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This book provides a systematic framework for interpreting the fertility decline in Japan. It situates the change in fertility rates in a broader context, such as family life and working customs. The basic argument it puts forward is that Japan has failed to establish a "dual-earner" society: women still face the trade-off between having a career or starting a family, which has led to an extremely low fertility rate in Japanese society.Further to this rather common explanation, which could also be applied to other low-fertility societies such as Germany and Italy, the author presents an original view. Japan has had its own momentum in holding on to its strong "men as breadwinners and women as housekeepers" model by creating a unique regime, namely, a Japanese model of a welfare society. This regime places special emphasis on the welfare provided by private companies and family members instead of by the government. Private firms are expected to secure men's jobs and income to the greatest extent, taking advantage of Japanese employment customs. On the other hand, women are expected to provide care for their family members. The book argues that the familialist orientation is still dominant in Japan and is repeatedly reinforced in the policy context.

This book describes how the COVID-19 pandemic has affected the way of work, the division of household labor, and family formation in Japan. One of the characteristics of Japanese employment practices is a stable employer¿employment relationship and seniority-based wage system. In return, long working hours, especially for men who are called ¿salarymen¿ (salaried workers, or ¿company men¿), are required. The pandemic has led to an expansion of telework and has reduced their working hours, which has made them return to their homes to work. In contrast, non-regular employees, who are mostly women, has become more unstable in employment and their incomes fell. This tendency has become even stronger under the pandemic.Compared with conditions in Western countries, in Japan wives have a greater responsibility for domestic chores. In the pandemic, as children's classes shifted to online and childcare support facilities were temporarily closed, the burden of housework and child-rearing increased for wives. However, husbands who worked from home shared a part of the housework, and popular home delivery services helped to reduce the burdens on wives. Japan is one of the developed countries with low fertility rates. Under the pandemic, many Japanese postponed starting a family, which further shrank the country¿s birthrate. There was a remarkably significant tendency to postpone having children among economically disadvantaged and socially isolated families.This book provides a portrait of Japan¿s experience regarding the notable impacts of the pandemic on work and family life.

This book demonstrates that population structure and dynamics can be reconstructed by stochastic analysis. Population projection is usually based on age-structured population models. These models consist of age-dependent fertility and mortality, whereas birth and death processes generally arise from states of individuals. For example, a number of seeds are proportional to tree size, and amount of income and savings are the basis of decision making for birth behavior in human beings. Thus, even though individuals belong to an identical cohort, they have different fertility and mortality. To treat this kind of individual heterogeneity, stochastic state transitions are reasonable rather than the deterministic states. This book extends deterministic systems to stochastic systems specifically, constructing a state transition model represented by stochastic differential equations. The diffusion process generated by stochastic differential equations provides statistics determining population dynamics, i.e., heterogeneity is incorporated in population dynamics as its statistics. Applying this perspective to demography and evolutionary biology, we can consider the role of heterogeneity in life history or evolution. These concepts are provided to readers with explanations of stochastic analysis.

This book describes a novel method for mortality modeling applying the shifting feature of the mortality curve. In Japan, the increase and pace of the extension in life expectancy have been quite remarkable. Therefore, existing mortality models often cannot capture the peculiarities of Japanese mortality, nor can the Lee¿Carter model, which is now regarded internationally as a standard model. One of the important concepts to model recent Japanese mortality is a shifting feature. In this book, the linear difference model, which has many advantages for modeling and analyzing Japanese mortality, is introduced. The book shows applications of the model to mortality projection with a tangent vector field approach and decomposition of the change of modal age at death. The models introduced here are useful tools for modeling mortality with strong shifting features, as in Japan.

This is the first anthology that conveys in detail the actual situation of population geographies in Japan, a country facing some of the world's most serious demographic trends such as low fertility, population aging, and depopulation. The anthology consists of two volumes with the common title Japanese Population Geographies. All of the included entries are based on original Japanese papers written by leading geographers and published within the past few years, useful for understanding Japan¿s current population geographies. The first volume analyzes the postwar transition of internal migration, examining the structural changes of population in urban areas, and proposes a new measure different from the traditional resident population. This volume also presents an investigation of the retirement migration of baby boomers as well as displacement migration due to the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake. The second volume¿s contents examine the residential choicesof minority populations such as foreign residents and sexual minorities. It also discusses future prospects associated with mono-polar concentration into Tokyo, regional forecasting using population projections based on small-area units, and the importance of a politicöeconomic perspective in future research. Taken as a whole, this anthology offers the following two significant contributions. First, the excellent achievements obtained in Japan, which is experiencing serious demographic trends, reflect key developments within the context of the world's population geography. The second contribution is that the publication brings the latest insights and important policy implications to countries that are facing various issues associated with decreasing fertility, aging population, and declining population.

This is the first anthology that conveys in detail the actual situation of population geographies in Japan, a country facing some of the world's most serious demographic trends such as low fertility, population aging, and depopulation. The anthology consists of two volumes with the common title Japanese Population Geographies. All of the included entries are based on original Japanese papers written by leading geographers and published within the past few years, useful for understanding Japan¿s current population geographies. The first volume analyzes the postwar transition of internal migration, examining the structural changes of population in urban areas, and proposes a new measure different from the traditional resident population. This volume also presents an investigation of the retirement migration of baby boomers as well as displacement migration due to the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake. The second volume¿s contents examine the residential choicesof minority populations such as foreign residents and sexual minorities. It also discusses future prospects associated with mono-polar concentration into Tokyo, regional forecasting using population projections based on small-area units, and the importance of a politicöeconomic perspective in the future research. Taken as a whole, this anthology offers the following two significant contributions. First, the excellent achievements obtained in Japan, which is experiencing serious demographic trends, reflect key developments within the context of the world's population geography. The second contribution is that the book brings the latest insights and important policy implications to countries that are facing various issues associated with decreasing fertility, aging population, and declining population.

Taking the Goki-Shichido (Five Home Provinces and Seven Circuits of Ancient Japan) as a theoretical framework, this book examines shrinking Japan from a regional variation perspective by municipality along the ancient Tokaido, which comprises 15 provinces, and seven prefectures today. The study identifies the principal explanatory factors based on the small area data of e-Stat through GPS statistical software tools such as G-census and EvaCva, within a historical perspective. This historical knowledge helps in understanding the significance of the regional cultural heritage that remains in each municipality today. The book pays special attention to municipal variations within the same prefecture, presenting a completely unique approach from what other researchers have pursued.This volume studies two present-day prefectures along the ancient Tokaido for detailed analyses of the impacts of regional variations of population decline in Japan. They are Shizuoka Prefecture, made upof the former Tootoumi, Suruga, and Izu provinces, and Mie Prefecture, formed by the ancient provinces of Iga, Ise, Shima, and the eastern part of Kii as examples to show the impacts of municipal power on regional variations of shrinking Japan. The reasons for selecting these two prefectures of the ancient Tokaido are twofold. First, they are made up of a multiple number of the ancient provinces. Second, other prefectures that fall under the Tokaido have been studied in the previous works of the present author by adopting the same methods of analyses. Thus, by presenting unique analyses of regional variations on small municipal levels, with demographic variables, social indicators, and historical identities of municipalities in Shizuoka and Mie prefectures along the Tokaido, this book offers suggestions for effective regional policy to revitalize shrinking Japan to a sustainable one.

This book provides an insightful sociological study of the shrinking Japanese population through a regional variation perspective as it varies significantly by municipality, even within the same prefecture.

This book provides a key to understanding why there was an increase in extra-marital fertility in Japan from the 1990s to the 2010s, particularly between 1995 and 2015, and the factors which contribute to the multistratification of unmarried mothers, the number of which has increased ensuingly.

This book provides an insightful sociological study of the shrinking Japanese population through a regional variation perspective as it varies significantly by municipality, even within the same prefecture.

This book interprets and explains contemporary population issues from historical and cultural perspectives. These include lowest-low fertility in the Republic of Korea and Taiwan, early population aging in China relative to the developmental level, and various modes of domestic and international migration in the region.

This book presents original data on the proximate determinants of fertility in Japan. Further, it sheds new light on the similarities and differences between the fertility level in Japan and in other countries in terms of biodemographical components, helping readers understand the mechanisms of fertility change in Japan.

This book describes the low fertility status in three developed Asian countries-Japan, South Korea, and Singapore-and outlines countermeasures for their declining birthrates.

After a rapid decline shortly after the war, in which fertility was halved in one decade from 4.5 children per woman in 1947 to 2.1 in 1957, Japan's fertility started to decline to below-replacement levels in the mid-1970s, reaching 1.3 per woman in the early 2000s.

Analyzing the relation between population factors and technological progress is the main purpose of this book. The increase in technological progress, which is measured as total factor productivity (TFP), is realized both by improvements in productivity in the short term and by economic developments in the long term.

This book focuses on the links between family, education, and employment systems in the Asian developed economies, proposing that these three systems and their interrelations are powerful factors causing the low fertility in Asia.The phenomenon of low fertility has been widely observed in developed countries, and the birthrate in Asian countries is among the lowest in the world. Although these countries have implemented measures to counter the falling birthrate, the expected effect has not yet been achieved. Moreover, Asia has seen a rapid decrease in the number of marriages. To promote effective countermeasures, it is necessary to clarify the factors influencing the low birthrate and decline in the number of marriages. Based on a statistical analysis of survey results mainly from Japan, South Korea, and Singapore, this book discusses several important points. First, because the family system is strong, cohabitation and children born to single mothers are not socially accepted. Further, mothers play a strong role in fulfilling expectations for children's education. Second, the popularization of higher education and intense academic competition, which have been a driving force for rapid economic growth, have led to many parents opting to have fewer children, as the cost of education is high. Lastly, wage disparity is large and employment stability is a matter of concern. These factors increase competition within education and, in turn, make it difficult for the young generation to choose marriage. Within the employment environment, balancing work and family life is problematical, especially for women.

The overarching objective of this book is to summarize, extend, and update previous research on educational differences in family behavior in Japan.

Finally, the historical relationships among women's survival rates at reproductive age, the theoretical fertility rate to maintain the replacement level and the recorded total fertility rate (TFR) were analyzed.

Through this book, a Japanese economic demographer clearly shows the various economic consequences of population problems in Japan, especially the impacts of continuing ultra-low fertility and the world's highest life expectancy in the post-demographic transition phase.

This principle of sustainable population indicates that the demographic transition must follow a logistic curve.Using a system dynamics approach, the author constructs a simulation model based on four major loops: fertility, reproduction timing, social capital accumulation, and lifespan.

This book describes the development of studies of the family system in Japan and the West, introducing the evolution of the key concept of kin availability. It points out that the concept was first formulated by the Japanese sociologist Teizo Toda in the 1930s to analyze the unexpectedly low frequency of three-generation family households in Japan in the 1920s. The book provides an analytic model proposed by the author in the 1980s, which explains the halt in the decrease in the prevalence of married children residing with their parents in the 1970s and 1980s in Japan. The author maintains that this change was caused not by the breakdown of the nuclearization of the family system, but by a decrease in the availability of parents with whom to co-reside. This model provides a sophisticated measurement of living- arrangement behavior, showing that fewer people in Japan are choosing to co-reside. It can also be applied to regions where there is demographic transition and the stem-family system is maintained to varying degrees. The book shows that a controversy similar to that surrounding the Japanese family was occurring in the West in the 1980s in the context of the then recently discovered scarcity of extended families in seventeenth and eighteenth- century England. It shows that the quantitative historian Steven Ruggles came close to successfully resolving this question using a model based on the concept of kin availability.The book demonstrates that these endeavors in the 1980s yielded a new discipline of family demography both in Japan and the West and that one of the key concepts articulated by the author has taken on practical as well as theoretical significance with regard to the provision of care for the elderly in residing with the generation of children born after the1970s.