The Division of Household Labor, Gender Attitudes, and Marital Happiness: Evidence from Japan 2000-2009

Emi Tamaki, Ritsumeikan University
Ronald R. Rindfuss, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and East-West Center
Minja K. Choe, East-West Center
Noriko Tsuya, Keio University
Larry Bumpass, University of Wisconsin-Madison
Martin Piotrowski, University of Oklahoma

This paper aims to examine the relationship between the division of household labor and marital happiness using two repeated cross-sectional data from Japan (NSFEC 2000 and 2009). In particular, we explore how attitudes toward gender and family relations are associated with the household division of labor and marital happiness. Preliminary results from the 2009 data suggest that husbands’ share of household work is positively related to wives’ marital happiness but not to husbands’, and that the positive association between husbands’ contribution to house work and marital happiness is most pronounced among wives with traditional gender attitudes.