The Change of the Balance of Time Use between Husband and Wife Affected by the Shorter Working Time

Research Project

Project/Area Number	06680021
Research Category	Grant-in-Aid for General Scientific Research (C)
Allocation Type	Single-year Grants
Research Field	家政学
Research Institution	HIROSHIMA UNIVERSITY
Principal Investigator	HIRATA Michinori HIROSHIMA UNIVERSITY,Faculty of Education, Associate Professor, 教育学部, 助教授 (30111660)
Project Period (FY)	1994 – 1995
Project Status	Completed (Fiscal Year 1995)
Budget Amount *help	¥1,400,000 (Direct Cost: ¥1,400,000) Fiscal Year 1995: ¥500,000 (Direct Cost: ¥500,000) Fiscal Year 1994: ¥900,000 (Direct Cost: ¥900,000)
Keywords	Time Use / Working Time / Weekly Day Off / Husband and Wife / 週休二日制 / 夫婦関係
Research Abstract	1.I examined the effects of the work week and the weekly day off on the time use of husband and wife. I used the data of 1991 Survey on Time Use and Leisure Activities conducted by Statistics Bureau Management and Coordination Agency Japan. The results are as follows. (1)Husbands with longer work week spend less on sleep and free time. Time devoted to the housework by husbands, however, is hardly related to the work week. (2)The work week of husbands on a five-day week is shorter than those on a six-day week. However, the working time of weekdays is longer among husbands on a five-day week. 2.I conducted the original time budget survey whose population was husbands and wives of the same households. The results are as follows. (1)Not only free time but the time devoted to housework increase on the day off of husbands. Wives spend less on housework when their husbands are off. However, the degree of decrease is not so large. (2)Time allocations of housewives and married employed females on the day off are different when husbands of both are off. The meaning of the day off is different among housewives and married employed females 3.I reach the conclusion that the shorter working time has given good effects on the everyday life of husbands and wives and that some problems of the time use balance among family members and between workday and day off.