The Variety of Attitudes Towards Family in East Asia: A Comparative Study Using Issp 2012

This study has two aims. First one is examining the multiple dimensions of the attitudes toward family in East Asia. The other is considering the relationship between welfare regime and attitudes towards family.

Recently, the study about welfare regimes and criticism to it has been developed (Lewis 1992; Bussmaker and van Kersbergen 1994; Esping-Andersen 1999). In addition, the variety of familialism regime in Europe is examined (Leitner 2003; Calzada and Brooks 2013; Therborn 2013). However, the positions of familialism regimes, especially those in East Asian societies are still unclear.

On the other, study about family life in East Asia has been also developed (Ochiai and Ueno eds 2006; Iwai and Yasuda eds 2009; Chang 2010; Ochiai 2013). However, the empirical study about the variety of East Asian familialism is still developing.

 This study tried to examine the variety of East Asian familialism based on a comparative study between Taiwan, South Korea, and Japan using ISSP 2012. Based on the previous study and institutions of those societies, this study set hypothesis below.

H1: People in East Asian societies hold strong familialism about the childcare and elderly care than societies in other welfare regimes.

H2: There are variety between East Asian societies.

    H2-1: People in Taiwan hold relatively weak familialism both about childcare and elderly care.

    H2-2: People in Japan hold the weakest familialism about the elderly care.

    H2-3: People in South Korea hold the strongest familialism both about childcare and elderly care.

Our analysis supported H1 but did not support  H2-1, H2-2, H2-3 directly. However, East Asian societies are not uniform in a different way: people in South Korea hold weaker familialism about care significantly. On The date of the session, we will try to discuss the reason of this outcome with institutional viewpoints.