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Author: Robert W. Hodge
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
Published: 1991
Total Pages: 384
ISBN-13: 9780226346502
DOWNLOAD EBOOK →The authors examine the striking decline in Japan's birthrate in light of the rapid urbanization, industrialization, and socioeconomic development experienced by the nation since World War II.
Author: Genaro Castro-Vazquez
Publisher: Routledge
Published: 2016-07-01
Total Pages: 222
ISBN-13: 1317265351
DOWNLOAD EBOOK →This book presents an ethnographic investigation of intimate and reproductive behaviour in current Japanese society, grounded in the viewpoints of a group of Japanese mothers. It adopts a new approach in studying the decreasing fertility rates which are contributing to the ageing population in modern Japan. Based on the accounts of 57 married Japanese women, it employs symbolic interactionism as a framework to examine the various factors affecting decision-making on childbirth. The influence of Assisted Reproductive Technologies (ARTs), abortion and contraception in the daily interactions and experiences of the mothers are analysed to offer a new perspective on the Japanese demographic conundrum. With strong contextual information as the foundation, the book contributes fresh insight into how Japanese women perceive the idea of childbirth in a modernized society, and also assists our understanding of the factors causing Japan’s ageing population. Further, it places the mothers’ experiences within current global debates to highlight the salience of the Japanese case. As the first book to provide an in-depth examination of the social process underpinning the decision to become a mother in Japan, it will appeal to students and scholars of Japanese culture and society, Gender Studies, and Sociology.
Author: Yukiko Senda
Publisher: Springer
Published: 2015-05-11
Total Pages: 137
ISBN-13: 4431550666
DOWNLOAD EBOOK →This book provides the keys to understanding the trajectory that Japanese society has followed toward its lowest-low fertility since the 1980s. The characteristics of the life course of women born in the 1960s, who were the first cohort to enter that trajectory, are explored by using both qualitative and quantitative data analyses. Among the many books explaining the decline in fertility, this book is unique in four ways. First, it describes in detail the reality of factors concerning the fertility decline in Japan. Second, the book uses both qualitative and quantitative methods to introduce the whole picture of how the low-fertility trend began in the 1980s and developed in the 1990s and thereafter. Third, the focus is on a specific birth cohort because their experiences determined the current patterns of family formation such as late marriage and postponed childbirth. Fourth, the book explores the knife-edge balance between work and family conditions, especially with regard to childbearing, in the context of Japanese management and gender norms. After examining the characteristics of demographic and socioeconomic circumstances of postwar Japan in detail, it can be seen that the change in family formation first occurred drastically in the 1960s cohort. Using both qualitative interview data cumulatively from 150 people and quantitative estimates with official statistics, this book shows how individual-level choices to balance work and family obligations resulted in a national-level fertility decline. Another focus of this book is the increasing unintended infertility due to postponed pregnancy, a phenomenon that is attracting great social attention because the average age of pregnancy is approaching the biological limit. This book is a valuable resource for researchers who are interested in the rapid fertility decline as well as the work–life balance and the life course of women in Japanese employment practice and family traditions.
Author: Reiko Hayashi
Publisher: Springer
Published: 2019-04-24
Total Pages: 125
ISBN-13: 9789811304590
DOWNLOAD EBOOK →This book explores how people have perceived and acted on the changes in four different population components, namely, fertility, mortality, and mobility, through the creation and development of Modern Japan to the present day. With the highest life expectancy in the world; the highest proportion of the elderly; very low fertility, below the replacement level; and a limited number of international migrants, Japan’s population indicators are unique. Around 2008, the population of the archipelago started to decrease at the same pace as it had previously increased. To understand this phenomenon, it is necessary to look back in history and examine the facts and ideas that shaped the Japanese population. From the Meiji to the Heisei eras (1868–present), substantial changes occurred not only in the numbers but also in the perception and norms that people take for granted. These changes are traced, side by side, through the chapters on fertility control, health and population ageing, urbanization and internal migration, international migration, and international cooperation in the field of population and development. The book illustrates not the uniqueness that isolates Japan from the rest of the world, but the reality of a population that has faced one situation at a time, offering readers a perspective for understanding human society at large.
Author: Toru Suzuki
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
Published: 2014-02-04
Total Pages: 95
ISBN-13: 4431547800
DOWNLOAD EBOOK →This book provides a unique comparative view of the extremely low fertility and drastic population aging in Eastern Asian countries. After discussing demographic and political developments of Japan in detail as a reference case, accelerated changes in Korea, Taiwan and China are interpreted with a comparative cultural view. In addition to the well-known cultural divide between countries with strong and weak family ties, this book proposes another divide between offspring of the feudal family and that of the Confucian family. Included is a discussion of how the discrepancy between the compressed change in the socioeconomic system and the slow change in the family system has resulted in extremely low fertility in Eastern Asia. A comparison of policy development reveals that the sense of overpopulation has caused difficulty in launching pro-natal policy interventions in Eastern Asia, especially in China. Impacts of fertility decline on population aging, total dependency ratio and the timing of population decline in Eastern Asia are analyzed with a stylized model. The remaining Confucian family pattern is especially important in understanding and predicting political development to cope with accelerated population aging. This book is a valuable resource for researchers who are interested in the latest and most surprising demographic phenomena in the region.
