Search

The objective of this paper is to examine, through relevant literature, the extent to which changes in values and relational orientations are taking place in the Japanese family system, particularly in the area of child-rearing practices. It is postulated that lineal orientation rather than an individualistic or collateral principle has been, and still is, predominant in the parent-child relationship and that the shift toward individuality and independence of the child will yet take some time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As a very novel form of life in Japan, apartment life has become the subject of much research by Japanese sociologists in recent years. This paper attempts to examine critically the findings of such research, especially concerning privacy and social life. Two types of apartment dwellers are identified: the ‘sociability type,’ who loves positive human relations resulting from physical propinquity, and the ‘privacy type,’ who recoils from such relations and prefers to be let alone. In a middle-class apartment house complex in the suburbs of Tokyo, the privacy type who, though not necessarily unsociable, does not want mere physical propinquity to determine the choice of his friends and the pattern of his social life, is found more frequently than the sociability type. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Differential socialization experiences resulting in a "transformation of identity" is seen to be an intervening variable between social mobility and kinship solidarity. The hypothesis that, when occupationally based pressure for transformation of identity is greatest (i. e., occupational mobility between working or farm class and middle class), there will be a weakening of kinship solidarity, was tested on a comparable sample of American and Japanese students. Findings supported the hypothesis for the American sample but not for the Japanese sample. The great social changes occurring in Japan during the twentieth century is seen to be a factor accounting for differential socialization experiences for the Japanese middle class and its consequent low kinship solidarity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The stem family in Japan is seemingly not consonant with the idea of life cycle which has produced important contributions to the study of the conjugal family, but the life cycle pattern of the Japanese family can be described as having three distinct stages which are manifest in the sequence of the role complex unique to it. A similar analysis is attempted with regard to the Chinese joint family. A new set of cycle stages is developed in order to cope with the changing status of the contemporary Japanese family. Thus, extensive applicability of the developmental framework is demonstrated for a cross-cultural study of the family in world revolution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]