It was in 1988, just before the beginning of the Heisei era (January 8, 1989–April 30, 2019) and in the midst of the bubble economy, that the Hakuhodo Institute of Life and Living launched its survey on the theme of “family.” We have since conducted the survey once every decade, which means that our fourth survey was in 2018, the 30th year of the Heisei era. We thus conducted a comparative analysis of the results of the four surveys, obtained every 10 years since 1988. For this survey, we adopt an approach of asking the same questions of husband and wife to identify differences in their responses. How has the Heisei era changed the perception of family in Japan?

Overview

The results of the latest survey point to an emerging new lifestyle and a new perception of family characterized by the declining birthrate and population aging, in addition to differences in the perception of family between husband and wife and a changing balance of power. We call this new lifestyle “project family”—independent and equal individuals collaborating voluntarily to address issues related to work and childcare with flexibly changing roles.

Five trends in the changing perception of family over the 30 years

1. Family as a unit

   Over the 30 years, the Japanese family has shifted from a “group in the same boat” to a collective of individuals with different ideas and preferences, a phenomenon of individualization. In the 1980s and 1990s, people were already talking about the weakening of family bonds, and “in-home separation” and “couple in disguise” became buzzwords in 1985 and 1992, respectively. Now that individualization has advanced even further with independence taken for granted, the family is no longer something that its members want to escape from; rather, they are willing to be a family and strive to reinforce their bonds in cooperation, while keeping their independence.

2. Family as an “open” entity

   As symbolized by the fact that the former academic term “nuclear family” became a buzzword in 1967, husband and wife living separately from relatives was long considered to be the preferred form of family. In the Heisei era, however, people decided to “open up” their family to the outside world. The family is in the process of evolving into a loosely-knit group that accepts even unrelated members whether living together or not, with its size and character changing according to time and circumstances.

3. Children as key persons

   Children are gaining in importance in family relationships as members who suggest challenges that the family wants to meet or topics of interest to all the family members. It appears that parents have ceased being merely mature adults just watching their children grow. They are more inclined to share a sense of growth, doing everything they can to support their children.

4. Husband and wife leading in tandem

   Moving away from a long tradition of patriarchy, wives have substantially gained power over the 30 years, a situation which seems to be generally welcomed by husbands. Modern families now have two leaders working in tandem.

5. Husband and wife as work sharers

   Couples during the rapid economic growth period tended not to share many interests or challenges, due to a strict division of labor between them: paid work for the husband, family chores for the wife. The spread of double-income households in the Heisei era, however, helped husband and wife to share common interests and challenges. Although still insufficient, husband and wife are surely more aware of the importance of work sharing, including family chores.

Japanese family in 2018 characterized as a business project

• Advances through trial and error in the absence of a model
• Premised on the independence of members
• Rationally addresses challenges as they arise by flexibly changing the roles of members
• Members can engage and disengage without difficulty
• Aware that the relationship might not last forever

These are the characteristics of the Japanese family in 2018. The concept of this “agile group” shares some of the characteristics of “projects” often launched by businesses. In the Heisei era, when there was no right answer and the hierarchy of values was becoming flatter, families changed without any model to guide them, just like businesses had more projects requiring horizontal collaboration compared with “silos,” which were unsuitable for exploring new values.

The Japanese family is now evolving into a project, as individual members seek to build their objectives while flexibly changing their roles.
What can business and society do to support the family under these circumstances? If a family resembles a project, then the challenges for a family may be considered as challenges for a project. Indeed, a business project faces various challenges, including the allocation of roles, delegation of authority, sharing and management of costs and schedule, and building of ties among members. Leveraging project-supporting infrastructure and mechanisms developed in this process might be an effective way for business and society to help families meet their challenges.