Volume 11 - Article 14 | Pages 395–420  

Marital Dissolution in Japan: Recent Trends and Patterns

By James M. Raymo, Miho Iwasawa, Larry L. Bumpass

Abstract

Very little is known about recent trends in divorce in Japan. In this paper, we use Japanese vital statistics and census data to describe trends in the experience of marital dissolution across the life course, and to examine change over time in educational differentials in divorce.
Cumulative probabilities of marital dissolution have increased rapidly across successive marriage cohorts over the past twenty years, and synthetic period estimates suggest that roughly one-third of Japanese marriages are now likely to end in divorce. Estimates of educational differentials also indicate a rapid increase in the extent to which divorce is concentrated at lower levels of education. While educational differentials were negligible in 1980, by 2000, women who had not gone beyond high school were far more likely to be divorced than those with more education.

Author’s Affiliation

• James M. Raymo - Princeton University, United States of America EMAIL
• Miho Iwasawa - National Institute of Population and Social Security Research, Japan EMAIL
• Larry L. Bumpass - University of Wisconsin–Madison, United States of America EMAIL

Other articles by the same author/authors in Demographic Research

An alternative version of the second demographic transition? Changing pathways to first marriage in Japan
Volume 49 - Article 16

Educational differences in early childbearing: A cross-national comparative study
Volume 33 - Article 3

Educational Differences in Divorce in Japan
Volume 28 - Article 6

Marriage intentions, desires, and pathways to later and less marriage in Japan
Volume 44 - Article 3

Living alone in Japan: Relationships with happiness and health
Volume 32 - Article 46

Do low survey response rates bias results? Evidence from Japan
Volume 32 - Article 26

Employment and household tasks of Japanese couples, 1994-2009
Volume 27 - Article 24

Cohabitation and children's living arrangements: New estimates from the United States
Volume 19 - Article 47

The topography of the divorce plateau: Levels and trends in union stability in the United States after 1980
Volume 8 - Article 8

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