Paper short abstract:

As young Japanese adults increasingly seem to search for "Managing Both Work and Family" as an ideal female life course, this paper focuses on the impact of social policies in mediating the relationship between women's full-time employment and the decision to have a family with children.

Paper long abstract:

Japan's Fifteenth National Fertility Survey (National Institute of Population and Social Security Research 2015), which is covering attitudes toward life course among young Japanese singles, has shown that the proportion of never-married women who choose "Managing both work and family" as an ideal life course is increasing. Similarly, the women's life course that most never-married men expect from their potential partner is the "working wife".

There is in fact a reported increase in full-time employed married Japanese women. This can be explained in part by the government's current policy to establish new types of employment in order to eliminate gender imbalances. As female careers are much more affected by specific demands from private life than men are in their employment, further research on the effect of social policy on full-time employed family women is deemed necessary. Studies on female regular employees have shown that some Japanese firms are relatively progressive in providing family benefits and leave systems alongside with positive action to promote married women with children. However, empirical research revealed that Japan is a country where women still have huge difficulties to reconcile full-time employment and childbearing due to domestic responsibilities. Managing both family and work very often means to primarily rely on kinship support from extended family rather than on husband's help or institutionalized child care system's support structure.

Thus, this paper focuses on the impact of social policies in mediating the relationship between women's economic resources such as full-time employment and the decision to have a family with children. Specifically, it is investigating how the recent reform of corporate working styles is functional in reducing gaps between women's ideal and intended work-life choices.