Living Arrangement and Mothers’ Employment in Japan

Abstract

This paper tests the effect of living arrangement on the probability of mothers’ employment status in Japan using micro-data from a household survey. The analysis was conducted for grandmothers by focusing on distinguishing between grandmother and in-law. The father being the eldest son and the mother being the eldest daughter are used as instruments in bivariate probit models. The findings show that co-residing or proximate-residing grandmother (-in-law) increases the probability of mothers being in employment. That being said, Japanese mothers still need to get help from grandmothers to work. Other important findings indicate that mothers whose husbands are the eldest son tend to live with grandmother-in-law. This confirms that the Japanese norm still stands in modern Japan.

Keywords

• Living Arrangement
• Grandmothers
• Childcare
• Eldest Daughter
• Eldest Son
• Labor Force
• Japanese Norm

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