Political Economy of Japan's Low Fertility

Frances McCall Rosenbluth is Professor of Political Science and Director of the Leitner Program in Political Economy at Yale University. Her recent publications include The Politics of Oligarchy: Institutional Choice in Prewar Japan (1995); and Japan's Political Marketplace (1993).

"The Political Economy of Japan's Low Fertility is that most desirable sort of edited volume: a compact, tightly focused, and accessible collection of investigations into a problem that is compelling across a range of subject areas... [It] does a clean and thoughtful job of applying political economy models to explaining why it makes sense for Japanese women to opt out of childbearing. The book's heavy emphasis on rational-actor explanations and the persistent use of comparative cases from Europe and the United States encourage readers to see Japan's fertility rate as a complicated and yet understandable phenomenon to which there might well be an effective policy response." - Journal of Japanese Studies "[The Political Economy of Japan's Low Fertility] provides rich, multidisciplinary insight into the work-family nexus in the only non-Western country to have had below-replacement-level fertility for more than a generation. Each chapter stands on its own, but the book is best read by starting at the beginning and going to the end." - American Journal of Sociology "Extremely rich, both conceptually and empirically, [The Political Economy of Japan's Low Fertility] provides readers with a detailed, sophisticated account of factors that explain Japan's record low fertility, with some chapters contributing rigorous and pertinent international comparisons. Taking a feminist stance, the editor and authors of this book suggest that having children in Japan means that women often lose their economic independence, along with the satisfaction and benefits of a career; hence, many women have no choice but to forego motherhood altogether... By including comparative analyses with North America and Europe, the volume literally provides a framework for a political economy of low fertility in all countries that are dealing with prolonged below-replacement fertility." - Canadian Journal of Sociology "This book does a great job of explaining Japan's fertility conundrum in comparative context...the book is a valuable contribution to our understanding of how gender inequality in the labor market functions to dampen fertility and keep women in the economically vulnerable position." - Asian Anthropology

• Contents page Acknowledgements Contributors Part I Introduction and Overview 1 The Political Economy of Low Fertility 2 FRANCES MCCALL ROSENBLUTH 2 Women's Economic Status and Fertility in Japan in Cross-National 44 Perspective SAWAKO SHIRAHASE Part II Constraints on the Demand for Female Labor 3 Gendering the Varieties of Capitalism: Gender Bias in Skills and Social Policy 78 MARGARITA ESTEVEZ ABE 4 Gendered Offices: A Comparative-Historical Examination of Clerical 109 Work in Japan and the U.S. MARY C. BRINTON 5 Employment Options in Comparative Perspective 142 EIKO KENJOH Part III Constraints on Women's Supply of Labor 6 Policies to Support Working Mothers and Children in Japan 167 PATRICIA BOLING 7 The Political Economy of Day Care Centers in Japan 200 JUNICHIRO WADA 8 The Privatized Education Market and Maternal Employment in Japan 221 KEIKO HIRAO Part IV Conclusions and Prescriptions 9 Conclusion: Trade-offs and Political Feasibility of Policy Choices 258 FRANCES ROSENBLUTH Notes Index