The gender division of labor and second births: Labor market institutions and fertility in Japan

“The first two frameworks are extensions of Becker’s theory of comparative advantage and the optimal allocation of time (Becker 1993), although the relative resources hypothesis adds negotiation and the effects of a power imbalance between spouses, neither of which was explicitly included in Becker’s formulation.”

“Dominant perspectives from the Western literature include the relative resources hypothesis, the time availability hypothesis, and gender-role ideology (Aassve, Fuochi, and Mencarini 2014; Bianchi et al. 2000; Bittman et al. 2003).”

“Very low fertility rates in Southern Europe, Eastern Europe, and East Asia have been a source of great interest for demographers in recent years (Kohler, Billari, and Ortega 2002; Lesthaeghe 2010).”

“Dominant perspectives from the Western literature include the relative resources hypothesis, the time availability hypothesis, and gender-role ideology (Aassve, Fuochi, and Mencarini 2014; Bianchi et al. 2000; Bittman et al. 2003).”

“Recent work has suggested that increases in gender equality are likely to help societies currently experiencing low fertility to move towards an equilibrium characterized by near-replacement fertility rates (Esping-Andersen and Billari 2015; Goldscheider, Bernhardt, and Lappegård 2015).”

“Central among these is McDonald’s gender equity framework, with its focus on the slow pace of change in men’s and women’s household roles compared to their increasingly equal participation in the public sphere, especially the labor market (McDonald 2000).”

“Recent work has suggested that increases in gender equality are likely to help societies currently experiencing low fertility to move towards an equilibrium characterized by near-replacement fertility rates (Esping-Andersen and Billari 2015; Goldscheider, Bernhardt, and Lappegård 2015).”

“Numerous studies have documented the extremely low amount of time that Japanese men devote to housework and childcare (Feyrer, Sacerdote, and Stern 2008; Tsuya, Bumpass, and Choe 2000; Tsuya et al. 2013).”

“She finds that fathers’ involvement in household work increases the probability of second birth in both countries.4 Using US data, Torr and Short (2004) find a Ushaped relationship between couples’ distribution of household labor and the transition to second birth, with a higher probability of…”

“On the other hand, female full-time workers and part-time workers and workers in small enterprises have had more unstable jobs and have functioned as a buffer during economic fluctuations (Abraham and Houseman 1989; Brinton 1993; Houseman and Osawa 2003; Osawa, Kim, and Kingston 2013).”

“In other research, Cooke (2004) finds that in Germany, husbands’ increased share of childcare time is positively related to the probability of a second birth, but this does not completely outweigh the negative effect of long work hours among women.”

“Dominant perspectives from the Western literature include the relative resources hypothesis, the time availability hypothesis, and gender-role ideology (Aassve, Fuochi, and Mencarini 2014; Bianchi et al. 2000; Bittman et al. 2003).”

“In her comparative study of Italy and Spain, Cooke (2009) finds that fathers’ share of childcare has no effect on the probability of a second birth in Spain.”

“Though we assume that both husbands and wives can devote time to both household work and market work, we follow de Laat and Sevilla-Sanz (2011) in assuming that men’s disutility to engage in household work depends on the cultural norms of their reference group.”

“Compared with more flexible labor markets such as in the United States, once a woman in Japan quits her job and exits the labor force around the time of a birth it is less likely that she will reenter after a short work interruption (Nagase 2013; Yu 2009).”

“Japanese women are rarely found in career-track jobs (Brinton and Mun 2016; Mun and Brinton 2014) and when they are they tend to be uneasy about their future because balancing work and family is difficult due to the long work-hour norms (Nagase and Yamaya 2011).”

“Hanada (1987), Imada and Hirata (1995), Ishida (1986), and Takeuchi (1995) examine the promotion process for male university graduates in large firms and show that many of them stay in the same firm across their working lives.”

“On the other hand, a study by Ishii-Kuntz et al. (2004) finds a significant effect of men’s gender-role attitudes on their own housework.”

“Wages do not rise as steeply with job tenure in smaller Japanese firms or in foreign-owned firms (Ono 2007).”

“On the other hand, female full-time workers and part-time workers and workers in small enterprises have had more unstable jobs and have functioned as a buffer during economic fluctuations (Abraham and Houseman 1989; Brinton 1993; Houseman and Osawa 2003; Osawa, Kim, and Kingston 2013).”

“While the Equal Employment Opportunity Law of 1985 and its subsequent amendment in 1997, 1999, and 2007 opened the career track to a small number of women, analysis of 1990s data shows little effect of the law on female employment (Abe 2010, 2011).”

“The past http://www.demographic-research.org 347 few decades have seen a large increase in non-standard employment and in the outsourcing of work in Japan, together with some loosening in the link between tenure and salary for middle-aged core employees.”

“Empirical studies consistently document that Japanese marriages tend to have a high degree of gender-role specialization (Brinton 2017; Lee and Ono 2008; Tsuya et al. 2013).”

“First, non-marriage or delayed transition to first marriage, together with a decline in married couples’ transition to second or higher-order births, have been shown to account for a much greater share of recent aggregate fertility decline in Japan than the transition to first birth (Ogawa 2003).”

“On the other hand, female full-time workers and part-time workers and workers in small enterprises have had more unstable jobs and have functioned as a buffer during economic fluctuations (Abraham and Houseman 1989; Brinton 1993; Houseman and Osawa 2003; Osawa, Kim, and Kingston 2013).”

“Japanese women are rarely found in career-track jobs (Brinton and Mun 2016; Mun and Brinton 2014) and when they are they tend to be uneasy about their future because balancing work and family is difficult due to the long work-hour norms (Nagase and Yamaya 2011).”

“The average job tenure of married males actually increased in the 1990s and 2000s (Genda and Rebick 2000; Shimizutani and Yokoyama 2009).”

“While the Equal Employment Opportunity Law of 1985 and its subsequent amendment in 1997, 1999, and 2007 opened the career track to a small number of women, analysis of 1990s data shows little effect of the law on female employment (Abe 2010, 2011).”

“Numerous studies have documented the extremely low amount of time that Japanese men devote to housework and childcare (Feyrer, Sacerdote, and Stern 2008; Tsuya, Bumpass, and Choe 2000; Tsuya et al. 2013).”

“The average job tenure of married males actually increased in the 1990s and 2000s (Genda and Rebick 2000; Shimizutani and Yokoyama 2009).”

“Given that the rate of non-marital births remains very low in Japan (Hertog 2009), conditions within marriage that make it possible for couples to have two or more children are central in order for Japan to raise its fertility rate.”

“While some Japanese economists (e.g., Yashiro 2011) answer in the negative, many Japanese human resource professionals and company managers continue to evaluate the system highly.”

“According to the Japanese Cabinet Office’s 2014 White Paper on Children, Japanese fathers of preschool children spent an average of 1.07 hours per week on housework and childcare, compared to over two hours for fathers in France and the United Kingdom and over three hours in the United States, Germany, Sweden, and Nor…”

“Ueda (2005) uses Japanese time-use data and finds that an increase in the time spent by the husband on housework reduces the time spent by the wife, but only by a small amount.”

“Empirical studies consistently document that Japanese marriages tend to have a high degree of gender-role specialization (Brinton 2017; Lee and Ono 2008; Tsuya et al. 2013).”

“Nakagawa (2010) also finds that mothers’ traditional gender-role attitudes are related to a significant increase in women’s household work, which in turn decreases husband’s involvement: she refers to this mechanism as maternal gate-keeping.”

“Matsuda (2000) reports that a husband’s involvement in housework increases when his wife works full-time but not when she works part-time.”

“Very low birth rates in Southern and Eastern Europe and East Asia, for example, are linked to strong norms against maternal employment, along with heavy maternal responsibilities (Brinton & Lee, 2016; Nagase & Brinton, 2017).”

“However, a positive association again seems dependent on country (Brodmann et al. 2007; Cooke 2009), women’s employment (Cooke 2009; Schober 2013; Nagase and Brinton 2017), parity-specific outcomes (Mencarini and Tanturri 2004; Nilsson 2010; Komatsu 2011; Goldscheider et al. 2013; Schober 2013;…”

“Studies on fathers’ childcare and housework engagement, both obviously related to leave use, also indicate that engagement is generally positively associated with continued fertility but to a different degree by context and socioeconomic group (Cooke 2004, 2009; Torr and Short 2004; Goldscheider, Bernhardt, and Brandé…”

“Nagase and Brinton (2017) demonstrate that the husband’s share of domestic work is positively associated with transitioning to a second birth in Japan.”

“In fact, Kim (2017) in Korea and Nagase and Brinton (2017) in Japan showed that couples were more likely to have second children if husbands spent more time taking care of first children and sharing housework, as found in Germany (Cooke 2004) and Italy (Cooke 2009).”

“Sasajima (2016) states that a 25% overtime premium is not enough as it excludes bonus payments and makes overtime work less costly than new hires.”

“Our findings were also consistent with findings from a Japanese study conducted by Nagase and Brinton (2017) and findings from a working paper on analyses of the LSN21 data by Fukuda (2017).”

“Moreover, in Japan, male university graduates are more exposed than other men to workplace norms prevalent in large firms demanding high work commitment, which makes it difficult for the father to share childrearing responsibilities (Nagase and Brinton 2017).”

“This dual burden of work and family roles exacerbates work–family conflict, particularly as women’s opportunity costs in the labor market increase with their higher educational and career aspirations (Brinton & Oh, 2019; Nagase & Brinton, 2017).”

“While the majority of these studies have found that couples with a more gender-equal division of labor have higher fertility (Brodmann, Esping-Andersen, and Güell 2007 for Denmark; Cooke 2004 for Germany; Cooke 2009 for Italy; Dommermuth, Hohmann-Marriott, and Lappegård 2017 for Norway; Goldscheider, Bernhardt, and Br…”

“Recent research suggests that household labor by Japanese men has not been very responsive to the increasing labor force participation of their wives (Nagase & Brinton, 2017).”

“The most recent investigations into reasons for current fertility trends in the East Asian region, including Taiwan, all place gender inequity in housework and childcare centre stage (Kan & Hertog, 2017; Nagase & Brinton, 2017; Yoon, 2017).”

“income countries, giving birth in Japan is costly to women, both directly in monetary terms and indirectly in terms of the risks of lost income, job loss and career setbacks.(1)”

“Recent empirical studies have shown that fertility can be increased by factors that relieve women’s domestic labor burden, such as the involvement of husbands in domestic labor (e.g., Kim, 2017; Nagase & Brinton, 2017) and help from parents or parents-in-law (Brinton & Oh, 2019; Park et al., 2010).”

“Positive effects of his share of housework on second birth transitions have been found for the US (Torr and Short 2004) and Japan (Nagase and Brinton 2017), but not for Germany (Cooke 2004, Henz 2008), the UK (Schober 2013), or Australia (Craig and Siminski 2011).”

“For example, a study used relative resource theory to evaluate quality of marital relationships, and suggested that individuals with higher levels of education have higher marital stability [18-20].”

“Although studies have investigated the direct relationship between housework and fertility (Aassve et al., 2015; Cooke, 2004; Kim, 2017; Nagase & Brinton, 2017; Tan, 2023), these studies often implicitly assumed that men and women with gender equality at home have higher fertility intentions…”

“VOL. 14, NO. 2, 113–115 https://doi.org/10.1080/17441730.2018.1463667 that reward seniority and loyalty (Nagase & Brinton, 2017).”

“After evaluating the quality of the articles by the STROBE checklist, 13 articles were in the range of good quality [4, 7, 14, 16, 17, 19, 21–27] and 4 articles were in the range of moderate quality [6, 15, 18, 20] (Table 3).”

“Similarly to Oláh (2003) and Nagase and Brinton (2017), who found that men’s poor participation in household tasks lowers the probability of having a second child among dual-income couples, our research suggests that mother’s perception that her partner is not participating enough in childcare…”

“At the same time, women are expected to stay at home and take responsibility for domestic unpaid work (Nagase & Brinton, 2017; Tsutsui, 2016; Ueno, 2021).”

“…involvement, some studies find that a more equal division of domestic work (Aassve et al., 2015a, 2015b) and men’s contribution to household chores (Dommermuth et al., 2017; Nagase et al., 2017; Sullivan et al., 2014) are positively related to the transition from the first to the second child.”

“Research on Japanese fertility attitudes documents similar tensions between individual autonomy values and familial/societal expectations, economic anxiety regarding child-rearing costs, and women’s work-family balance concerns that parallel our identified types (Nagase & Brinton, 2017).”

“For instance, studies have noted that men ’ s self-perceived time spent on housework is generally lower than women ’ s perceived time spent on spousal housework (Nagase & Brinton, 2017).”

“For example, how much a husband contributes to childcare around the birth of a couple’s first child predicts the likelihood of a second birth (Nagase and Brinton, 2017).”

“Two recent analyses using population-based longitudinal surveys indicated that fathers ’ active involvement in child-care may promote parity progression from the fi rst to the subsequent children (Kato et al., 2018); Nagase & Brinton, 2017).”

“At the same time, mothers whose partners use flexible schedules to participate more in childcare also experience less family-to-work conflict (Nagase & Brinton, 2017).”