Modernization and the Family in Japan

Abstract

Analysis of external and internal aspects of the Japanese family today reveal that it is not modern or traditional but an harmonious blending of both modernity and tradition. For example, the external or demographic characteristics of today's Japanese family all demonstrate its modern nature. Yet the internal or struc tural nature of the Japanese family and household also exemplifies the persistence of tradition. These findings suggest that the uniqueness of the Japanesefamily exists in the very fact that it is externally modern but internally traditional. This harmonious traditional-modern blend in a certain sense parallels the history of Japan as a modern society, in that Western industrial technology was enthusiastically adopted but at the same time traditional Japanese culture was retained.