December 2015
From the ISSP Survey on “Family and Changing Gender Roles”
Hiroko Murata / Hiroshi Aramaki
The authors studied the relationship between the satisfaction level on family life and sharing of household work with a spouse, by comparing 31 countries/regions from the International Social Survey Programme (ISSP).
In Japan, only 4% of men spend more than 20 hours a week on household work while 65% of women do so. This 60% gender difference is second largest among the surveyed countries/regions. Regarding specific chores such as laundry and preparation for the meals, Japan also has higher percentages of women who mainly bear the burden of the work.
Many Japanese women think they “do much more than their fair share of the household work.” Even though the traditional gender role is becoming less distinctive in Japanese society, it is still persistent in the household, which probably makes women develop a sense of inequality. Men also acknowledge that they “do less than their fair share of the household work.”
Japanese men who are “satisfied” with their family life accounts for 43%, and 33% for women. Both figures are lower than many other countries/regions. Multiple regression analysis shows that the satisfaction level on family life is significantly related to sharing of household work. This finding suggests that if husbands shared household work more, wives would feel less sense of inequality and be more satisfied with their family life.