ABSTRACT
Among advanced industrialised nations, Japan has demonstrated considerable resilience in terms of gender divisions in rights over and access to housing. In the pre-war period, women’s housing situations were determined by their relationship to the male head-of-household who held legal authority over the family. The post-war Civil Code sought to promote democratisation. Nonetheless the housing position of women was not significantly advanced as Japan moved towards a homeownership orientated society and male breadwinner family model. Most women still had few legal rights over family property and inheritance continued to pass along male lines. The state and company welfare system was also synchronised with a standard family model, with those outside family households receiving little assistance. In recent decades, Japan has suffered a prolonged economic downturn with increasing pressure placed on women as both labour market participants and domestic carers. Also characteristic has been a steep decline in marriage and fertility rates in context of intensive societal aging and growing economic divisions. Increasingly, households and life-courses have become fragmented. Although realignments in employment, marriage and family formation have begun to reshape women’s housing conditions, institutional practices and social policies have failed to keep pace with change.
