The Living Arrangements and Familial Contacts of the Elderly in Japan

Recently IIASA's Population Program has begun to investigate several issues relating to kinship patterns and their consequences. Among these issues are analytic and simulation approaches to modeling the evolution and lifetime trajectory of patterns of living kin, consideration of intrafamily dependencies in fertility and mortality which might influence the size distribution of family trees in the population, and behavioral consequences of kinship patterns. Of particular interest are the consequences of kinship patterns for the behavior of the elderly; the relations between the elderly and their children -- as well as other relatives such as siblings -- is to some extent conditioned by the number, ages, and other characteristics of those children or other relatives. In this paper the author surveys several aspects of the relations between elders and their children in Japan. Limited comparisons with some other countries are also presented where possible. There is a striking contrast between Japan and other industrialized countries in the patterns of coresidence of older people and other family members. Preferences, expectations, and other attitudinal dimensions are shown to be closely related to residence patterns. Thus, we must be prepared to move beyond economic and demographic variables in explaining international variations in household structure