Families in Japan

Fumie Kumagai, a Japanese family sociologist with keen insight into regional variations and a comparative perspective, analyzes the dynamics and variations in Japanese families throughout the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. The theoretical frameworks utilized are the dual structural perspective and the community network in the Information Age Society. This book provides insightful sociological analyses of Japanese families, paying attention not only to national average data, but also to regional variations and community level analyses. It is a paradigm shift from former studies of Japanese families, which relied on national average data only. The focus is on sociocultural variations and the diversity of families in Japan. Topics include marriage, divorce, fertility rates, the elderly, labor force participation, population decline, trends among youth, and the changing roles of women.

This book is a presentation of her continuing work on Japanese families and provides insightful, intellectual and indigenous sociological documents. This book will prove to be a valued contribution to family studies in the East Asian region., Professor Kumagai's new book provides various new insights into Japan's changing family organization of the past few decades. The book also sheds light on such key policy issues in twenty-first century Japan as to how and in what direction the Japanese family will be shifting in the process of unprecedented population aging. This book is a must for Japan specialists as well as those interested in Japanese studies!, This book is an excellent contribution to the understanding of changes in the Japanese family from the Japanese perspective., Professor Kumagai is eminently qualified to elucidate the considerable knowledge of families from a comparative perspective in her various publications. I am very confident that her new book will give a distinct view of the changing Japanese family. This book will be of great interest not only to Asian scholars, but also to other specialists in comparative family studies around the world., Fumie Kumagai's new book on families in Japan will open up to the wider world the fascinating dynamics of Japanese family life in a rapidly globalizing Information Age, in which local practice is intertwined in a complex way with global pressures. This new book builds powerfully upon her earlier work by taking the reader deep inside an institution normally hidden to non-Japanese eyes and revealing its rich regional variety.

Fumie Kumagai is Professor of Sociology, Graduate School of International Cooperation, and Department of Foreign Studies, Kyorin University. Professor Kumagai received the Fulbright scholarship twice and was a Fulbright Senior Researcher.