Hostname: page-component-55f67697df-px5tt Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-05-10T09:26:21.427Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Single Mothers and Welfare Restructuring in Japan: Gender and Class Dimensions of Income and Employment

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 May 2025

Fujiwara Chisa
Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

Core share and HTML view are not available for this content. However, as you have access to this content, a full PDF is available via the ‘Save PDF’ action button.

Since the 1990s, Japan has experienced an increase in the number of single parent families due to a significant rise in the divorce rate. In response to this trend, the Japanese government introduced welfare reforms in 2002, which aimed to limit welfare expenditures for single mothers and strengthen mothers' self-sufficiency through work. Becoming self-sufficient through work, however, is not just a matter of will and effort. As I will show in this paper, a single mother's ability to find employment is strongly influenced by her educational and class background, an issue which until recently has received comparatively little attention. In what follows, I examine single motherhood in Japan from the perspective of social class. Poverty and social class are rarely discussed in studies of Japanese society, in part because Japan is widely considered to be a quite affluent and egalitarian society. However, social class, which is chiefly explored through educational background in this paper, is an important factor that affects the living conditions of single mothers in contemporary Japan.

Type
Research Article
Information
Asia-Pacific Journal , Volume 6 , Issue 1 , January 2008 , e2
Creative Commons
Creative Common License - CCCreative Common License - BYCreative Common License - NCCreative Common License - ND
This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivatives licence (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/), which permits non-commercial re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is unaltered and is properly cited. The written permission of Cambridge University Press must be obtained for commercial re-use or in order to create a derivative work.
Copyright
Copyright © The Authors 2008

References

Ezawa, A. and Fujiwara, C. (2005a). “Lone Mothers and Welfare-to-Work Policies in Japan and the United States.” Journal of Sociology and Social Welfare Vol. 32, No. 4. p. 41–63.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fujiwara, C. (2005b). “Hitorioya no shugyo to kaisosei [Class Aspects of Single Parents' Work Patterns].” Shakai-seisaku gakkai shi [The Journal of Social Policy and Labor Studies] No. 13. p. 161–175.Google Scholar
Fujiwara, C. (2007a). “Boshisetai no kaiso bunka [Class Differences among Single Mother Households: Identifying Policy Targets based on the Characteristics of Recipients of State Assistance].” Kikan kakei keizai kenkyu [Japanese Journal of Research on Household Economics] No. 73. p 10–20.Google Scholar
Fujiwara, C. and Ezawa, A. (2007b). “America fukushi kaikaku saikou [Reconsidering U.S. Welfare Reform: An Analysis of Welfare Policies and Their Implications for Japan].” Kikan syakai hosho kenkyu [The Quarterly of Social Security Research] Vol. 42, No. 4. p. 407–419.Google Scholar
Fujiwara, C. (2007c). “Koyo to fukushi no saihen [Reorganization of Work and Welfare].” Adachi, M. et. al (eds.) Feminist politics no sintenkai [The Evolution of Feminist Politics]. Akashi shoten.Google Scholar
rodo, Nihon kiko, kenkyu [The Japan Institute for Labour] (2003). Boshisetai no haha e no syugyo sien ni kansuru kenkyu [A Study on Work Assistance for Single Mothers]. JIL Research Report No. 156. (Summary in English here.).Google Scholar