オックスフォード大学社会学部エカテリーナ・ヘルトーグ博士

2014年12月4日、オックスフォード大学社会学部／地域研究のエカテリーナ・ヘルトーグ（Ekaterina Hertog）博士が来所され、「結婚・離婚・再婚の動向と日本社会の変容に関する包括的研究」科研研究会で、出生意欲と夫婦の家事分担に関する東アジアの比較研究についての報告（“How many children do we want? Does housework participation matter? Evidence from South Korea, Japan, China and Taiwan”）を行いました。また、当研究所の金子隆一副所長、石井太部長、岩澤美帆室長、釜野さおり室長、是川夕主任研究官、余田翔平研究員他と意見交換を行いました。

報告要旨：
Analysing data of East Asian Social Survey 2006, this paper investigates whether housework participation affects married couples' aspirations for the number of children in families in four East Asian countries: South Korea, Japan, China and Taiwan. We find significant differences in housework participation in the four countries. In all the countries women do much more housework than men, but in South Korea and Japan, they have virtually no help from men. In addition to these differences there are also similarities in the way housework participation affects individual fertility aspirations. Men are only slightly affected by the extent of housework sharing in all the four countries studied. Women aspire to have more children if their husbands are more willing to share household tasks. Given the social and institutional obstacles to men's greater housework participation in many East Asian countries, this finding bodes ill for the future fertility trends in the region.