Family-Related Risk Perception and Individualization in East Asia

Based on a survey research conducted to citizens of three capital cities of East Asia, Seoul, Beijing, and Tokyo, this paper is aimed at comparing the family-related risk perception in the three cities with a perspective of individualization theory and a typology of risks developed for East Asia. More specifically, it is aimed at revealing how the citizens of the three cities feel about the recent changes in the family such as divorce, low fertility, decrease in the parent’s role in home education, isolation and suicide of the elderly, individualist tendency, decrease in mutual help in the family, and conflict in the property distribution. The research questions are as follows: First, how do the citizens of three cities perceive about the various family-related risks? Second, what influences the family-related risk perception? As to the first question, it turned out that perception of the first modernity-related risks are higher in Beijing, while that of the second modernity-related ones are higher in Seoul and Tokyo. As to the second question, it turned out that not only the family-related macro changes as revealed in law and policy changes and statistical indices in the area of fertility, divorce and marriage, but also individualization turned out to be significant. This suggests that the three cities seem to be in different stages of development and that the three cities have both the first modern and second modern risks.