, and low-paid jobs, often called nonstandard employment -see Raymo, Uchikoshi, and Yoda (2021) and Lim (2021) in this special collection) in East Asia have broad implications across a wide range of life-course outcomes, including young people's marriage prospects, married couples' fertility plans, the decision to end a marriage, and older parents' decision to live alone (see Raymo et al 2015).…”

“…The following eight articles of this special collection, titled Family Changes and Inequality in East Asia, share a key interest: how growing economic inequality and labor market uncertainty and stubborn gender-inegalitarian norms and environments have shaped families in East Asia. Collectively, these eight articles address how families in East Asia have evolved against a backdrop of changing economic contexts and persistent gender inequality, among other key forces affecting family life, across a variety of familyrelated outcomes: from singlehood, marriage intentions, and dating (Brinton, Mun, and Hertog 2021;Raymo, Uchikoshi, and Yoda 2021;Yu and Hara 2020), through fertility (Lim 2021), the time use of adolescents and parents with young children (Hertog and Zhou 2021;Park 2021), and women's careers (He and Wu 2021), to intergenerational coresidence and the life satisfaction of older parents (Chen, Shen, and Ruan 2021). Our collection moves beyond focusing on a single event such as marriage or fertility in a short time window to cover different stages of the life course, from singlehood to older parents' living arrangements.…”