Residential Property, Cultural Practices and the ‘Generational Contract’ in England and Japan

Abstract

revisits the critical question: Is there such a thing as a 'generational contract' between care and inheritance? Method and approachEmpirical evidence in this article was drawn from fieldwork conducted in a mediumsize post-industrial city in both England and Japan in 2002, using in-depth interviews with 54 older people (40 individuals and 7 couples) in total. The prospective informants were identified through purposive sampling based on the selection criteria of those who:(1) were aged between 60 and 86; (2) had children; and (3) were or had been a homeowner. The research included both men and women of varying marital status (married, widowed and divorced). Two different housing sectors -owner-occupiers and those who had sold their house and moved into different types of supported housing -were further defined in order to illustrate their decision-making processes regarding long-term care needs and bequest motives. Prospective informants were sought and recruited through a variety of means. In addition to relevant housing developments, various groups and agencies working with older people, such as Care & Repair and the network of the University of the Third Age in England and home help service providers in Japan, were approached. In both cities, some informants were also recruited through personal contacts and a snowballing technique was subsequently applied to expand access to potential informants. All interviews with older people were undertaken in their own home by the author. Follow-up research among the younger generation is planned in order to triangulate the views expressed by the older informants and also highlight the changing trends of intergenerational relations.Although data for Britain or the UK are occasionally referred to in this article, most of the interpretative comparisons are with England. This is because the different parts of the UK have, to a varying extent, separate legal traditions and policies. In addition, in the context of an increasingly multicultural society, it is difficult to reflect the diversity of family traditions and relations now found in the British Isles. The discussion is therefore particularly focused on family relations in the 'white' English population, on which the interviews are based.

Changing perceptions of family: A study of multigenerational households in Australia

“…These findings are also supported by responses to another survey question that asked people to indicate to what extent they agreed with a series of statements, presented in Figure 6. This finding is in contrast to existing studies on multigenerational households in other countries (Gee et al, 2003;Izuhara, 2005), which highlighted cultural backgrounds rather than financial considerations were as a more significant influence in people's decisions regarding the timing of first home-leaving and living in a multigenerational arrangement. While 39% of our survey respondents agreed that it was traditional in their cultural background to live this way ( Figure 6), only 6% said it was for cultural reasons that they did so ( Figure 5).…”

Women and Housing Assets in the Context of Japan's Home-owning Democracy

“…While some specific policies have much more direct interaction with causes relating to women's asset building, others are more implicit. For example, although contemporary Japan has moved away from the male-breadwinner family model and has moved towards the dual-worker model in line with international trends (Osawa, 2006), wives' increased contribution to the household economy has not yet been translated into asset accumulation, largely due to the low status of women in the labour market, conventional cultural practice and also the financial and property ownership mechanisms found in Japan (Izuhara, 2002(Izuhara, , 2005.…”

Negotiating Family Support? The ‘Generational Contract’ between long-term Care and Inheritance

“…Factors such as location, housing type, and age of the stock, however, dictate the level of housing assets households own, and there are marked cross-national differences. We cannot therefore simply conclude that owning a house is attached to healthy assets for everyone, especially since the two societies are currently experiencing contrasting housing market trajectories (Hamnett, 1999;Izuhara, 2003b;Hirayama et al, 2003). 3 Third, conventional practices of the 'generational contract' have also been influenced by cultural factors.…”

“…Moreover, such practices are influenced by the differing 'meaning of home' cross-nationally (see Izuhara, 2003b). In Britain, housing is often considered as a 'commodity' and treated as part of one's overall assets, compared with the strong attachment Japanese people (especially the older generations) tend to exhibit towards their home as 'family assets'.…”