Japanese family
Encyclopedia
The family in Japan is called “Kazoku” in Japan
ese. It is basically composed of a couple as is the family
in other societies. The Japanese family is based on the line of descent. Ancestors and offspring are linked together by an idea of family genealogy
, or keifu, which does not mean relationships based on mere blood inheritance and succession, but rather a bond of relationship inherent in the maintenance and continuance of the family as an institution. In any given period of history, all family members have been expected to contribute to the perpetuation of the family, which is held to be the highest duty of the member (Ariga, 1954).
. With the promulgation of the Domestic Relations and Inheritance Law in 1898, the Japanese government institutionalized more rigid family controls than most people had known in the feudal period. Individuals were registered in an official family registry (koseki
戸籍). In the early twentieth century, each family was required to conform to the ie
(家; household) system, with a multigenerational household under the legal authority of a household head. In establishing the ie system, the government moved the ideology of family in the opposite direction of trends resulting from urbanization
and industrialization. The ie system took as its model for the family the Confucian
-influenced pattern of the upper classes of the Tokugawa period. Authority and responsibility for all members of the ie lay legally with the household head. Each generation supplied a male and female adult, with a preference for inheritance by the first son and for patrilocal marriage. When possible, daughters were expected to marry out, and younger sons were expected to establish their own households. Women could not legally own or control property or select spouses. The ie system thus artificially restricted the development of individualism
, individual rights
, women's rights
, and the nuclearization of the family. It formalized patriarchy
and emphasized lineal and instrumental, rather than conjugal and emotional ties, within the family.
After World War II
, the Allied occupation forces established a new family ideology based on equal rights
for women, equal inheritance by all children, and free choice of spouse and career. From the late 1960s, most marriages in Japan have been based on the mutual attraction of the couple and not the arrangement by the parents (omiai お見合い). Moreover, arranged marriage
s might begin with an introduction by a relative or family friend, but actual negotiations do not begin until all parties, including the bride and groom, are satisfied with the relationship.
Under the ie system, only a minority of households included three generations at a time because nonsuccessor sons (those who were not heirs) often set up their own household. From 1970 to 1983, the proportion of three-generation households fell from 19% to 15% of all households, while two generation households consisting of a couple and their unmarried children increased only slightly, from 41% to 42% of all households. The greatest change has been the increase in couple-only households and in elderly single-person households.
Public opinion surveys in the late 1980s seemed to confirm the statistical movement away from the three-generation ie family model. Half of the respondents did not think that the first son had a special role to play in the family, and nearly two-thirds rejected the need for adoption
of a son in order to continue the family. Other changes, such as an increase in filial violence and school refusal
, suggest a breakdown of strong family authority.
Official statistics, however, indicate that Japanese concepts of family continued to diverge from those in the United States
in the 1980s. The divorce rate, although increasing slowly, remained at 1.3 per 1,000 marriages in 1987, low by international standards. Strong gender roles remained the cornerstone of family responsibilities. Most survey respondents said that family life should emphasize parent-child ties over husband-wife relations. Nearly 80 % of respondents in a 1986 government survey believed that the ancestral home and family grave should be carefully kept and handed on to one's children. More than 60 % thought it best for elderly parents to live with one of their children. This sense of family as a unit that continues through time is stronger among people who have a livelihood to pass down, such as farmer
s, merchant
s, owners of small companies, and physician
s, than among urban salary and wage earners. Anthropologist
Jane M. Bachnik noted the continued emphasis on continuity in the rural families she studied. Uchi (here, the contemporary family) were considered the living members of an ie, which had no formal existence. Yet, in each generation, there occurred a sorting of members into permanent and temporary members, defining different levels of uchi.
Various family life-styles exist side by side in contemporary Japan. In many urban salaryman
families, the husband may commute to work and return late, having little time with his children except for Sundays, a favorite day for family outings. The wife might be a "professional housewife
", with nearly total responsibility for raising children, ensuring their careers and marriages, running the household, and managing the family budget. She also has primary responsibility for maintaining social relations with the wider circles of relatives, neighbors, and acquaintances and for managing the family's reputation. Her social life remains separate from that of her husband. It is increasingly likely that in addition to these family responsibilities, she may also have a part-time job or participate in adult education or other community activities. The closest emotional ties within such families are between the mother and children.
In other families, particularly among the self-employed, husband and wife work side by side in a family business. Although gender-based roles are clear cut, they might not be as rigidly distinct as in a household where work and family are more separated. In such families, fathers are more involved in their children's development because they have more opportunity for interacting with them.
As women worked outside of the home with increasing frequency beginning in the 1970s, there was pressure on their husbands to take on more responsibility for housework and child care. Farm families, who depend on nonfarm employment for most of their income, are also developing patterns of interaction different from those of previous generations.
Family members may die under no circumstances (1) persons socially recognized as being related in the family line, chokkei, in which successors, their spouses and possible successors are included, and (2) members socially recognized as being outside family members, bokei, under which all other family members, including relatives and servants, are grouped (Ariga, 1954).
Succession in the Japanese family does not simply mean inheritance of the deceased’s property; and the inheritance of property itself has a distinctive meaning, which reflects the institutional demands of the family. Succession in Japan means katokusozoku, or succession to family headship.
Katokusozoku aims to achieve directly the continuation of the family as an institution. The patriarch, responsible for family continuation, has to decide in advance who is the man to succeed him in the event of his death. He usually selects a certain son as the candidate for his successor. When he has no offspring at all, the patriarch often adopts both a boy as his successor and a girl as the successor’s wife. In adoption, it does not matter whether or not the boy and the girl concerned have blood relationship with the patriarch or with his wife (Ariga, 1954).
The traditional ideal of the “ie” system designates the oldest son as an heir to the family, and expects his family to live with his parents. When the oldest son is not available or not able to assume this position, one of the younger sons may do so. The elderly parents may opt for living with one of their married daughters, usually when they have no available son. Implied here is a sex/age hierarchy in terms of living with the parents, descending from oldest son to youngest son, and oldest to youngest daughter. It thus can be expected that oldest sons and oldest daughters without brothers are more likely to live with their parents than other children (Kamo, 1990).
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
ese. It is basically composed of a couple as is the family
Family
In human context, a family is a group of people affiliated by consanguinity, affinity, or co-residence. In most societies it is the principal institution for the socialization of children...
in other societies. The Japanese family is based on the line of descent. Ancestors and offspring are linked together by an idea of family genealogy
Genealogy
Genealogy is the study of families and the tracing of their lineages and history. Genealogists use oral traditions, historical records, genetic analysis, and other records to obtain information about a family and to demonstrate kinship and pedigrees of its members...
, or keifu, which does not mean relationships based on mere blood inheritance and succession, but rather a bond of relationship inherent in the maintenance and continuance of the family as an institution. In any given period of history, all family members have been expected to contribute to the perpetuation of the family, which is held to be the highest duty of the member (Ariga, 1954).
History
A great number of family forms have existed historically in Japan, from the matrilocal customs of the HeianHeian period
The is the last division of classical Japanese history, running from 794 to 1185. The period is named after the capital city of Heian-kyō, or modern Kyōto. It is the period in Japanese history when Buddhism, Taoism and other Chinese influences were at their height...
. With the promulgation of the Domestic Relations and Inheritance Law in 1898, the Japanese government institutionalized more rigid family controls than most people had known in the feudal period. Individuals were registered in an official family registry (koseki
Koseki
A is a Japanese family registry. Japanese law requires all Japanese households to report births, acknowledgements of paternity, adoptions, disruptions of adoptions, deaths, marriages and divorces of Japanese citizens to their local authority, which compiles such records encompassing all Japanese...
戸籍). In the early twentieth century, each family was required to conform to the ie
Ie (Japanese family system)
The , or "household", was the basic unit of Japanese law until the end of World War II: most civil and criminal matters were considered to involve families rather than individuals . The ie is considered to consist of grandparents, their son and his wife and their children , although even in 1920,...
(家; household) system, with a multigenerational household under the legal authority of a household head. In establishing the ie system, the government moved the ideology of family in the opposite direction of trends resulting from urbanization
Urbanization
Urbanization, urbanisation or urban drift is the physical growth of urban areas as a result of global change. The United Nations projected that half of the world's population would live in urban areas at the end of 2008....
and industrialization. The ie system took as its model for the family the Confucian
Confucianism
Confucianism is a Chinese ethical and philosophical system developed from the teachings of the Chinese philosopher Confucius . Confucianism originated as an "ethical-sociopolitical teaching" during the Spring and Autumn Period, but later developed metaphysical and cosmological elements in the Han...
-influenced pattern of the upper classes of the Tokugawa period. Authority and responsibility for all members of the ie lay legally with the household head. Each generation supplied a male and female adult, with a preference for inheritance by the first son and for patrilocal marriage. When possible, daughters were expected to marry out, and younger sons were expected to establish their own households. Women could not legally own or control property or select spouses. The ie system thus artificially restricted the development of individualism
Individualism
Individualism is the moral stance, political philosophy, ideology, or social outlook that stresses "the moral worth of the individual". Individualists promote the exercise of one's goals and desires and so value independence and self-reliance while opposing most external interference upon one's own...
, individual rights
Individual rights
Group rights are rights held by a group rather than by its members separately, or rights held only by individuals within the specified group; in contrast, individual rights are rights held by individual people regardless of their group membership or lack thereof...
, women's rights
Women's rights
Women's rights are entitlements and freedoms claimed for women and girls of all ages in many societies.In some places these rights are institutionalized or supported by law, local custom, and behaviour, whereas in others they may be ignored or suppressed...
, and the nuclearization of the family. It formalized patriarchy
Patriarchy
Patriarchy is a social system in which the role of the male as the primary authority figure is central to social organization, and where fathers hold authority over women, children, and property. It implies the institutions of male rule and privilege, and entails female subordination...
and emphasized lineal and instrumental, rather than conjugal and emotional ties, within the family.
After World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
, the Allied occupation forces established a new family ideology based on equal rights
Women's rights
Women's rights are entitlements and freedoms claimed for women and girls of all ages in many societies.In some places these rights are institutionalized or supported by law, local custom, and behaviour, whereas in others they may be ignored or suppressed...
for women, equal inheritance by all children, and free choice of spouse and career. From the late 1960s, most marriages in Japan have been based on the mutual attraction of the couple and not the arrangement by the parents (omiai お見合い). Moreover, arranged marriage
Arranged marriage
An arranged marriage is a practice in which someone other than the couple getting married makes the selection of the persons to be wed, meanwhile curtailing or avoiding the process of courtship. Such marriages had deep roots in royal and aristocratic families around the world...
s might begin with an introduction by a relative or family friend, but actual negotiations do not begin until all parties, including the bride and groom, are satisfied with the relationship.
Under the ie system, only a minority of households included three generations at a time because nonsuccessor sons (those who were not heirs) often set up their own household. From 1970 to 1983, the proportion of three-generation households fell from 19% to 15% of all households, while two generation households consisting of a couple and their unmarried children increased only slightly, from 41% to 42% of all households. The greatest change has been the increase in couple-only households and in elderly single-person households.
Public opinion surveys in the late 1980s seemed to confirm the statistical movement away from the three-generation ie family model. Half of the respondents did not think that the first son had a special role to play in the family, and nearly two-thirds rejected the need for adoption
Adoption
Adoption is a process whereby a person assumes the parenting for another and, in so doing, permanently transfers all rights and responsibilities from the original parent or parents...
of a son in order to continue the family. Other changes, such as an increase in filial violence and school refusal
School refusal
School refusal is a term originally used in the United Kingdom to describe refusal to attend school, due to emotional distress. School refusal differs from truancy in that children with school refusal feel anxiety or fear towards school, whereas truant children generally have no feelings of fear...
, suggest a breakdown of strong family authority.
Official statistics, however, indicate that Japanese concepts of family continued to diverge from those in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
in the 1980s. The divorce rate, although increasing slowly, remained at 1.3 per 1,000 marriages in 1987, low by international standards. Strong gender roles remained the cornerstone of family responsibilities. Most survey respondents said that family life should emphasize parent-child ties over husband-wife relations. Nearly 80 % of respondents in a 1986 government survey believed that the ancestral home and family grave should be carefully kept and handed on to one's children. More than 60 % thought it best for elderly parents to live with one of their children. This sense of family as a unit that continues through time is stronger among people who have a livelihood to pass down, such as farmer
Farmer
A farmer is a person engaged in agriculture, who raises living organisms for food or raw materials, generally including livestock husbandry and growing crops, such as produce and grain...
s, merchant
Merchant
A merchant is a businessperson who trades in commodities that were produced by others, in order to earn a profit.Merchants can be one of two types:# A wholesale merchant operates in the chain between producer and retail merchant...
s, owners of small companies, and physician
Physician
A physician is a health care provider who practices the profession of medicine, which is concerned with promoting, maintaining or restoring human health through the study, diagnosis, and treatment of disease, injury and other physical and mental impairments...
s, than among urban salary and wage earners. Anthropologist
Anthropology
Anthropology is the study of humanity. It has origins in the humanities, the natural sciences, and the social sciences. The term "anthropology" is from the Greek anthrōpos , "man", understood to mean mankind or humanity, and -logia , "discourse" or "study", and was first used in 1501 by German...
Jane M. Bachnik noted the continued emphasis on continuity in the rural families she studied. Uchi (here, the contemporary family) were considered the living members of an ie, which had no formal existence. Yet, in each generation, there occurred a sorting of members into permanent and temporary members, defining different levels of uchi.
Various family life-styles exist side by side in contemporary Japan. In many urban salaryman
Salaryman
refers to someone whose income is salary based; particularly those working for corporations. Its frequent use by Japanese corporations, and its prevalence in Japanese manga and anime has gradually led to its acceptance in English-speaking countries as a noun for a Japanese white-collar...
families, the husband may commute to work and return late, having little time with his children except for Sundays, a favorite day for family outings. The wife might be a "professional housewife
Housewife
Housewife is a term used to describe a married woman with household responsibilities who is not employed outside the home. Merriam Webster describes a housewife as a married woman who is in charge of her household...
", with nearly total responsibility for raising children, ensuring their careers and marriages, running the household, and managing the family budget. She also has primary responsibility for maintaining social relations with the wider circles of relatives, neighbors, and acquaintances and for managing the family's reputation. Her social life remains separate from that of her husband. It is increasingly likely that in addition to these family responsibilities, she may also have a part-time job or participate in adult education or other community activities. The closest emotional ties within such families are between the mother and children.
In other families, particularly among the self-employed, husband and wife work side by side in a family business. Although gender-based roles are clear cut, they might not be as rigidly distinct as in a household where work and family are more separated. In such families, fathers are more involved in their children's development because they have more opportunity for interacting with them.
As women worked outside of the home with increasing frequency beginning in the 1970s, there was pressure on their husbands to take on more responsibility for housework and child care. Farm families, who depend on nonfarm employment for most of their income, are also developing patterns of interaction different from those of previous generations.
Members
The monogamous and patriarchal family has been prevalent since the 8th century. If a wife were childless the husband often kept a concubine, whose offspring succeeded to the headship of the family, thus securing its continuation. When neither wife nor concubine bore him a child, custom allowed the family head to adopt a successor (Ariga, 1954).Family members may die under no circumstances (1) persons socially recognized as being related in the family line, chokkei, in which successors, their spouses and possible successors are included, and (2) members socially recognized as being outside family members, bokei, under which all other family members, including relatives and servants, are grouped (Ariga, 1954).
Succession
One male offspring who is to succeed to the headship of the family lives with his parents after his marriage. He assumes the headship and has to take care of the parents when they have become aged. In addition, he is responsible for the support of bokei member and directs the labor of family members in the management of the household. Couples in successive generations live together under the same roof (Ariga, 1954).Succession in the Japanese family does not simply mean inheritance of the deceased’s property; and the inheritance of property itself has a distinctive meaning, which reflects the institutional demands of the family. Succession in Japan means katokusozoku, or succession to family headship.
Katokusozoku aims to achieve directly the continuation of the family as an institution. The patriarch, responsible for family continuation, has to decide in advance who is the man to succeed him in the event of his death. He usually selects a certain son as the candidate for his successor. When he has no offspring at all, the patriarch often adopts both a boy as his successor and a girl as the successor’s wife. In adoption, it does not matter whether or not the boy and the girl concerned have blood relationship with the patriarch or with his wife (Ariga, 1954).
The traditional ideal of the “ie” system designates the oldest son as an heir to the family, and expects his family to live with his parents. When the oldest son is not available or not able to assume this position, one of the younger sons may do so. The elderly parents may opt for living with one of their married daughters, usually when they have no available son. Implied here is a sex/age hierarchy in terms of living with the parents, descending from oldest son to youngest son, and oldest to youngest daughter. It thus can be expected that oldest sons and oldest daughters without brothers are more likely to live with their parents than other children (Kamo, 1990).
See also
- BunkeBunkeA is a branch family established by a collateral of the honke in Japan....
- HonkeHonkeis the main household of Japanese family. The head of a household and his successor reside in the honke, while collateral branches establish bunke. The honke-bunke relationship is also reflected in the relationship between Japanese companies and their subsidiaries....
- YagōYAGOYAGO was an early LAN startup acquired by Cabletron Systems in the mid-1990s, fueling its growth into Gigabit Ethernet switching and ultimately being re-spun off into the entity Riverstone Networks....
- Ie (Japanese family system)Ie (Japanese family system)The , or "household", was the basic unit of Japanese law until the end of World War II: most civil and criminal matters were considered to involve families rather than individuals . The ie is considered to consist of grandparents, their son and his wife and their children , although even in 1920,...
- American family structureAmerican family structureThe American family structure is considered a traditional family support system involving two married individuals providing care and stability for their biological offspring. However, this two-parent, nuclear family has become less prevalent, and alternative family forms have become more common....