ABSTRACT
Feminist academic Muta Kazue (2009, p. iii) proposes considering an alternative to the family that moves beyond the universality of the nuclear family and its heterosexism. She believes that issues relating to the family in contemporary Japan, such as the low birth rate, demand a review of the institution of the family at a structural level. This interrogation of the inflexibility of the family can be seen, for instance, in the labelling of claimant guardians as ‘monster parents’ (see Hashimoto, this volume), a discursive practice that reveals societal pressure regarding how a family should behave. Studies of the transnational family in Japan add another layer to such issues. While the migrant population is relatively small, the ethnic composition of families in Japan has diversified greatly over the last 30 years as family-based migration has increased. This suggests the need for a more inclusive understanding of what constitutes ‘the family in contemporary Japan’.
