March 2006
In 2005, Japan finally entered into an “age of depopulation.” Concentration of child-care burdens on women is pointed out to be a main factor of the declining birth rate. The Law for Measures to Support the Development of the Next Generation that took effect in April 2005 includes a review of men’s working styles. The article analyzes correlation between attitudes towards marriage, attitudes towards child rearing, and sharing of child-care responsibilities based on data from the “2004 Survey on Contemporary Japanese Lifestyles” conducted in December 2004.
Before examining difference in responses, male and female respondents with a child (or children) were categorized into three groups depending on the level of child-care sharing: 1. “wife does most of it,” 2. “husband helps wife,” and 3. “almost same responsibilities for husband and wife.”
The difference in value orientation toward children was indicated in responses to a question, “What does a child mean to you?” Many husbands in the “wife does most of it” group regard their children as “someone takes care of me when I become old” and “someone who inherits the family property or business,” indicating men who think child rearing is a women’s job tend to find “practical values” in children. On the contrary, percentage of male respondents who regard a child as “someone who can strengthen a family bond” or “someone parents can place their dream and hope on” in the “almost same responsibilities for husband and wife” group is higher than in “men in total,” suggesting many husband in this group find “mental values” in children.
Regarding relations between negative aspects of having a child and child-care sharing, percentages of female respondents who answered “there is no negative aspects“ were 26% in “women in total” and 37% in the “almost same responsibilities for husband and wife” group, showing a wife feels less burdens if her husband participate in parenting. On the contrary, there is no such tendency as men in the “almost same responsibilities for husband and wife” group feel negative about having a child more than those who in the other groups do.
The survey result elucidates that men’s participation in child rearing mitigates women’s burdens and is related to the way of living of a man and the couples’ attitudes toward family.