ABSTRACT
This chapter examines how an ideational approach is useful for explaining changes in demographic aspects of families in Japan after World War II. It focuses on two aspects of postwar Japanese families: structural aspects of families, such as family size and composition, and demographic events, such as marriage, fertility, and divorce. The changes in family structure in postwar Japan can be summarized by shrinkage (smaller family sizes) and simplification. As discussed later, these changes occurred in the context of postwar revisions to the Civil Code that changed the legal norms of families.
