The Attractiveness of Extended Coresidence with Parents as an Alternative to Early Marriage among Japanese Women

Jim Raymo, University of Wisconsin
Hiromi Ono, University of Michigan

In Japan, and other countries characterized by high housing costs, increasing unemployment, highly differentiated gender roles, and low levels of premarital cohabitation, an emphasis on the increasing attractiveness of extended coresidence with parents has emerged as a popular explanation for the trend toward later marriage. Despite the intuitive appeal of this explanation, recent analyses of Japanese data provide no evidence that either greater parental resources or coresident children's limited contribution to family finances and housework contribute to later marriage. In this research, we address several limitations in existing research to reevaluate the importance of extended coresidence as an attractive alternative to early marriage among Japanese women. Despite using more recent longitudinal data containing direct measures of theoretically relevant variables, our initial results are consistent with earlier research in finding very little evidence that enjoyment of the parental provision of financial resources and domestic services contributes to later marriage.