Reconciling Work and Family

ABE Masahiro + HAMAMOTO Chizuka + TANAKA Sigeto <tsigeto(AT)nik.sal.tohoku.ac.jp>
(Dokkyo University; Daito Bunka University; Tohoku University)

Files

• Full-text PDF file (890kb) in the ILO site.
• ILO page for this report

Contents

This is a report for ILO's Conditions of Work and Employment Programme. This report examines a wide variety of issues such as law, family system, economic conditions, policies, and so on.

Preface

Overview

I. Introduction and context

• Outline
• The socio-economic context
  • The general economic context
  • The bursting of the bubble economy
  • Economic globalization
  • The influence of information and communications technology
  • The ageing population
• The employment context
  • The employment context in the 1990s
  • The rising unemployment rate
  • Changes in the external and internal labour markets
  • Administrative reform and privatization
  • Poverty level
  • The economic context of fatherless households
  • Employment context of fatherless households
  • Education
  • Industrial relations
  • Labour law

II. Family trends: The implications for work of changing family needs

• Trends in the family and family responsibilities
  • Concepts related to "family" in administrative terms
  • Life cycle
  • Household composition
  • Industry and employment
  • Distance between home and workplace
  • Use of time
• Implications of trends for the capacity of workers to meet their family and work responsibilities
  • Decline of home-based business
  • Less support by grandparents
  • Emergence of nursing-care needs
  • Inefficiency due to the male-exemption rule
  • What kind of family are in the greatest need of support

III. Working conditions and family support measures: Their impact on family

• Time-related family support
  • Working hours: Facts and policies
  • Working hours and private life for men and women
  • The Child-care Leave Law and its effects
  • Family-care leave and nursing care insurance
  • The Japanese government's plan of action
• Employment arrangements
  • Changes in numbers of self-employed and family-employed workers
  • Estimated number of teleworkers
  • Telework employment conditions
• Welfare facilities and financial compensation for the cost of family responsibilities
  • Developing measures in Japan to assist family responsibilities
  • Financial compensation
  • Child-care services

IV. What is missing? The gap between work-family needs and work-family support

• The value given to work-family support by employers and workers
• The impact of work-family support on work and on families
  • Core workers
  • Non-core workers
  • Female professionals
  • Local divergence
  • Implications
• Filling the work-family gaps: Effective sharing of support
  • Recent debates on work-family support
  • "Who" (family, company, community or government) would be most effective in bearing the burden and how the different measures are linked

IV. Overview of the major issues

• Work-family implications of the lifecycle from a family perspective
• Implications of the changing nature of work on the family
• Efficiency and effectiveness in achieving a work-family balance
• Gender impact of work-family measures
• Work-family measures and the poverty of families

V. Summary and conclusions

• Summary
• Recommendations
  • Increased efforts towards further reduction of working hours
  • Rapid elimination of the wage gap between men and women
  • Quick resolution of various issues concerning part-time workers
  • Efforts to heighten public awareness of work-family policies
  • Comprehensive measures to assist economically disadvantaged families
  • Spurring on economic growth with a view to lowering the unemployment rate

Bibliography

Related sites

• International Labour Organization
• Conditions of Work and Employment Programme
• ILO page for this report (PDF file available)
• ILO Tyuuniti Zimusyo Magazin No. 22 (Japanese explanation about the report)

Tohoku University / Faculty of Arts and Letters / Applied Japanese Linguistics / TANAKA Sigeto

Copyright (c) 2004 TANAKA Sigeto

History of this page:

• 2004-08-10:Created
• 2004-08-10:Minor corrections