CONTEMPORARY JAPAN: THE JAPANESE FAMILY Primogeniture |
| Although Japanese family roles have changed considerably in the 20th century, aspects of the traditional ie, or “continuing family,” still remain. The Japanese have a saying that even if an extended family does not live together, parents and grandparents should live near enough to carry over a bowl of hot soup. In this video series, Harvard University professors Theodore Bestor and Helen Hardacre describe the enduring importance of traditional family values in Japan. |
Theodore Bestor :: This kind of traditional Japanese family system — the multigenerational family organized around primogeniture, that is to say passing the entire estate of the family, the social role, the financial assets, the occupation, the profession, from father to the eldest, usually the eldest son — is a distinct characteristic of the Japanese kinship system. But, it’s not unique to Japan by any means. Many other societies, including many societies in Western Europe, have a similar kind of a kinship system. And indeed, one explanation for some of the colonization of the United States is that eldest sons were inheriting family farms in Europe, and younger sons were being sent off to settle the “New World.” And this is essentially what happened within Japanese history as well. That, particularly from the middle of the 19th century onward, rural families that had more than one son would often send their second, third, fourth son, off to the newly growing cities to find employment in what was beginning to be the industrial revolution in Japan. Now some economic historians argue that this ability of a rural family system to send excess children into the cities to work, without undermining the fundamental stability of rural life, was a real important social factor in explaining why Japanese society was able to undergo industrialization with relatively little social breakdown. The fabric of rural society was maintained intact, but at the same time there was an ample supply of young people willing and able to pick up and move into the city and start entirely new lifestyles. |
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