In this study, we compare the association of marital satisfaction with the division of labor between husband and wife in Asia, based on Chinese, Japanese, and Korean General Social Surveys in 2006 (N = 2,346, 997, and 990, respectively). Results show that in all three countries, wives are less satisfied than husbands with marriage, mainly because wives do disproportionately more housework than husbands. Aside from this common gender difference, there are noticeable differences among the three countries. Chinese couples are relatively in favor of an egalitarian division of labor in terms of both market work and housework. Japanese couples are supportive of traditional specialization, with the wives flexibly shifting their efforts between market work and housework. Korean couples are under pressure from conflicts between the wife's labor force participation and the traditional division of labor in the household.

This study attempts to examine relative income effects on perceived happiness in three major Asian countries-China, Japan, and Korea-in comparison with the United Sates, on the basis of largely comparable nationwide surveys in these countries. Consistent with the results from previous studies in Western countries, comparisons with an individual's own income and average income of the reference group are significantly associated with the individual's perceived happiness in Asia. The associations between relative income and happiness are stronger for individual income than family income in China, while the opposite is true in Japan and Korea. Even after controlling for the subjective assessment of family income or personal class identification within the society as a whole, income comparisons within the reference group matter for assessing happiness, especially when using family income for comparisons. Moreover, relative deprivation within the reference group, which is measured by the Yitzhaki index, is negatively related to happiness, providing more evidence for the validity of the relative income hypothesis.

The purpose of this study was to investigate gender differences in the associations of life satisfaction with family and social relations among the Japanese elderly. Ordered logit models were estimated to explain life satisfaction with a rich set of explanatory variables, using micro data of 3,277 elderly Japanese adults (1,679 men and 1,598 women) collected from the first-wave sample from the Japanese Study of Aging and Retirement (JSTAR). This study found that men are less satisfied with life when living without their spouse; women are less satisfied with life when they live and/or have close relations with their parents-in-law; coresidence with an unmarried son is negatively associated with life satisfaction for both men and women; and, a larger number of friends and social activities enhance life satisfaction for women but not for men. Men are more sensitive than women to overall family relations, while the relative importance of social relations is higher for women. These results confirmed gender differences in the associations of life satisfaction with family and social relations in Japan-a nation characterized by a gender-asymmetric society and multi-generational family settings.

No abstract

No abstract