The Way of the Family in mainstream Japan
I. Introducing the family in late twentieth-century Japan
A. The koseki: The official family registry
B. Salaryman, farmer, and emperor
C. What does social theory say about the “modern” family?
D. The Japanese version: Shifting cultural norms from stem family to nuclear family
II. Changing family form in mainstream modernity
A. Downsizing the family: A dramatic demographic transition in the 1950s
B. The “bunched birth” pattern
C. Why did these happen?
D. How were they accomplished?
III. Forming the mainstream family: Marriage, romance, and responsibility
A. Japanese marriage patterns
B. Love marriage or arranged marriage: Rhetoric and realities
C. The wedding: Commerce and ceremony
IV. Role relations in the mainstream family: Balance of power, division of labor, and emotional alignments
A. “Who Needs Love? In Japan, Many Couples Don’t” (Nicholas Kristof, New York Times, February 11, 1996)
B. The “professional housewife”
V. Summarizing the mainstream family
A. The limits of the family-modernity hypothesis
B. The structured diversity of mainstream families
C. Synchronizing life cycles: from school to work to marriage to parenthood
D. Scheduling the family between and by school and work