Demographic Change and Its Impact on Relationships in Japan and East Asia

Rapid demographic change in East Asia has potentially important implications for inter- and intra-generational relationships across the life course. After summarising recent trends in marriage, fertility, and divorce in Japan, Korea and Taiwan, the chapter considers the ways in which these demographic changes shape parental investment in children and the timing and nature of departure from the parental home. It then considers the potential implications of declining fertility (and associated changes in sibship structure) for marriage market dynamics and the growing prevalence of international marriages, and discusses the ways in which reductions in fertility and increases in childlessness, non-marriage and divorce may limit the access that future cohorts of older men and women have to financial and instrumental support from family members. The chapter concludes with a discussion of the policy implications in response to these changes, focusing particularly on the Japanese experience.