Work Overload: Household Tasks and Employment of Japanese Couples

Noriko Tsuya, Keio University
Larry Bumpass, University of Wisconsin at Madison
Minja K. Choe, East-West Center
Ronald R. Rindfuss, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and East-West Center

Both employment and the performance of household and family tasks are essential elements of the joint household production of married couples and these competing demands must be balanced. In Japan, with the persistence of a gender division of labor, men’s long employment hours, and wives’ increasing employment, changes in the gender allocation of household tasks is a critical component of the “marriage package” faced by young couples, and hence, of the timing of marriage and fertility decisions. Using data from national cross-sectional surveys conducted in 2000 and 2009, and from a 2009 follow-up of the 2000 panel, we document the relationships between the hours of husbands and wives spend in employment, household tasks, and the combination of these. The proportion of husbands helping at home, and the hours contributed, vary systematically with the hours of employment of both spouses and have increased over a range of social and demographic characteristics.