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The continuous decline in the fertility rate has been witnessed since 1980 in Japan. Japan's total fertility rate in 2005 is 1.32, which is far below the replacement rate, 2.08. One of the main reasons for declining the fertility rate is the delay in marriage or even shy away from marriage among young adults. In this paper, looking at youth in terms of their relation to the household, we will examine the economic disparities of unmarried adults living with their parents in Japan in comparative perspective with Europe and U.S. The countries which I analyze in this paper are France, Germany, Italy, Sweden, U.K., U.S., and Taiwan, compared with Japan. The paper consists of two parts. First, I will examine economic disparities among households with unmarried adults, and second, the determinants of co-residence with their parents will be scrutinized. The degree of the Japanese youth unemployment rate is not as high as those in European countries, but it is commonly found that the youth tend to be targeted by economic downturns, and that they are exposed to high economic risk. Young unmarried people do not always live alone, but share their households with their family, mostly their parents. Less than 20 percent of unmarried adults live alone in Japan, and in Italy and Taiwan, its corresponding figures are even lower than that in Japan. The proportion of income derived from unmarried adults in the household economy is more or less negatively associated with family income. Therefore, unmarried adults are not always dependent on their parents in the household but there are cases in which unmarried adults are the ones who support the family income by living with their parents, particularly in low-income groups. The economic role of unmarried adult children in the household differs by the level of household economy. In determining if unmarried adults live with their parents, the economic factor is important for both men and women. Since their individual income is not high enough to have their independent households, they stay in their parental home. The most interesting finding in this analysis is on the gender role in living arrangement with their parents. Unmarried female adults are less likely to stay in their parental home if their mothers are at work, while there is no significant impact of mother's work on their male counterparts. Unmarried daughters are like to be expected to take over the mother's role in the households when she is in the labor force, so there is a gendered allocation of family role for unmarried adults. Thus, the economic levels of unmarried adults and the gender constrain in allocating family roles were important in determining the living arrangement with the parents.

The paper consists of three parts. The first part presents empirical results on the economic situation among Japanese households with children. The second part compares and analyzes cross-national micro-data on households with children. And, lastly, I discuss attitudes toward child-rearing policies in the United States, France, Sweden, South Korea, and Japan. In Japan, a larger extent of income inequality is manifest particularly among households with young children. The poverty rate among households with young children is higher in Japan than France and Sweden. The need for child-rearing policies in Japan is not differentiated as largely as in other countries by household income. Poor or rich, people strongly desire more robust economic support for child rearing in Japan.

The purpose of this study is to examine the relationship between the change in the household structure following the birthrate decline and the aging population and the economic well-being among the elderly. This study consists of three major parts. In the first part, the change in economic well-being of the elderly living alone in Japan was examined from the mid-1980s, to the beginning of the twenty-first century. In the second part, I compared the extent of economic inequality for the elderly living alone at the beginning of the 21st century with that in other industrial nations. The nations which are compared with Japan in this study are Germany, Italy, Sweden, Taiwan, the United Kingdom, and the U.S. In the final part, focusing on the elderly who are under the long-term care, I examined how much personal networks and personal resources are utilized in receiving the long-term care among the elderly living in different types of household structure. In the households whose head is 65 years old and over, the degree of economic inequality has declined, but the economic inequality in the household with the elderly is still larger than that of households without the elderly. And although the rate of low-income households with the elderly has improved since the 1980s, the situation where female single-only household of the elderly in particular are at high economic risk has not largely changed. An important finding that emerged from the international comparison analysis is that the economic situation of the households with the elderly in Japan was similar to that in the U.S. and the U.K. The result in which the economic situation of the Japanese elderly is similar to that of countries of liberal welfare states suggest important clues in the future study of the welfare state. As far as our results are concerned, we are becoming similar to countries where the extent of economic inequality is quite high. Finally, we discussed personal network that the elderly who require long-term care possessed. In determining the size of personal network, the type of household to which elderly belong and their socio-economic status are important. For the female elderly living alone, neighbors are important resources as support network. On the other hand, personal network of the male elderly tends to be concentrated in their family, particularly their spouse.

Drastic changes in the demographic structure of Japan, that is, the decline in the fertility rate and the growth in the aged population, and their possible consequences have been seriously discussed by scholars, policy makers, and the media. The continuous decline of the fertility rate raised people's concern over the reduction in the productive labor force and the potential imbalance in the future between contributions and benefits of social security. The ratio of young workers to the retired population has been declining rapidly, and the support of the elderly is becoming the burden of the working-age population. Japan has been characterized by the least favorable work setting for women, as exemplified by the discontinuous pattern of work among mothers, the large extent of wage gap between men and women, and the very low proportion of women holding managerial positions. In this paper, I would like to explore the affect of mothers' decision to work and the extent of their contribution to the household economy. This paper is divided into the three parts. First, I will show the trend in the fertility rate and the female labor force participation rate in Japan since 1960, and provide an overview of recent studies on married women's labor force participation. Second, I will examine mothers' working pattern, especially focusing on the continuation of work before and after the first childbirth in Japan. Third, I will compare mother's work in Japan with that in other industrial nations, focusing on the extent of their contribution to the household economy.

The main purpose of this study is to examine the extent of income inequality in Japan and to speculate on the extent of Japan's economic inequality in comparative perspective. This study focuses on Japanese income distribution and examines the trends from mid-1980s to late 1990s and comparison with other societies. The main questions that are addressed in the analysis are: (1) whether or not Japan's income distribution has become more unequal recently, and (2) whether or not income inequality in Japan is different from that in other industrial nations. Also identified are the sources of the trends as well as possible reasons for observable international differences. Particular attention is paid to income inequality by type of household. It is possible that the trend of income inequality for a particular type of household is different from the general trend of income inequality among all households. Furthermore, the differences emerging in cross-national comparisons may be explained in part by the cross-national difference in household composition among the elderly population.