Two prominent theses on social change concur with regard to the ongoing development of family systems in the process of general social change: the model of the "second demographic transition", suggested by the demographers van de Kaa and Lesthaeghe; and the model of "family change", proposed by the crosscultural psychologist Kağıtçıbaşı. This paper presents an empirical test based on an analysis of family change in Japan, a collectivistic, yet modernised society; and in Germany, a society characterised by 'Western' individualism. Our empirical test is based on 12 cumulated, representative surveys from these two societies, which together cover the family formation processes of 49,983 women born between 1915 and 1985. For both Germany and Japan, we examine the influence of educational inequality on family formation, and explore how it has changed over a period of 60 years, by means of multivariate Cox regression analyses. The two models emphasise different aspects of the change in the family formation process: although the changes point in the direction predicted by the second demographic transition model, the differences between the two societies have remained stable or have even widened, in line with the family change model.

This paper is based on the results of research by the Sumatra Earthquake Interdisciplinary or Integrated Research Team, Graduate School of Environmental Studies, Nagoya University. This research shows: (1) the Sumatra Earthquake tsunami disaster damage in Banda Aceh can be divided into four areas; (2) the tsunami action was directed left and right by the Banda Aceh topography; (3) within which District I saw total destruction of housing, a high death rate, and the collapse of families; (4) with the high death rate due to a lack of earthquaketsunami association; (5) that even in the core of housing reconstruction, the pace is slow; (6) there are four main obstacles to housing reconstruction; (7) the slow pace of the reconstruction is a function of social causes related to the size of the tsunami, the lack of established adjustment mechanisms for aid groups, the slow pace of the reconstruction in society overall, and the failure of market functions; (8) that in the case of large scale disasters, with the loss of life and home, as well as infrastructure, the collapse of society as an entity occurs as well.

is article explores recent family changes in Japan focusing on changes in intergenerational coresidence. e study analyzed the frequency and determinants of coresidence between married and never-married children and their parents using three waves of National Family Research of Japan NFRJ1998, 2003NFRJ1998, , 2008 . Coresidence of married children with their parents -in-law somewhat decreased, whereas coresidence of never-married children with their parents signi cantly increased during the ten years. Logistic regression analyses showed that most of the determinants of parent-child coresidence remained stable during the decade, with some exceptions indicating changes in the coresidence pattern between a married son and his parents. e ndings suggest that a new pattern of intergenerational coresidence has begun to emerge in recent years.

Over the past few decades, in examining the social causes of low fertility in advanced societies, sociologists and demographers have shown increasing interest in southern European countries. Italy has been recognized as one of these countries plagued by lowest‐low fertility. In general, the literature has depicted certain characteristics of Italian families as possible causes of fertility decline. This article examines the situation of contemporary Italian families and intergenerational relationships from a sociological point of view, particularly in comparison with Japanese families. It has sometimes been argued that strong familism characterizes Italian families and society. According to this view, one of the causes of fertility decline in Italy is the continuity of strong families. Empirical data suggest, however, that this familism perspective cannot explain the differences in family patterns observed among Italian regions. In addition, a comparison between Italy and Japan with respect to intergenerational relationships suggests that there are substantial differences between the two countries. It is suggested that a further exploration of the various aspects of social contexts is needed in order to clarify what is distinctive about contemporary Italian families.

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