Problems and Countermeasures Concerning the Relations between Education, Work and Family in Japan

Honda Yuki

doi:10.4091/iken.27.31

<p>The speed both of the decline of birth rate and the aging of population in Japan is prominent compared with other countries．The main cause of this rapidness is the peculiar features of “the social circulation model of postwar Japan”, which was formed during the high economic growth period of the 1960s, spread throughout the society during the stable economic growth period of the 1970s and the 1980s and collapsed since the 1990s. The social circulation model of postwar Japan is characterized by the solidness of one-way injections of resources between three social systems, namely education, work and family. Economic growth made it possible that the rising salaries from work flowed into family, the educational expenses and motivations of families flowed into education, and new graduates from educational institutions flowed into the labor market. After the burst of the bubble economy, however, this circulation model has become dysfunctional because of the deterioration the wage level and job opportunities. The second baby boomers, confronted with the dysfunction of the conventional circulation model, faced a severe difficulty in making their families and having children. Hereafter, it is necessary to create two-way relations between education, work and family, in order to make the society sustainable and to halt the decline in the birth rate. The indispensable measures includes the increase of secure job opportunities which demand workers neither too much working hours nor unlimited job loads, the expansion of social institutions which bear the care of children and aged persons, and the reduction of the educational expenses of families.</p>

Problems and Countermeasures Concerning the Relations between Education, Work and Family in Japan

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