Developmental trends in stem-family households in rural Japan: A panel survey in Katsunuma over 50 years

The aim of this study is to understand the changes and the continuity of stem-family households in rural Japan by conducting a follow-up study on a panel survey of about 100 family households from 1966 to 1997 in Katsunuma. Katsunuma, a town famous for its commercial grape production, is located in Yamanashi, a neighbouring prefecture of the capital city of Tokyo.The panel was designed by Kiyomi Morioka in 1966 when the first survey was performed. The following main criteria for selecting about 100 households were: (1) they had to be a stem-family household having a head of the household, his wife, a father and mother, and (2) the head of the household needed to be born between 1921 and 1935.After the first survey in 1966, these family households were repeatedly researched: in 1972, 1976 (limited survey), 1981, 1992, and 1997. There are series of panel data and life documents on each 107 stem-family household, and since 2016, we have conducted follow-up studies of these households in order to investigate their developmental trends over 50 years.The main findings are as follows: 60 of the 107 family households were on the life stage feasible to form a stem-family household in 2018, but only 35 had done so. More than 40% of the family households feasible to form stem-family households were living separately between generations. Even so, this is quite a high proportion compared to the national statistic: 8.6% in 2015.departmental bulletin pape