Title:	Family Issues on Marriage, Divorce, and Older Adults in Japan
Authors:	Fumie Kumagai
Keywords:	Divorce
Issue Date:	2015
Publisher:	Springer
Description:	Having lived in the United States for nearly 15 years, my return to the native land of Japan was a shock. I realized that Japan was a small country, but not so small that the institution of the family could be analyzed uniformly. I had come to the point where I could view my own country with the objectivity gained from valuable comparative insight. Following my extended stay overseas, I lived in rural Niigata for a few years teaching at a graduate school for international relations. It was my fi rst experience living in rural surroundings in Japan. My encounter with the region was a total surprise. “Coming out of the long tunnel I saw snow country,” writes Yasunari Kawabata, a Nobel Prize–winning Japanese author, when he begins his tale of Yukiguni (The Snow Country) (1937). He had just passed through the 9.7-km-long Shimizu Railroad Tunnel that connects the two sides (the Pacifi c Ocean and the Japan Sea) of Japan. The snow-covered land at the tunnel’s end was in contrast to the sunny winter day the narrator had left behind in Tokyo. The contrast that Kawabata describes is one that also permeates the fabric of the Japanese society and the institution of the family as well. What I saw in the family and households in the rural farming area of Niigata truly refl ected the coexistence of modern living based on the traditional nature of Japan. This realization inspired me to look at Japanese families through these two visions of the dual structure perspective and regional variations. Today we live in the Information Age, and the world moves toward a global society. When news of Japan fl oods the media, events are not necessarily reported correctly. Part of this problem comes from the inability of Japan to clearly state its point of view to the global society. This inability, in turn, is partly because the Japanese people themselves lack a fair knowledge of Japanese history. This book, therefore, is an attempt to alleviate the situation through the fi eld of family sociology. Sometimes I have felt I was a “voice in the wilderness” among Japanese sociologists, insisting it is vital to study the regional groups in a country. My studies have focused on Japan and the differences among people in the various areas. “Although Japan is a small island country, the cultural diversity from one region to another is extensive,” I wrote. I have also sought to explore the “dual structural model”—where traditional values meet modern ideas. In analyzing family issues such as demographic characteristics, courtship and marriage, divorce, and the elderly in Japan, this book emphasizes the signifi cance of two theoretical frameworks: the dual structure and regional variations of the community network in Japan. Thus, the hypothesis to be tested in this book is that family issues in Japan vary from region to region. At the same time, it is hoped to fi nd the existence of continuities sustaining the traditional nature of the Japanese family and household. Therefore, family issues in Japan in these areas are studied most effectively and appropriately through these two theoretical frameworks. This book is a sociological study of the Japanese family. More specifi cally, topics include demographic changes, courtship and marriage, international marriage, divorce, late-life divorce, and the elderly living alone. The method of analysis adopted in the study is qualitative with a historical perspective rather than a quantitative orientation.
URI:	http://10.6.20.12:80/handle/123456789/53665
ISBN:	978-981-287-185-5
Appears in Collections:	Population Studies

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