Hiroto Matsuki: Diversity and Inequality in "Family Forms"

2021/11/19

Few would disagree that "diversity" has become one of the key terms in contemporary Japanese society. Furthermore, the diversity of "family forms" is also frequently a point of discussion.

Trends surrounding same-sex couples are a prominent example. Starting with Shibuya and Setagaya Wards in Tokyo in 2015, the number of municipalities with systems to certify same-sex couples as partners has been increasing. In March of this year, the Sapporo District Court issued the first ruling stating that the current legal system, which does not recognize same-sex marriage, violates Article 14 of the Constitution, which stipulates "equality under the law."

Additionally, the removal of the phrase "selective separate surnames for married couples" from the 5th Basic Plan for Gender Equality approved by the Cabinet last December, and the Supreme Court's ruling this June that the Civil Code provision not allowing separate surnames is constitutional, also sparked debate. Furthermore, tax reforms allowing single parents who have never been married to receive income deductions—not just those who are divorced or widowed—have been implemented since last year, despite opposition from conservative members of the LDP.

That said, how "family forms" are discussed changes with the times. This is also true in the field of family sociology, which is my specialty.

For example, in family sociology during the period of high economic growth, it was frequently pointed out that the number of people per household was decreasing and the proportion of nuclear family households in the total number of households was rising along with the progress of post-war urbanization and industrialization. References to "family forms" in family sociology at that time were supported by an interest in understanding the direction of family changes in post-war Japanese society. For this reason, while single-parent families were called "broken families" and their association with juvenile delinquency was pointed out (e.g., Haruyuki Mitsukawa, "Broken Families," in Family Sociology, edited by Kaoru Ohashi and Mitsuyoshi Masuda, Kawashima Shoten, 1966), it is difficult to say that the diversity of "family forms" and the accompanying inequalities received sufficient attention.

In contrast, the focus of discussion in contemporary Japanese society is precisely the inequality that exists between diverse "family forms." The argument for the institutionalization of same-sex marriage is an argument for "marriage equality," where everyone can marry, challenging the current situation where legal marriage is a privilege granted only to heterosexuals. Furthermore, the inequality where those who wish for separate surnames cannot marry according to that wish, and where so-called "unmarried mothers" cannot receive the tax burden reductions available to single parents who are divorced or widowed, has become a problem. Moreover, regarding the spousal deduction, which has been the subject of calls for revision for many years, one basis for criticism has been its lack of fairness in the sense that the system favors households with full-time housewives over dual-income households.

As if keeping pace with this rising social interest, the way interest in "family forms" is handled in family sociology is also changing, and research on inequality surrounding "family forms" is accumulating. Particular attention is being paid to the negative effects of growing up in a single-parent family. For example, it has been pointed out that those who have experienced parental divorce have lower rates of advancement to higher education, lower quality of parent-child relationships, and lower frequency of parent-child conversation compared to those who have not (Akihide Inaba, "Divorce and Children," in Japanese Families 1999-2009: Quantitative Sociology based on the National Family Research of Japan [NFRJ], edited by Akihide Inaba, Tokio Yasuda, Rokuro Tabuchi, and Shigeto Tanaka, University of Tokyo Press, 2016). Additionally, some research shows that those who have experienced parental divorce are more likely to divorce themselves through tendencies such as lower educational attainment or early marriage (Michihiro Yoshitake, "Intergenerational Transmission of Divorce and Its Mechanism: From the Perspective of Reproduction of Disparity," Japanese Sociological Review 70(1), 2019). In this way, growing up in a single-parent family often brings various disadvantages to a child's life.

What this research suggests is, of course, not that "therefore, one should not divorce for the sake of the children." Rather, while the hurdle to choosing divorce has become lower than before and the existence of single-parent families has become more familiar—in an era where one-third of marriages are said to end in divorce—we should face the fact that we have not realized a social system that guarantees equal life opportunities for children regardless of whether their parents are divorced, through the enhancement of social security for single-parent families.

In other words, while it is very important for diverse "family forms" to be made visible, that alone is not enough. Of course, institutional changes that make it possible to choose diverse "family forms," such as the institutionalization of same-sex marriage and selective separate surnames, are necessary first. At the same time, however, it is also essential to realize a social system in which disadvantages in the life course do not occur, regardless of the form of family one lives in. Overcoming inequality surrounding "family forms" through such institutional changes and the realization of social systems, rather than just celebrating diversity. Unless this is achieved, it cannot be said that diverse "family forms" are truly respected.