Changes in Personal Network of Japanese

2016 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 25285158
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (B)
• Allocation Type: Partial Multi-year Fund
• Section: 一般
• Research Field: Sociology
• Research Institution: Japan Women's University
• Principal Investigator: Ishiguro Itaru 日本女子大学, 人間社会学部, 准教授 (90333707)
• Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha): 三田 泰雅 四日市大学, 総合政策学部, 講師 (30582431) ; 野沢 慎司 明治学院大学, 社会学部, 教授 (40218318) ; 針原 素子 東京女子大学, 現代教養学部, 講師 (80615667)
• Co-Investigator(Renkei-kenkyūsha): AKAEDA Naoki 関西大学, 社会学部, 講師 (50645546)
• Research Collaborator: KOBAYASHI Tetsuro 国立情報学研究所, 准教授 (60455194)
• Project Period (FY): 2013-04-01 – 2017-03-31
• Keywords: パーソナル・ネットワーク / 時系列調査 / ソーシャル・サポート / 社会的孤立

Outline of Final Research Achievements

It is widely believed that social relationships of Japanese people have changed during past several decades. Some journalistic and academic reports claim that Japanese people have become to be isolated. However we cannot empirically examine these claims because we have few empirical data to do so.
In 2014, we re-conducted "Survey of attitudes toward urban life and family" which is originally conducted in 1993. Merging the two data, we examine changes in Japanese people's social relationships. The findings are as follows. 1)Japanese married people have the fewer intimate alters (neighbors, colleagues, and relatives) in their neighborhood. 2)Attitudes toward family issues slightly changed. 3)Changes are small and Japanese married people have the same amount of social support resources as the people of 20 years ago.

Free Research Field

社会心理学