ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses physical happiness in the Japanese family, focusing on people who are at the childrearing stage in their life course. It examines the issues related to sexless marriages with regard to frequency, reasons, and extra-marital sexual activities. The chapter discusses parent-child co-sleeping as an example of physical intimacy typically observed in Japan. It provides a qualitative framework to conceptualize the happiness of married Japanese in terms of physical un-intimacy between couples and in contrast with physical intimacy between parents and children. In the child-centered family, the physical un-intimacy of couples is not something that drastically impacts the well-being of the couple involved, since the couple's attention is often on the maintenance of the family, not the maintenance of romantic relations involving physical intimacy between couples. Sato thinks that a historical perspective is useful in understanding cultural differences in the expression of intimacy and affection between Japan and the West.
