Conjugal Roles and Social Networks in Japanese Families

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Conjugal Roles and Social Networks in Japanese Families

Masako Ishii-Kuntz and A. R. Maryanski
Journal of Family Issues 2003; 24; 352
DOI: 10.1177/0192513X02250890
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10.1177/0192513X02250890
JOURNAL
Ishii-Kuntz, OF
Maryanski
FAMILY / CONJUGAL
ISSUES / April
ROLES
2003 AND SOCIAL NETWORKS ARTICLE
Conjugal Roles and Social Networks

in Japanese Families
MASAKO ISHII-KUNTZ
A. R. MARYANSKI
University of California, Riverside
In a study on family and social networks, Elizabeth Bott argued that conjugal role perfor-
mance is primarily a function of the configuration of friends and relatives associated with
each spouse. For over three decades, this relationship has been repeatedly tested with unre-
solved findings due, in part, to different research techniques and the ambiguity in Bott’s the-
ory itself. To cast light on this intriguing issue, we transported Bott’s ideas to Japan and ap-
plied them to a sample of 40 husbands and wives. Strong support was found for Bott’s core
hypothesis: Japanese couples who are each embedded in a high-density social network have
segregated role relations; couples who are embedded in a low-density network have joint
role relations. We then offer a causal model of Bott’s theory to help illuminate what we see as
a trend in role sharing among Japanese couples.
Keywords: social networks; Bott’s theory; conjugal roles; Japanese families
In Family and Social Network, Elizabeth Bott (1957, 1971) argued that
conjugal role relations are a function of network density. In her now clas-
sic study of 20 English families, Bott generated the provocative hypothe-
sis that conjugal role performance is linked to the existing social environ-
ment of each spouse (see Milardo, 2000; Ortiz, 1991). According to Bott,
married couples are more likely to share conjugal roles when their social
networks are mutually linked. In contrast, couples with separate networks
are less likely to share conjugal roles.
It is this captivating linkage that Western researchers have frequently
examined in the last three decades. Some researchers have supported her
hypothesis (e.g., Hill, 1988; Maryanski & Ishii-Kuntz, 1991; Turner,
1967) whereas others have not (e.g., Aldous & Straus, 1966; Rogler &
Procidano, 1986; Wellman & Wellman, 1992), leaving the validity of
Bott’s (1971) core hypothesis still in question. These mixed results may be
partly due to the diverse methods, orientations, and measurements used to
test Bott’s hypothesis. However, we also believe that the modern Western
family provides less opportunity for assessing the factors that Bott saw as
JOURNAL OF FAMILY ISSUES, Vol. 24 No. 3, April 2003 352-380
DOI: 10.1177/0192513X02250890
© 2003 Sage Publications
352

Ishii-Kuntz, Maryanski / CONJUGAL ROLES AND SOCIAL NETWORKS 353
effecting variations in conjugal roles. In particular, it is difficult to find so-

cial environments today with traditional extended networks (such as farm
families), especially under conditions in which different types of conjugal
roles are emerging. Indeed, some researchers argue that there has been no
point in U.S. history, including the agricultural era prior to industrializa-
tion, when American society was characterized by extended families or
when such families constituted a significant proportion of all families (see
Lee, 1982).
In contrast, large, extended families in Asian societies are still preva-
lent and deeply rooted (Reischauer, 1981), although slight but clearly
marked changes are occurring. Thus, given the inconclusive results in
Western studies between conjugal roles and social networks, we decided
to transport Bott’s (1971) hypothesis to a non-Occidental social environ-
ment. Japanese society provides an ideal case study because its family
structure has been traditionally characterized as extended with at least
three generational family members sharing the same household. At the
same time, the Japanese have undergone a major transition from extended
to more independent families. In particular, postwar structural changes in
Japanese families included a steady increase in the number of nuclear
families over the more traditional families. For example, the proportion of
Japanese families described as nuclear was 60% in 1920, 63% in 1950,
75% in 1980, and 79% in 1995 (Japanese Statistical Yearbook, 1997) with
this trend most evident in urban areas. In turn, these alterations in family
makeup have influenced to a yet unknown degree the social networks of
married couples.
We should also emphasize that Japanese couples in both middle- and
working-class families are described as having a marked degree of segre-
gation between husband and wife. For example, several studies (e.g.,
Isoda, 1996; Salamon, 1974) report that among the college educated,
wives maintain college friendships whereas husbands acquire friends at
work. Additionally, women have traditionally relied on their female rela-
tives for social support. A literature review of Japanese families shows
that it is common for each spouse to have nonoverlapping household and
child care tasks and to engage in separate and distinct leisure activities
(Ishii-Kuntz, 1996, 1999; Kato, Ishii-Kuntz, Makino, & Tsuchiya, 1998).
This sharp division is commonly attributed to early gender-segregated so-
cialization practice whereby boys and girls are given different domestic
chores and activities (Bando, 1986). However, recent family literature
suggests that joint parental care, domestic duties, and leisure activities are
becoming more common in Japan than in previous generations (Ginsberg,
1990; Tajiri, 1990). This swing toward conjugal role sharing does not nec-

354 JOURNAL OF FAMILY ISSUES / April 2003
essarily imply that Japanese couples today are becoming much more egal-
itarian than their older counterparts. We know that traditional gender role
socialization is still the dominant practice in Japanese society (Bando,
1986), which cannot be simply explained away by normative changes in
socialization. Instead, structural changes in Japanese families may also be
contributing to the emergence of more conjugal sharing. In short, testing
Bott’s (1971) hypothesis with Japanese families is a worthy pursuit be-
cause (a) the historical pattern of deeply rooted extended family structure
will allow us to examine traditional social networks, and (b) the recent
trend toward nuclear families will allow us to examine the emerging vari-
ability in family structures and its impact on couples’sharing familial roles.
The purpose of our research, then, is to examine how Japanese couples
define and categorize their positions in a social network and to consider
how these processes influence their marital role relationships. This article
is divided into four parts: (a) a description of Bott’s (1971) key concepts
and the relationships among them; (b) a review of marital relationships in
Japan; (c) a synopsis of in-depth interviews and observation data collected
from 20 married couples living in central Japan; and (d) a reconsideration
of Bott’s ideas by putting Bott’s core concepts in more abstract and theo-
retical terms, with the intent of using qualitative data to illuminate their
causal relations, while capturing the emerging structural variations in role
relations among younger Japanese couples.
KEY CONCEPTS IN BOTT’S

SOCIAL NETWORK THEORY
Over the past 40 years, the Bott (1971) hypothesis has generated a
lively intellectual exchange in the West over the validity of her core hy-
pothesis that the network structure attached to each spouse is a driving
force influencing conjugal role performance. As mentioned earlier, one
problem hampering the research findings to date is the assortment of
methodological techniques used to test her main hypothesis (e.g., Gordon
& Downing, 1978; Rogler & Procidano, 1986). But the most compelling
drawback is that Bott’s key concepts are buried in lots of descriptive text
and only generally spelled out. For this reason, we began our inquiry by il-
luminating her core theoretical ideas and isolating out five of her key con-
cepts: conjugal roles, network density, network overlap, social support,
and normative obligations.
Following Bott’s (1971) guidelines, husbands and wives were seen as
having either a highly segregated, a medium segregated, or joint conjugal

roles. Segregated roles exist when couples perform separate domestic

tasks, whereas joint roles exist when couples perform activities together
or when they perform the same activity but at different times. Bott also
conceptualized network connectedness or network density at the
interhousehold level as close-knit, medium-knit, or loose-knit.1 Close-knit
or high-density networks exist when members are mutually acquainted
and interact frequently with each other. Loose-knit or low-density net-
works exist when members interact little or not at all. Bott’s core hypothe-
sis is that couples with close-knit networks are likely to have marriages
with segregated roles, whereas those with loose-knit networks are likely to
have joint roles.
Bott (1971) also outlined three corollary assumptions emphasizing that
segregated role relationships are more likely when individuals have resi-
dential stability, have little formal education, and are working class. She
also stressed the crucial importance of personality traits in the actual per-
formance of a conjugal role, but in looking particularly at social context
and the marital relationship, Bott reasoned that “the degree of segregation
in the role-relationship of husband and wife varied directly with the
connectedness of the family’s social network” (Bott, 1971, p. 60).
An overlapping network, following Bott (1971), is the number of
“common” households identified by both husband and wife. The degree
of overlap is conceptualized as low, medium, and high depending on how
many households husbands and wives commonly report as constituting
their supportive network. According to Bott, an overlap in spousal net-
works is seen to reduce network density, and when there is a high degree of
overlap between these respective networks, loose-knit or low-density net-
works typically prevail. That is, when husbands and wives share some
supportive networks, they are then less likely to be as strongly embedded
in their personal social network.
Social support is another variable Bott (1971) used for understanding
the relationship between network density and marital role segregation.
She argued that couples who enter marriage with close-knit networks con-
tinue to receive social and emotional support from such relationships,
thereby decreasing the need to gravitate toward a mutually supportive
spousal relationship. In contrast, couples who enter marriage with loose-
knit networks or who move away from their supportive networks tip the
scale toward a joint conjugal relationship because “they must seek in each
other some of the emotional satisfactions and help with familial tasks that
couples in close-knit networks can get from outsiders. Joint organization
becomes more necessary for the success of the family as an enterprise”
(Bott, 1971, p. 60).

To account for the relationship between network density and marital

role segregation, Bott argued that a consensus of norms exists in close-knit
networks that exerts informal pressures on its members for material and
emotional support (Bott, 1957). Thus, in close-knit networks, members
make “emotional investments” in one another and, in turn, receive both
social support and “emotional satisfaction” (Bott, 1957). Because of these
felt obligations, individuals in high-density networks give more time and
energy to network members and rely less on their spouses. Although the
Japanese concept of obligation is derived from a different cultural setting,
we predicted that given the same relational structure, the corresponding
relationships among normative obligations, network density, social sup-
port, and conjugal role segregation would hold up cross-culturally.2 Addi-
tionally, we took into account that normative obligations in Japanese soci-
ety may be lower for friends compared to that for family members.
However, in Japan where the sense of obligation is strongly emphasized at
all levels of social relationships (Reischauer, 1981), it may be difficult to
differentiate the intensity, if not quality, of felt obligations between family
and friends.
MARITAL RELATIONS IN PRESENT-DAY JAPAN
According to the sociological and anthropological literature, married

couples in traditional Japanese households rarely socialize together (e.g.,
Imamura, 1987; Nagatsu, Hosoe, & Okamura, 1996). Husbands spend
most of their waking hours with colleagues at work, whereas wives spend
much of their time with their children, relatives, or female friends. Atsumi
(1979) and Nagatsu et al. (1996), for example, find that Japanese husbands
socialize typically with colleagues during and/or after work hours, partly
because career success depends on high visibility and maintaining colle-
gial relationships. In contrast, Japanese wives are most likely to socialize
with relatives, siblings, parents of their children’s friends, and neighbor-
hood friends.
Additionally, Japanese husbands and wives in extended households re-
port a strict division of labor: husbands as economic providers and wives
as homemakers. Lebra (1976), for example, speaks of strictly differenti-
ated roles and portrays Japanese husbands as being utterly dependent on
their wives for domestic care:
The husband is helpless in housekeeping tasks, such as doing the laundry,

cooking, cleaning, and child rearing. He may be ignorant of what is where

in the house; if his wife is away from home for some reason his colleagues
will immediately sense it from his sloppy appearance. (pp. 52-53)
Whereas this separation of economic and social activities has been the
typical pattern of Japanese marriages for centuries (Reischauer, 1981),
some recent attitudinal changes seem to suggest that Japanese families are
undergoing alterations in conjugal role allocation. In government, Japa-
nese officials are making efforts to increase men’s involvement with their
families (Management and Coordination Agency, 1990; Ministry of
Health, Labour and Welfare, 1999), in large part because of a decline in
the birth rate that is frequently attributed to limited paternal involvement.
Additionally, educational programs in urban areas are urging fathers to get
more involved with their children. These programs include prenatal
classes offered for expectant fathers in several major cities (Ginsberg,
1990; Ishii-Kuntz, 1996). This trend is especially evident among younger,
upwardly mobile parents in nuclear households with more education and
an urban background, who may be moving away from traditional Japa-
nese values (Naoi & Schooler, 1990). Thus, structural, ideological, and
psychological forces for change are impinging on contemporary Japanese
families. These new attitudes are then assumed to be influencing both the
expectations and performance of marital roles. Given these trends, we
wanted to examine how network density of husbands and wives might also
be influencing the choices made by married couples and, in turn, be a fac-
tor in the emerging egalitarianism in Japanese marriages.
THE SAMPLE
In selecting our 20 Japanese couples, we tried to approximate Bott’s

(1957) original list of family characteristics by selecting “families in the
same domestic age cycle but with varying socioeconomic status;3 families
with similar religious backgrounds; and families dispersed through urban
and suburban areas” (pp. 10-11). Thus, with the exception of two families
who had older children, our Japanese sample contained children under 10
years of age; our respondents had varying occupations that ranged from a
truck driver to a physician with respective annual incomes of $15,000 to
$120,000; our respondents lived in various areas of Tokyo with a common
Buddhist background;4 our families had never consulted an outside
agency for family problems, and none of our families had met one other.
Overall, we were successful in selecting respondents with similar criteria
used by Bott, although the selection of Japanese couples with varying fi-

nancial backgrounds was perhaps more difficult than that experienced by

Bott. This is because most Japanese consider themselves to be middle
class despite their income differences, and many are generally reluctant to
reveal their incomes. Fortunately, our respondents felt comfortable
enough during their interviews to provide us with the necessary income
data.
SAMPLING
To locate couples, Bott (1971) relied on such referral agencies as wel-

fare offices and family doctors with a varying degree of success in attain-
ing subjects. We contacted junior high schools, elementary schools, and
day care centers in several districts of Tokyo. We also went to several
school meetings and explained our research. Similar to Bott’s experience,
many introductions were facilitated by friends of the family or by officials
who were friends as well. Our couples were chosen from several commu-
nities because as Bott encountered with her sample, anonymity was an es-
sential condition of their participation. These communities shared similar
characteristics with respect to population, geographical size, and major
industries, with population size ranging from 266,000 to the largest at
466,000. Additionally, residents in these communities included those who
own or work in local businesses as well as those who commute to central
Tokyo.
After compiling a list of potential participants, we sent letters explain-
ing our study and asking couples to participate. Our screening process re-
sulted in 20 couples who met the research criteria and agreed to be inter-
viewed and observed. In applying Bott’s (1971) points of comparison to
our Japanese sample, we should mention one variation: In Bott’s study,
only two English wives had full-time occupations outside the home and
one was employed but worked at home. However, all couples considered
the husband to be primarily responsible for the financial support of the
family whereas the wife was considered primarily responsible for the
child care and housework. In contrast, our sample included eight full-time
and four part-time working wives outside the home, although all the em-
ployed women were also responsible for the domestic duties or what has
been called a “second shift” (Hochschild, 1988). We decided to include
more dual-earner couples because of the growing number of Japanese
women in the labor force, a trend especially evident among women in their
early to middle adulthood. For example, the proportion of employed
women in their 20s and 30s, many of whom are mothers, increased dra-
matically from 48.2% in 1979 to 63.7% in 1994 (Ministry of Labor, 1996).

We also wanted to capture the emerging variation of family structure in-

fluenced by female participation in the workforce, which was less preva-
lent when Bott studied English families in the 1950s.
To elicit as much personal information as possible from each infor-
mant, we separately interviewed each husband (n = 20) and wife (n = 20)
in their home, office, or both, from one to three times. In our interviews,
we followed Bott’s (1971) format and used an identical outline of topics
during the interviews.5 The outline was used as a general guide by Bott and
her associates, with the inclusion, form, order, and wording of questions
then left to their discretion. Because our 40 informants had the liberty of
elaborating on topics in any way they liked, discussions frequently wan-
dered away from the assigned topic, but little attempt was made to restrict
such digressions because all behaviors of husband and wife toward other
family members, and even toward interviewers, was considered relevant
data. Essentially, each interview began with 10 to 15 minutes of casual
conversation, followed by a direct discussion of topics on the interviewing
outline for an hour or longer, with more casual conversation at the end.6
We should mention that in-depth open-ended interview data are rarely col-
lected in sociological studies in Japan, and little is known about how cou-
ples respond to such interviews. But our experience was very positive, and
we were able to collect extensive qualitative data.7
All interviews were conducted in the winter of 1990 and took, on aver-
age, between 2.5 and 3 hours for each informant. All interviews were con-
ducted in Japanese, recorded on audiotape, and later transcribed for cod-
ing. To assure cross-cultural accuracy, all interviews were translated into
English by two native Japanese speakers with these translations then
matched for accuracy. The translation presented here was agreed on by
both native speakers, and only family names were changed to assure
anonymity.
During some interviews, we were able to observe family interactions
and took notes whenever possible. These occasions arose when interviews
were interrupted by informant’s spouse, children, and/or relatives when
they dropped by to visit the family. Although our observational data on
family interactions are sporadic and incomplete, we included a few cases
to highlight particular findings in this study.
Each respondent was asked to identify 10 households that contained in-
dividuals with whom they had contact once a month or more frequently. In
our pilot study, we found that Japanese men and women easily identified 5
to 15 households with at least one person with whom they associated. We
then decided to use the cutoff point of 10 households for our analysis. We
found that, overwhelmingly, husbands reported networks composed of

relatives and friends at work whereas wives reported networks of rela-

tives, friends, and selected neighbors. The majority of households re-
ported by husbands and wives contained immediate relatives such as par-
ents, parents-in-law, and siblings. Among networks of friends, Japanese
wives were slightly more likely than husbands to retain a friendship
formed before marriage. This was especially true for women who kept the
same job after marriage and childbirth.
SAMPLE CHARACTERISTICS
Our couples were married an average of 11 years, all were in their early
20s to early 40s, with 70% between the ages of 27 and 35. For both
spouses, formal education ranged from junior high school to college, with
40% of our respondents holding college degrees, a percentage that is com-
parable to the national statistics in Japan on high school graduates and col-
lege entrants.8
All male participants were employed or self-employed, whereas 12 of
the females were employed either full- or part-time. Of the 20 males, 6
were employed in small- to medium-sized business firms, 3 were owners
of small retail businesses, 4 were schoolteachers, and the remaining 7
were respectively a physician, 2 city clerks, a construction worker, a taxi
driver, a truck driver, and a house painter. Of the 12 females working out-
side the home, 4 were employed as office clerks, 3 were nurses or nurse’s
aids, 2 held teaching jobs respectively at a tea ceremony school and a pre-
paratory school, and the remaining 3 were a dentist, a sales representative,
and a custodian. The median gross annual family income for the 20 fami-
lies was $36,700, with three families under $25,000 and three over
$55,000. This median family income is slightly lower than that ($39,600)
of the entire population in 1990 (Japanese Statistical Yearbook, 1997).
Of the 20 couples, 1 had one child, 14 had two children, and 5 had three
children. Half of the families had both sons and daughters, 4 families had
daughters and no sons, and 6 families had sons and no daughters. The chil-
dren’s ages ranged from 2 to 15 with a median age of 9.
NETWORK DENSITY AND

CONJUGAL ROLE SEGREGATION
In Table 1, network connectedness (or density) and degree of role seg-

regation are summarized for each couple. Network density was deter-
mined using Turner’s (1967) classification of loose-knit, medium-knit,

and close-knit networks. A network was considered loose-knit when less

than one third of the 10 households reported by each respondent had regu-
lar contacts (at least once a week) with each other, medium-knit when one
third to two thirds of the households had regular contact, and close-knit
when more than two thirds of the households had regular contact. We
should emphasize that the concern here is not with the connection be-
tween a household and our target couple but with the linkages among the
households themselves reported by each spouse.9
To measure degree of role segregation, we asked couples about their
domestic and leisure activities and in what ways they shared activities. All
husbands and wives agreed with the assessment of own and spouses’ shar-
ing of these activities. A segregated role relationship was recorded when a
couple rarely shared domestic duties (e.g., cleaning, cooking, grocery
shopping, home repairing, gardening), child rearing (e.g., playing, feed-
ing, and disciplining children), and leisure activities (e.g., visiting with
friends, going to movies, concerts, and parties, engaging in sports and out-
door recreation). A joint relationship was recorded when both spouses
routinely shared in all three types of activities. When a few couples re-
ported a combination of shared and separated activities, we used an inter-
mediate category to measure role segregation. Because our interviews are
mostly open ended, this measure of role segregation was derived by coding
transcribed data. When disagreement existed on the coding, it was resolved
by further discussion between the two coders and the third translator/
coder.
JOINT AND INTERMEDIATE CONJUGAL ROLE

WITH LOOSE- AND MEDIUM-KNIT NETWORK
As shown in Table 1, six couples had a joint or intermediate marital role

relationship. Of the six couples, two husbands routinely spent their leisure
time with their wives and shared domestic and child-rearing tasks. The re-
maining four husbands spent between 55 minutes and 1.5 hours a week in-
teracting with their children. Although these men seemed to spend little
time at home, our measure of paternal involvement is above the national
weekly average of approximately 46 minutes (Management and Coordi-
nation Agency, 1990). These individuals also reported having loose- or
medium-knit networks of relatives and friends. The husbands’ occupa-
tions ranged from a taxi driver to a physician, whereas the wives’ occupa-
tions were equally varied from a homemaker to a dentist. These six cou-
ples on average had two children and had been married for 14 years.

362
TABLE 1
Types of Networks, Degree of Conjugal Role Segregation, and
Demographic Characteristics for Couples in the Sample
Type of Network Family Role Segregation Husband’s Occupation Wife’s Occupation Residential Mobility
a
Loose-knit Maeda Joint Physician Dentist High
Loose-knit Mikuni Joint City clerk City clerk High
Loose-knit Konishi Intermediate Taxi driver Nurse High
a
Loose-knit Urata Intermediate Coffee shop Clerk Medium
Medium-knit Ohtsuka Intermediate City clerk Homemaker Low
Medium-knit Watanabe Intermediate Corporate employee Homemaker Medium
Medium-knit Abe Segregated Travel agent Homemaker Medium
Medium-knit Kushii Segregated Banker Part-time custodian Medium
Medium-knit Hasegawa Segregated Clerk Homemaker Low
Medium-knit Sato Segregated Teacher Homemaker Low
a
Medium-knit Yamanaka Segregated Book store Homemaker Low
Close-knit Endo Segregated Teacher Teacher High
Close-knit Sawada Segregated Truck driver Nurse High
Close-knit Shiratori Segregated Teacher Part-time teacher High
Close-knit Ishida Segregated Teacher Part-time receptionist Medium
Close-knit Ozawa Segregated Sales representative Part-time clerk Medium
Close-knit Furukawa Segregated Painter Nurse’s aid Low
Close-knit Ito Segregated Sales representative Homemaker Low
Close-knit Tanaka Segregated Dry cleaning Homemaker Low
Close-knit Yato Segregated Construction Sales representative Low
a. Denotes “self-employed.”
Let us begin with the Mikuni family, who exemplifies the joint conju-
gal role and loose-knit network. In their mid-30s, Mr. and Mrs. Mikuni are
both city clerks who had been married for 11 years when interviewed. Mr.
Mikuni is an involved father who spends many hours playing with his
three school-age children and helping with their homework. He also regu-
larly cleans up after dinner by washing the dishes. When the interviewer
visited the family right after dinner, Mr. Mikuni was indeed in the middle
of dinner clean-up, and his wife was in another room helping their son
with a school project. Both Mr. and Mrs. Mikuni are leaders in their son’s
Boy Scout troop, and both are frequently engaged in indoor and outdoor
scouting activities. Mr. Mikuni describes his involvement with his net-
work of friends and relatives and his relationship with his wife.
Since my wife and I both work full-time, we don’t really get to see our
friends or relatives every day. When we got married 11 years ago, we started
our lives together in a city where we didn’t have any relatives or friends liv-
ing nearby. The friends we made are from our work and from our children’s
schools and boy scouting. Friends from each group don’t really know each
other. So the only common thing is that they know us. Because we didn’t
have a close network of friends and relatives when we got married and
moved here, my wife and I have been each other’s strong support. After all,
we only had each other. . . . That’s the reason why, when our first child was
born, I became an involved father from the very beginning. My wife couldn’t
go back to her parents’home to have the baby as it is customary in Japan be-
cause she didn’t want to take a long maternity leave. So I had to pitch in and
help her a lot with the babies.
Mr. Maeda, a physician, is also an involved parent who routinely shares

domestic chores and child care with his wife. Mr. Maeda echoed Mr.
Mikuni’s remarks by emphasizing the “necessity” of helping his wife with
child care and housework because of the absence of nearby relatives and
close friends. Indeed, both men reported that a lack of outside assistance
was the decisive factor in their initial participation in domestic chores and
child care. Mr. Maeda states,
My wife and I like sharing many household tasks including child care. I
think both of us felt, since the beginning of our marriage, that we need to
share these tasks because nobody else would help us. We have good rela-
tionships with our parents, other relatives, and friends. But they don’t live
nearby and they are not the type to offer assistance for domestic chores
anyway.

Additionally, the Konishis and Uratas are two households that exem-
plify a loose-knit network of relatives and friends with an intermediate
role segregation pattern. Mr. Konishi, a taxi driver, and Mr. Urata, a coffee
shop owner, both actively participate in their children’s school activities
and assist them in their homework. However, in leisure activities they
spend limited hours with their families, which is perhaps connected to
their irregular working schedule that requires them to be away from home
during weekends and holidays.
SEGREGATED CONJUGAL ROLE WITH

CLOSE-KNIT NETWORK
In contrast to the Mikunis and Maedas, couples with segregated conju-

gal roles reported either a medium- or close-knit network of relatives and
friends. These 14 couples had been married, on average, for 12 years and
had two or three children. As shown in Table 1, the husbands’ occupations
ranged from working class (e.g., truck driver, construction worker) to
upper-middle class (e.g., teacher, banker). Additionally, four wives were
employed in full-time white-collar occupations of nurse, nurse’s aid,
teacher, and sales representative; the rest were either homemakers or
part-time employees.
The Furukawas represent a typical case where a husband and wife enter
marriage with two independent close-knit networks, and after marriage
Mr. and Mrs. Furukawa have continued to expand these separate close-
knit networks through work and children-oriented activities. Mr.
Furukawa, 35, is a house painter and spends a considerable amount of time
with his colleagues both at work and at leisure. Mrs. Furukawa, 34, is a
full-time nurse’s aid and spends most of her leisure time alone or visiting
her relatives accompanied by her 9-year-old daughter and 7-year-old son.
Additionally, she gets together at least once a week with her friends who
are often the mothers of her children’s friends. Leisure activity at the
Furukawas is strictly segregated: Mr. Furukawa goes to bars with his work
friends or to Pachinko (i.e., Japanese style pinball game) parlors by him-
self, and Mrs. Furukawa goes to movies or shopping with her children and
friends. Household labor at the Furukawas is strictly divided: Mrs.
Furukawa is responsible for in-house chores such as cooking and clean-
ing, and Mr. Furukawa is involved in outdoor activities such as washing
and repairing cars and gardening. Mrs. Furukawa cares for the children,
although Mr. Furukawa devotes about 20 minutes a week playing with his
children or helping them with their schoolwork. The following comment

by Mr. Furukawa typifies the pattern in our sample of a close-knit network

and segregated role relationship:
My wife does most of the housework and caring for kids. I work all day on
weekdays, and, on weekends, I go to the Pachinko parlor while my wife
takes the kids shopping and to movies. I have lots of my own friends to do
fun things together like going to athletic clubs and bars. I’d rather go out
with my friends than drag my nagging wife out of the house.
Mr. Furukawa continued to talk about his marital relationship.
My wife and I don’t really do anything together. I guess it is because each of

us is so busy with our own friends and we simply don’t have time to do any-
thing together. Even when the kids and I do something together like playing
outside, my wife is doing something else inside. I think our marriage is safe
as long as we don’t stick our noses in each other’s business, you know.
Other couples who are each embedded in their close-knit network simi-
larly talked about how little the family does things together including the
routine housework. At the same time, these couples described how they
appreciate the support they received from their own network of relatives
and friends.
OCCUPATIONS AND RESIDENTIAL MOBILITY
In Table 1, the occupational status and residential mobility of each cou-

ple is arrayed. As mentioned earlier, Bott had buttressed her main hypoth-
esis by suggesting that segregated role relations were likely to be concen-
trated among working-class couples and couples with low residential
mobility. This relationship has been repeatedly confirmed among re-
searchers testing Bott’s ideas (e.g., Hill, 1988; Turner, 1967) and those
who studied Japanese “salaryman” families (Imamura, 1987) as well as
small business families (Hamabata, 1990; Kondo, 1982). Our Japanese
data, however, lack a straightforward pattern on these dimensions. Both
middle-class salaryman families and working-class families had conjugal
role segregation. Still, the trend is for middle- and upper-middle-class
families to have joint role relations, especially when the wife’s employ-
ment status is considered. That is, wives with loose-knit networks and
joint (or intermediate) role patterns are more likely to be employed full-
time compared to wives with close-knit networks and segregated role pat-
terns. Seemingly, wives’ occupational status is an important factor affect-

ing the relationship between network type and conjugal roles found in our
study.
A second occupationally related factor that appears to affect networks
and conjugal roles is the commuting distance between home and work-
place. Although our data failed to show a clear relationship between dis-
tance to work and networks, couples with longer commutes are slightly
more likely to have loose-knit networks.
With respect to residential mobility, our four couples with loose-knit
networks were also more geographically mobile than couples with medium-
knit networks. But, again, a clear pattern is lacking on the impact of resi-
dential mobility; although when we mapped the residential changes for
three mobile couples with close-knit networks, we found that despite
changes in address, these couples remained within the same geographical
region and in close propinquity with their supportive networks. Addi-
tionally, when we examined residential mobility, almost 70% of couples
with close-knit networks lived in their respective natal community.10
In summary, Japanese husbands and wives who enter marriage with
close-knit networks are unlikely to share housework, child care, and lei-
sure activities. We also found that husbands’ occupation and residential
mobility lack a clear impact on networks and conjugal roles. We should
emphasize, however, that working-class couples (as opposed to middle-
class couples) are more likely to have segregated role relations, and resi-
dential mobility is associated with a loose-knit network and an increase in
joint role relations, especially when a residence change means that indi-
viduals are no longer in close proximity to their natal communities.
Finally, wives with full-time professional occupations are more likely to
be in loose-knit networks and to share conjugal roles.
NETWORK OVERLAP, SOCIAL SUPPORT,

AND OBLIGATIONS
A relationship between network density and role segregation is well

supported in our Japanese study. Next, the relationships among several
key concepts in Bott’s (1971) theory will be examined. We will then offer
a causal model of Bott’s scheme drawn from her descriptive accounts and
our Japanese findings on the proposed relationship between network type
and conjugal role.
In our analysis, we conceptualized a low degree of network overlap
when couples identified less than three common households, a medium
degree with three to six overlapping households, and a high degree of

TABLE 2
Relationship Between Degrees of Overlapping Ties
and Network Density
Degree of Density
Degree of Overlap Loose-Knit Medium-Knit Close-Knit Total
Low (less than 3) 0 1 (13%) 7 (87%) 8 (100%)

Medium (4 to 6) 0 4 (80%) 1 (20%) 5 (100%)
High (more than 7) 4 (57%) 2 (29%) 1 (14%) 7 (100%)
Total 4 7 9 20
overlap when couples identified more than seven overlapping households.

In Table 2, the relationship between degree of network overlap and net-
work density is presented. Of the 20 couples interviewed, 8 couples are
identified as having a low degree of network overlap, and 7 of these cou-
ples are also reported as having close-knit networks. That is, when a hus-
band or wife reported few relatives and friends in common, each was then
likely to have a high-density personal network with frequent contacts
within their respective networks. In contrast, the majority of couples
(57%) who reported a high degree of overlapping ties between networks
also reported having loose-knit or low-density networks. Finally, the 4
couples (80%) with a medium degree of overlapping ties reported medium-
knit networks.
The Ozawa family represents the typical pattern of low-overlapping
ties and close-knit networks. Mr. Ozawa, 35, works for a medium-sized
firm as a sales representative, and his social network consists primarily of
his colleagues or work-related friends. In contrast, Mrs. Ozawa, 33, works
for a local hospital as a part-time clerk, and she also has her own close per-
sonal network. Mr. Ozawa interacts primarily with his friends, and Mrs.
Ozawa interacts with her friends and relatives and would never “interfere”
with her husband’s “social hour.” The low degree of overlap and close-knit
quality of each spouse’s network is described by Mr. Ozawa:
I go out with my friends at work all the time. Although I have been working
for this firm some time, my wife has only met a couple of guys at work. She
has her own set of good friends, too. Most of her friends, I think, consist of
mothers whose children go to the same day care center or school as ours.
Although I don’t really know them well, it’s nice my wife has her own good
friends. I think it is ideal not to get involved in each other’s “business,” if
you know what I mean. (laugh)

TABLE 3
Relationship Among Degree of Network Density, Social Support in
the Networks, and Conjugal Role Segregation
Conjugal Role Segregation
Social
Network Density Support Segregated Intermediate Joint Total
Loose-knit
Low 0 1 (25%) 1 (50%) 2
Medium 0 1 (25%) 1 (50%) 2
High 0 0 0 0
Medium-knit
Low 1 (7%) 0 0 1
Medium 5 (36%) 0 0 5
High 1 (7%) 0 0 1
Close-knit
Low 1 (7%) 0 0 1
Medium 0 0 0 0
High 6 (43%) 2 (50%) 0 8
Total 14 4 2 20
% Total 100 100 100
In contrast to the Ozawas, Mr. and Mrs. Maeda exemplify a couple with a
high degree of overlapping ties and loose-knit networks. Of the 10 house-
holds each spouse identified, 7 are the very same households. Mrs. Maeda,
a 35-year-old dentist, detailed her network of friends and relatives.
When I think of friends and relatives with whom I regularly interact, they
are my parents, mother-in-law, and parents of my son’s friends. I don’t re-
ally have a best friend. Relatives? I see my parents and mother-in-law once
in a while. My husband and I socialize with the same friends and relatives. I
think, though, most of my social hours are spent with my husband and our
9-year-old son.
Mr. Maeda also detailed how he interacts with the same friends and rel-
atives as his wife. Our interview with Mr. and Mrs. Maeda and the other
couples who engage in many joint activities and share friends all rein-
forced Bott’s (1971) finding that degree of network overlap has a direct
negative influence on the density of couples’ networks.
We measured degree of social support by asking both spouses to iden-
tify the households they felt provided social and emotional support. As
shown in Table 3, 43% of couples with highly segregated marital roles re-

ported close-knit networks with high levels of social support. In contrast,

couples with joint roles reported low to medium levels of support from
friends and relatives.
Mr. and Mrs. Endo, who are both in their late 20s, have two preschool-
age sons and two large nonoverlapping networks. Mrs. Endo, who works
as a full-time tea ceremony teacher, described her relationship with her
husband and with her friends and relatives:
Ever since we got married three years ago, my husband has never touched a
broom or mop. I do all of that. I think it is only fair since he works very hard
every day. He is the boss, anyway. When we do Ohsoji (year-end cleaning
of the house), my husband is the director, and I am the cleaning person. I
also ask my mother and sisters to help me out. They are always very helpful.
Leisure activities? No, we never go out together. We have small kids, you
know. Besides, there is not much in common between myself and my hus-
band in terms of our hobbies. My husband is always busy and although he
sometimes takes the kids out for shopping, he really doesn’t have time for
child care. It doesn’t matter to me because I have friends and relatives who
can fulfill my social and emotional needs. My husband may feel kind of iso-
lated from the family, but he also has some really supportive friends at
work.
In a separate interview, Mr. Endo also shared his feelings on the rela-
tionship between his spouse and himself:
I have lots of good friends at work with whom I go to play golf on weekends.
My wife is very understanding about that. I sometimes take my kids to Mc-
Donald’s though. My wife says that she is too busy cleaning the house on
weekends to play with the kids. So when I go out with the kids, it is just my
kids and myself. We have lots of fun anyway.
The Tanaka family is also characterized as having close-knit networks

and a high degree of external support. Mrs. Tanaka, a 32-year-old home-
maker with two preschool children, talked of her relationship with her
mother and friends and the reciprocal support among them:
I am lucky that I have my mother and good friends who can help me out for
child care and other household chores. My kids and I go to see my mother
all the time. My parents are also financially supportive, too. My friends are
mostly mothers of my kids’ friends, and we get together quite often. We go
to Karaoke (singing with background music) houses, swimming, and shop-
ping. I can talk to my friends about any personal problems. But it’s not just
one-way, I help my friends as much as I can.

Mr. Tanaka, who is 34 and employed at a dry cleaning shop, also has his
own supportive network. When interviewed, he described how friends
“back up” for him when he cannot make it to work and the gratitude he
feels towards the “understanding guys” at work.
In contrast, both Mr. and Mrs. Konishi reported loose-knit networks
and little outside social support. Mr. Konishi, a taxi driver, and Mrs.
Konishi, a nurse, share most child care and household tasks although Mr.
Konishi’s participation in joint leisure activities is minimal. Mrs. Konishi
explains,
My friends and relatives are generally supportive. But I don’t really confide
in them. Although they are there, I don’t feel like talking to them about my
personal problems. It is none of their business.
Instead, Mrs. Konishi emphasized her dependence on her husband for

child care and emotional support:
My kids are getting older but they still need parental supervision. Since my
husband has three consecutive days off, he takes care of them when I am at
work. We also try to engage in recreational activities together as a family.
But it is very hard to take a vacation around the same time because my hus-
band’s taxi company does not coordinate vacation time. . . . Although we
don’t have any close friends or relatives to confide in, we are not missing
anything because we have each other to give emotional support.
In summary, we found that couples with separate close-knit networks

receive a high degree of support from such networks. Couples embedded
in loose-knit networks reported low to medium levels of social support,
which upholds Bott’s (1971) assumptions that social support is an impor-
tant mediating variable between network density and degree of conjugal
role segregation.
Normative obligations were assessed by asking husbands and wives to
what degree, if any, they felt obligated to provide relatives and friends with
social and psychological aid. They were also asked to what extent their
relatives and friends felt obligated to provide support for them and other
named households. A low degree of normative obligations was recorded
when less than three households were obligated to provide mutual sup-
port, a medium degree of normative obligations was recorded when four
to six households were obligated to provide mutual support, and a high de-
gree of normative obligations was recorded when more than seven house-
holds of relatives and friends were obligated to provide support.

TABLE 4
Relationship Among Degree of Network Density,
Normative Obligations, and Conjugal Role Segregation
Conjugal Role Segregation
Normative
Network Density Obligations Segregated Intermediate Joint Total
Loose-knit
Low 0 1 (25%) 2 (100%) 3
Medium 0 1 (25%) 0 1
High 0 0 0 0
Medium-knit
Low 1 (7%) 1 (25%) 0 2
Medium 4 (29%) 1 (25%) 0 5
High 0 0 0 0
Close-knit
Low 0 0 0 0
Medium 1 (7%) 0 0 1
High 8 (57%) 0 0 8
Total 14 4 2 20
% Total 100 100 100
In Table 4, network density, normative obligations, and conjugal role

segregation are shown to be consistent with the predicted direction. A ma-
jority of husbands and wives (57%) with segregated roles have close-knit
networks with strong obligations to assist one other. In contrast, couples
with joint roles have loose-knit networks and perceive low levels of nor-
mative obligations.
Mr. and Mrs. Shiratori are among the couples who exemplify the segre-
gated role pattern along with a close-knit, high responsibility network. Mr.
Shiratori, a high school teacher, and Mrs. Shiratori, a part-time cram
schoolteacher (i.e., a preparatory teacher for high school entrance exams)
have three sons, a 15-year-old and 13-year-old twins. During one inter-
view, Mrs. Shiratori described how close she was with her parents and the
high level of obligation she feels toward them:
Throughout the year, we go back to my parents’ house at least once a week,

although it takes about one and a half hours to get there. It’s just myself and
the kids who go to visit. My husband doesn’t really care. My parents expect
us to come back regularly. I guess I would feel guilty if we didn’t go back.
And whenever we go, they buy my kids lots of things and give me lots of
food to take home like fruit, seafood, and sometimes a big bag of rice! Be-
cause we are so used to going back on weekends, we wouldn’t know what to

do if we stayed home. (Laugh) My sons even ask me what time we are leav-
ing when they come back home from school every Saturday afternoon.
Since my parents have been helpful in many ways, I do feel strongly obli-
gated to repay their generosity.
Mrs. Shiratori also talked very frankly about her marriage:
My husband is a high school teacher and he is very busy every day. He

doesn’t have any time to share housework. I actually don’t want him to do
anything at home. He doesn’t care about that either. If I think about it, we
don’t really do anything together as a couple. I am busy with my kids and
visiting with my parents. I am not the oldest child in my family but I feel that
it is only fair if I go to visit my parents once a week since they have been
helpful to us in many ways. I guess I spend a lot of time with my parents but
perhaps not enough time with my husband. But my husband doesn’t mind
that at all.
Mr. and Mrs. Ito are another example of strong obligations and a highly
segregated role pattern. Mr. Ito, a 28-year-old businessman in a medium-
sized firm, expressed his close ties and warm feelings towards his friends
and his relationships with his homemaker wife of five years.
I don’t do any cleaning in the house. I play catch with my sons on weekend.
My wife and I haven’t gone out alone for a long time, ever since our honey-
moon days. As a matter of fact, we never thought about leaving our kids
with others. . . . I go out with my colleagues every night. I am supposed to go
with them, otherwise, they would tease me for being a “My Home Papa”
(family man).
Contrary to Bott’s (1971) thesis, three couples who perceived a low de-
gree of normative obligations also reported a segregated and an intermedi-
ate conjugal relationship. The following comment by Mrs. Sato suggests
that a low degree of normative obligations in a social network can have lit-
tle impact on conjugal role sharing in some cases:
I really don’t feel that I should assist my friends in any special way. I am not
obligated to them and they are not to me either. . . . Yes, I do most of the
housework and child care. My husband and I hardly go out together. We are
too busy in our own world, I guess.
Mrs. Sato’s case, however, is unusual among the couples in our sample.
All her friends are homemakers whom she met recently through PTA in-
volvement at her children’s elementary school. As a homemaker, Mrs.
Sato spends a great amount of time with her children, both at home and

away, taking them to swimming, art, and math classes. She visits with
friends but only occasionally; indeed, our interviews with Mrs. Sato left us
with the clear impression that her life revolves almost entirely around her
children, with little emotional investment in either her husband or friends.
In summary, most couples with close-knit networks reported high lev-
els of normative obligations. Other couples in our sample are also more
likely to report medium to high levels of obligations (75%).
JAPANESE COUPLES WITH JOINT MARITAL ROLES
Although most couples in our sample reported segregated role relation-

ships, the Maedas and the Mikunis reported a joint relationship. We felt
it was important to describe these couples in more detail because joint
marital roles are still uncommon in Japanese society. Mr. and Mrs. Mikuni
both work for the city government as clerks and have two elementary
school–age sons and a preschool daughter. Although they work in differ-
ent departments, each reported many mutual friends in common. And
both networks are loosely connected, low-density networks. As Mr. Mikuni
emphasized,
Both myself and my wife associate with a similar group of people. For ex-
ample, we have many common work friends, and we go visit our relatives
together. But we don’t associate with them that often.
Mr. Mikuni went on to describe activities he shares with his family and
his participation in housework and child care.
Yeah, my wife and I go out together, probably a lot more often than the “av-
erage” Japanese couple. We don’t receive a lot of financial and emotional
support from our parents or friends, so we feel that we need each other’s
support. We do a lot of things together as a family. I help out a lot at home,
too. I do most of the dishes and dinner clean-up, and I also help my sons
with their homework, too.
The Maedas share with the Mikunis many similar network characteris-
tics: a loose-knit network, low overlapping ties, and a low degree of nor-
mative obligations. One difference is that Mrs. Maeda perceives a greater
level of potential social support from her parents:
Although we don’t frequently see my parents, I feel that they would be help-
ful if we need their assistance. I mean, I couldn’t have gone to the university
to become a dentist without my parents’ assistance anyway. I would like to

get together more often but they know I am so busy that they are happy as
long as we are healthy and make good living. Situations may change if one
of my parents becomes ill, but we have no time to think about future plans,
yet.
One notable characteristic among our joint role couples is that spouses
have careers with similar prestige. Both Mr. and Mrs. Maeda have profes-
sional jobs as a physician and a dentist, respectively, and Mr. and Mrs.
Mikuni work in city government as clerks. There are other two-job cou-
ples in our sample, but their occupations are unequal in status and prestige.
Seemingly, when spousal jobs are of equal status, husbands are more
likely to participate in domestic and child care duties.
BOTT’S THEORY AND ITS IMPLICATIONS
Overall, our Japanese sample found strong support for Bott’s (1971)
central theory on network density and conjugal role relations: The more
dense the network of each spouse, the less likely will a husband and wife
share leisure, household, and child care activities. Second, support was
found for most of the supplemental variables Bott used to explain this
linkage. We found (a) a negative relationship between overlapping ties
and network density; (b) a positive relationship between network density
and social support, which, in turn, increased the segregation of marital
roles; and (c) a positive relationship between network density and norma-
tive obligations, which, in turn, increased the segregation of marital roles.
As we mentioned earlier, a key problem with testing Bott’s hypothesis
is that the relationships among her core concepts are only spelled out in
general terms. To help resolve this problem, we decided to formally model
her concepts by using her descriptive accounts of how she thought these
variables were related. We reasoned that once her ideas were explicitly
laid out in a causal model, this brevity would allow us to better compare
the variations in external social networks and how they might actually af-
fect the internal relational structure of our studied families. Using the
model as our guide then as shown in Figure 1, it can be seen that overlap in
networks of actors reduces the density of networks. The degree of density,
in turn, is shown to increase the social support received by actors from
their respective networks and the degree of normative obligations among
network members to provide support. The degree of social support and the
degree of normative obligations are mutually reinforcing; and finally, the
degree of segregation is positively affected by the degree of social support

+ +
Degree of Social Support

By Respective Networks
+
+
Degree of Overlap - Degree of Degree of

in the Networks Network Density + + Conjugal Role
Segregation
+
+
Degree of Normative
Obligations for Social Support
By Members of Social Networks
- + +
Figure 1: A Causal Model of Bott’s (1957) Theory

375
and the normative obligations for such support in respective networks.

Finally, there are feedback loops, or more accurately, what Stinchcombe
(1968) calls “reverse causal chains” in these processes. That is, segregated
marital role activities reinforce network support as well as normative obli-
gations to provide such support, both of which feed back on network den-
sity and, ultimately, network overlap.
Although this model posits fundamental structural components to es-
tablish the degree of conjugal role sharing, we should emphasize that re-
lated factors such as institutionalized gender segregation in the labor mar-
ket are also associated with couples’ sharing housework, child care, and
leisure activities. As shown by our data, Japanese men must work long
hours and socialize with peers after hours to advance on the job whereas
women must pay extensive attention to children’s schooling and social de-
velopment. These spheres of separate activities are more likely to reduce
the network overlap, which, in turn, increases the network density. A
gendered division of labor is also affected by the above institutional fac-
tors. Additionally, such demographic factors as occupation type, wife’s
employment, and residential mobility also play a role in influencing the
degree of network overlap and subsequent network density.
SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS
Although most of Bott’s (1957) theory is well supported, there are

mixed results with respect to her corollary hypotheses on residential mo-
bility and class. We found that couples with joint conjugal roles have high
residential mobility, but several couples with segregated roles also re-
ported high mobility. However, these couples remained geographically
close to their respective networks and continued frequent contacts. On the
class principle, we found that the degree of role segregation was not re-
stricted to working-class couples, although in our sample, joint roles are
concentrated in middle- and upper-middle-class families.
Overall, married couples in contemporary Japan have segregated do-
mestic tasks. In fact, males spend so little time with their spouses and chil-
dren, that post-World War II Japanese families are often characterized as
“fatherless” (Ishii-Kuntz, 1994; Ishii-Kuntz, Kato, Makino, & Tsuchiya,
1999). In turn, Japanese wives consider their spousal relations as second-
ary to their children (Nagatsu et al., 1996). The sharply divided labor be-
tween husbands and wives has been attributed to traditional gender role

socialization and to the heavy demands placed on husbands by their em-

ployers to work long hours.
Yet these factors alone cannot explain why our couples with segregated
roles had a harmonious division of labor, got along well, and reported
much personal satisfaction with their marriages. Our impression is that in-
dividuals with segregated roles are overwhelmingly pleased with this ar-
rangement, in part because it allows them to enjoy frequent interactions
and to seek comfort and support of every kind from their personal net-
works. Indeed, our research mirrors Bott’s (1971) finding of few differ-
ences among couples in terms of happiness or stability of marriage ac-
cording to degree of conjugal segregation (p. 219). For example, most of
our couples considered a good marriage to be one where each spouse is
busy with his or her own work and circle of friends. In the words of one
male informant, “In a Japanese marriage we may not do many things to-
gether . . . but that doesn’t mean our marriage is on the rocks. I think our
marriage is safe as long as we don’t stick our noses in each other’s busi-
ness.” In terms of success then, couples in both joint and segregated mar-
riages reported stable and beneficial marriages that seemingly conformed
to their own personal assessment of happiness and marital satisfaction.
This research has hopefully shown that Bott’s (1957) network theory
has utility for understanding variations in Japanese conjugal role rela-
tions. And we hope it will prove useful to future researchers by comple-
menting other approaches in capturing the emerging egalitarian trend
among younger Japanese couples who frequently share housework, child
care, and leisure activities. Further insights into this process might also be
gleaned by studying Japanese families in transition who, because of occu-
pational change and geographical mobility, find they must adjust to a new
relational situation. It might also be productive in a future study to exam-
ine hypotheses derived from our configuration of Bott’s (1957) theory
with a larger sample of Japanese couples where the relational properties of
both personal networks and the workplace environment can be assessed.
The causal model posited here can easily be augmented by incorporating
more demographic and institutional factors including work-related condi-
tions. Finally, despite the prevalence of conjugal role segregation in Japan,
our research clearly showed that some Japanese couples do share tasks
and look to each other for support and companionship. This emerging ten-
dency for joint conjugal relations is one that we think is probably here to
stay.

NOTES
1. Network density is formally defined as the proportion of social ties actually existing
relative to the number of possible ties. For general references on network analysis, see Free-
man, White, and Romney (1989), Wellman and Berkowitz (1988), and Maryanski and
Turner (1991).
2. Bott (1971) also believed that variations in conjugal roles could not be explained by
cultural or even subcultural differences. In her words, “to say that people behave differently
or have different expectations because they belong to different cultures amounts to no more
than saying that they behave differently because they behave differently—or cultures are dif-
ferent because they are different” (p. 218).
3. Although Bott (1957) purported to be describing families, she only considered adult
networks; she did not discuss children and how their relationships affected the family. She
also did not describe the effects of different transitions in the family. Network change due to
childbirth, for example, cannot be fully explained by the cross-sectional data we use in this
study.
4. It may be predicted that Christian couples engage in more joint conjugal role rela-
tionships because they are presented a more egalitarian gender role model. This hypothesis
could not be tested because our respondents are all Buddhists. Additionally, religion occu-
pies a more peripheral position in Japan compared to Western, South Asian, or Middle East-
ern nations (Reischauer, 1981). Thus, religion is expected to play a minor role in the structure
and formation of Japanese social networks.
5. Major interview topics include the extent of role sharing in housework, child care,
and leisure activities; the degree of network embeddedness; social support; obligations; and
various demographic variables.
6. Our study uses unstructured interviews in which the interviewer basically listened to
the participants on several topics and observed them in a natural family and work setting. Our
data reflect the coding based on what the interviewers heard and observed. Thus, our study
can be best conceived as field research rather than survey research.
7. We believe that we were also able to facilitate husbands’ and wives’ open-ended re-
sponses as our interviews frequently lasted much longer than we initially anticipated. We
think this is mainly due to the unobtrusive nature of each interview setting, the carefully
worded opening of the interviews, and the legitimacy of the research project.
8. This figure seems surprisingly low. But they are consistent with statistics from the
Ministry of Education (1990): 36.3% of high school graduates are enrolled in college,
whereas 35.6% find employment and the rest belong to neither category.
9. Although it is possible for one spouse to have a close-knit network whereas the other
does not, all 20 husbands and 20 wives reported similar categories of loose-, medium-, and
close-knit networks.
10. Of the 20 couples, about one third of them are cases in which one of the spouses had
moved into the other’s community. These couples, however, did not have any different pat-
terns in terms of types of network from those in which both husbands and wives stayed in the
same community.

REFERENCES
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Journal of Family Issues http://jfi.sagepub.

Conjugal Roles and Social Networks in Japanese Families

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Citations (this article cites 3 articles hosted on the

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Conjugal Roles and Social Networks

Keywords: social networks; Bott’s theory; conjugal roles; Japanese families

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effecting variations in conjugal roles. In particular, it is difficult to find so-

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KEY CONCEPTS IN BOTT’S

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roles. Segregated roles exist when couples perform separate domestic

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To account for the relationship between network density and marital

MARITAL RELATIONS IN PRESENT-DAY JAPAN

According to the sociological and anthropological literature, married

The husband is helpless in housekeeping tasks, such as doing the laundry,

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In selecting our 20 Japanese couples, we tried to approximate Bott’s

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nancial backgrounds was perhaps more difficult than that experienced by

To locate couples, Bott (1971) relied on such referral agencies as wel-

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We also wanted to capture the emerging variation of family structure in-

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relatives and friends at work whereas wives reported networks of rela-

NETWORK DENSITY AND

In Table 1, network connectedness (or density) and degree of role seg-

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and close-knit networks. A network was considered loose-knit when less

JOINT AND INTERMEDIATE CONJUGAL ROLE

As shown in Table 1, six couples had a joint or intermediate marital role

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Mr. Maeda, a physician, is also an involved parent who routinely shares

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SEGREGATED CONJUGAL ROLE WITH

In contrast to the Mikunis and Maedas, couples with segregated conju-

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by Mr. Furukawa typifies the pattern in our sample of a close-knit network

Mr. Furukawa continued to talk about his marital relationship.

My wife and I don’t really do anything together. I guess it is because each of

OCCUPATIONS AND RESIDENTIAL MOBILITY

In Table 1, the occupational status and residential mobility of each cou-

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NETWORK OVERLAP, SOCIAL SUPPORT,

A relationship between network density and role segregation is well

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Low (less than 3) 0 1 (13%) 7 (87%) 8 (100%)

overlap when couples identified more than seven overlapping households.

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ported close-knit networks with high levels of social support. In contrast,

The Tanaka family is also characterized as having close-knit networks

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Instead, Mrs. Konishi emphasized her dependence on her husband for

In summary, we found that couples with separate close-knit networks

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In Table 4, network density, normative obligations, and conjugal role

Throughout the year, we go back to my parents’ house at least once a week,

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Mrs. Shiratori also talked very frankly about her marriage:

My husband is a high school teacher and he is very busy every day. He