The Changing Role of Women’s Earnings in Marriage Formation in Japan

Abstract

Japan is one of a few developed countries in which marriage and higher earning potential among women are negatively associated. Previous studies have suggested that a traditional gender division of labor is at the root of this negative relationship, but this study suggests that the relationship is changing. In this article, I examine the latest marriage behavior among Japanese women from 1993 to 2008, focusing on the relationship between women’s economic emancipation and marriage in a gender-traditional society. Using the longest panel survey available in Japan, this study first demonstrates that the effects of women’s earnings have reversed, and are now in fact positive in the 1970s cohort. This suggests that Japanese marriage behaviors now resemble more than in the past those of Western countries, where wives’ economic contributions to the family are considered important. I argue that changes in young adults’ gender ideology have been the major force in facilitating this shift.

The changing role of employment status in marriage formation among young Korean adults

“…Among the oldest cohort it was significantly and negatively associated with the odds of first marriage, in the 1960s cohort it was negative but lost its statistical significance, and for the 1970s cohort it ultimately becomes strong and positive. This result not only provides empirical support for Oppenheimer's theoretical claim, but also implies that the economic foundation of marriage is shifting in Korea, as it is in other societies (Domínguez-Folgueras and Castro-Martín 2008;Fukuda 2013;Sweeney 2002). First, the oldest cohort of women in this study, who were born and raised in the aftermath of the Korean War, in general had very limited educational and occupational opportunities when they grow up.…”

“…Given the significant and increasing variation in earnings, not only between regular and non-regular workers but also between big companies and small or mid-sized companies, wage differentials may have an impact on the odds of first marriage in Korea. However, a large body of empirical research in other countries (Domínguez-Folgueras and Castro-Martín 2008;Fukuda 2013;Sweeney and Cancian 2004) generally reports that the effect of employment status is not substantially different from that of earnings, making it less likely that a direct measure of earnings would have changed the overall findings of the current study. Second, individuals may decide to marry not only by observing the current and past economic resources of their mate, but also by considering their future economic well-being, which is not yet observable.…”

“…Yet, as a number of past studies in other countries have found (Fukuda 2013;Kalmijn 2011;Ono 2003;Oppenheimer 1997;Piotrowski, Kalleberg, and Rindfuss, 2015), the instability of the youth labor market in Korea has increased considerably over the past several decades in comparison to other OECD countries. In particular, the magnitude of the increase in labor precariousness appears to be particularly pronounced in Korea since the economic crisis of the late 1990s.…”

Postponement and recuperation in cohort marriage: The experience of South Korea

“…Educated women have more resources and earning potential, enabling them to prolong their search for the best suitable match who has more genderegalitarian attitudes (Oppenheimer 1988(Oppenheimer , 1997. For instance, in Japan, where women's education has been negatively associated with marriage (Raymo 2003), the relationship between women's earning potential and marriage has recently changed to positive (Fukuda 2013). In Korea the spouse-search hypothesis is also in part supported by a recent rise in the number of educated women marrying men from more developed countries such as Japan, the United States, and Canada (e.g., Kim 2010).…”

Ikumen, los recientes discursos sobre la paternidad activa en Japón

“…los censos de población y las encuestas de fertilidad realizadas por el gobierno japonés estaban pintado un oscuro escenario para el futuro del país, dejando de manifiesto una tendencia hacia el retraso en el matrimonio por parte de las generaciones jóvenes, así como una creciente permanencia en la soltería (national Institute of population and social security research, 2000; 2008; 2012; takahashi, et al, 2003). a diferencia de lo que sucede en países industrializados en occidente, en donde el incremento en la cifra de personas solteras típicamente ha ido de la mano con un aumento en el número de parejas que cohabitan sin estar casados y en el incremento en los nacimientos fuera del matrimonio, en Japón, la gran mayoría de los solteros viven solos o con sus padres y los nacimientos fuera del matrimonio se han mantenido en un mínimo -alrededor del 1 por ciento del total -implicando una creciente soltería efectiva (Fukuda, 2013;Ishida, 2013;Jones, 2007;kaa, 2003).…”