Women's Empowerment and Promoting Work-Life-Balance in Japan

2017 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 15H03343
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (B)
• Allocation Type: Single-year Grants
• Section: 一般
• Research Field: Economic policy
• Research Institution: Hitotsubashi University
• Principal Investigator: Usui Emiko 一橋大学, 経済研究所, 准教授 (50467263)
• Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha): 中村 さやか 名古屋大学, 経済学研究科, 准教授 (20511603) ; 高山 憲之 公益財団法人年金シニアプラン総合研究機構, 研究部, 研究主幹 (30102940) ; 小林 美樹 佐賀大学, 経済学部, 准教授 (70722388) ; 奥村 綱雄 横浜国立大学, 大学院国際社会科学研究院, 教授 (90323922)
• Project Period (FY): 2015-04-01 – 2018-03-31
• Keywords: 経済政策 / 女性の就労 / 少子化

Outline of Final Research Achievements

This empirical study presents three main findings in Japan. First, among dual-earner couples, wives are performing a significant share of housework on weekdays while husbands are not, and wives experience higher spousal satisfaction when helped on weekdays. Second, while mothers working full-time spend less time with children’s homework than non-fulltime, fathers compensate for some of this lost quality time though not making up all lost quality time. Fathers working over 60 hours/week spend less time with children, and if less working hours, it may help mothers reduce their time with children, thereby facilitating mothers' labor market participation. Third, among married women of early 40s without children, those without knowing fertility decline with age, their subjective probability of having children are 10% higher. Realizing fertility patterns accurately, it would make women more forthcoming to have children before turning 40.

Free Research Field

労働経済学