This book represents a first attempt to comprehensively discuss and investigate causes and potential implications of changing patterns of spouse pairing in Japan and to consider similarities and differences with patterns observed in the USA and other low-fertility Western societies. In this book, research on educational assortative mating in Japan is summarized and updated. This book contributes to research on the demography of contemporary Japan by overviewing theoretical and empirical linkages between marriage behavior and processes of social and economic stratification. It also extends the large body of research on assortative mating and stratification by incorporating insights from the understudied context of Japan. The authors draw upon multiple data sources both survey and administrative data to update and extend previous research on who marries whom in Japan. The wide range of consequences considered includes income inequality, the intergenerational transmission of advantage and disadvantage, marriage and fertility timing, lifelong singlehood, childlessness, and the family roles of husbands and wives. Throughout the manuscript, Japan is considered in comparative perspective by employing the large USA and international literatures on assortative mating.

Provides an understanding of how demographic shifts in marriage patterns are linked to growing socioeconomic inequality Summarizes existing research on this topic in Japan and suggests future directions for this line of research Compares findings from Japan with research on the USA and other countries for new theoretical and empirical insights

Autorentext

Fumiya Uchikoshi is a Ph.D. student in Sociology at Princeton University. His research interests include family demography, social stratification, and East Asia. His current research examines diverging family behaviors and their impact on social inequality and the consequences of newly emerging behaviors on future life course outcomes in familistic societies. James M. Raymo is a professor of Sociology and the Henry Wendt III '55 Professor of East Asian Studies at Princeton University. Raymo is a social demographer whose research focuses on documenting and understanding the causes and potential consequences of demographic changes in Japan. His published research includes analyses of marriage timing, divorce, recession and fertility, marriage and women's health, single mothers' well-being, living alone, employment and health at older ages, and regional differences in health at older ages. His current research focuses on children's well-being, changing patterns of family formation, single motherhood, and social isolation and health at older ages.

Inhalt

Chapter 1 Introduction.- Chapter 2 Conceptual Issues.- Chapter 3 How We Evaluate Assortative Mating.- Chapter 4 The Japanese Context.- Chapter 5 Empirical Analysis.- Chapter 6 Conclusion and Future Directions.