July 2014

“Japanese Value Orientations” in a Forty Year Time-Series Survey (1)

From the Survey on Japanese Value Orientations

Koichi Takahashi / Hiroshi Aramaki

This two-part article reports how the value orientation of the Japanese has changed over the recent 40 years based on the results of the latest 2013 survey of the “Survey on Japanese Value Orientations” that NHK conducts every five years since 1973.

Regarding marriage, both of those who think “one does not necessary have to get married” and those who think “one does not necessary have to have children even if he/she gets married” have increased over the past five years. As to family names after marriage, although there is an increase in those thinking “either husband and wife can be the one who change his/her last name,” many people still think “wife should naturally change her last name to that of husband,” revealing views are split on this issue. Meanwhile, as to women’s continuing working after marriage, those who think “it is better for women to keep working as much as possible even after they have their children” kept increasing and became the majority in the 2013 survey for the first time in the survey history. About husbands’ participation in housework, the majority of the respondents, 90%, think “they should naturally participate.”

For the question regarding education for children, those who want their daughters receive education “up to university level” kept increasing and accounted for 57% in the 2013 survey. However, those who want their sons receive education “up to university level” accounted for 70%, which shows there still exists a gap between parents’ attitude towards sons and that towards daughters. Regarding sex before marriage, those thinking “it is acceptable if they are truly in love” had largely increased by 1998, but little change has been observed over the recent 15 years.

Although people’s perception of male-female relationships has largely changed over the last 40 years, the degree of change has been diminishing since the 2000s.

The NHK Monthly Report on Broadcast Research