International Joint Symposium on“Socio-political Transformation in Globalizing Asia: Integration or Conflict?
21, February 2008
Session3 Asian Societies in Comparative Perspective“Perceptions on Marriage and Changing Family Value in East Asia:
A Comparative View”
Min SukGraduate School of Asia-Pacific Studies, Waseda University
Abstract
With regard to East Asia’s preservation of traditional family values, the changes insex, marriage tend to be slow. This research is based on data collected in 2006 fromJapan, South Korea and China on “intergenerational values”. The results show that for
the young generation, the choice of marriage partner and values relating to marriage arechanging.

1. Introduction
The countries in East Asia are now concerned about the issues of an aging population anddecreasing fertility. It is, therefore, necessary to understand the changes in the values of East
Asian families.
For most people in East Asia, traditional values seemed to be retained and therefore,family values have not changed much, especially in the areas of sex, marriage and family. The
reason for this situation is that there have been no research on East Asian families and inaddition, there have been no empirical evidence for generational issues.
In order to understand the changes in East Asian families, it is necessary to understand thegap between the older generation and the young generation. Therefore, this research utilizes thedata of two generations, that is, undergraduate students and their parents. The data was collectedfrom three countries - Japan, South Korea and China.
A common problem in East Asia is declining fertility and closely related to this issue is latemarriages. For this reason, within the issue of Family, it is necessary to analyze the values ofmarriage.
In the three-country research on “Intergenerational Values”, questions relating to the113

selection criteria of a marriage partner, and views on cohabitation, divorce and so on wereselected for analysis.

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2. Method
2.1. Participants
In this study, Shanghai-Zemi data was used. Shanghai-zemi is a Joint Research project ofFudan, Yonsei, Waseda University members conceived by Sonoda-zemi Group in 2006. Threeuniversities chose the undergraduates from Shanghai, Seoul and Tokyo and their parents fromOctober, 2006. In Waseda, the quota sampling method was used to select students from larger
lecture halls or class rooms within various faculties. In Fudan, the whole sample is divided by
student’s sex, grade, and major. In Japan, out of a total of 850 questionnaires distributed, 243
were collected, giving a return rate of 29.3%. In South Korea, 800 questionnaires weredistributed and 163 were collected giving a return rate of 20.4%. For China, 400 questionnaires
were distribute and 300 were collected giving a return rate of 75%.

2.2. Measures
The master questionnaire was developed in the English language and then translated into
Korean, Japanese, Chinese using the back-translation method.
Questions regarding marriage are 15 cases.
①10-1 I would like to get married and have a family in the future②10-2 I would like to live together with my partner before getting married.
③10-3 I would like to have a child in the future.
④11-1 It is unavoidable to sacrifice the family for work to some extent.
⑤11-2 Family expense should be borne by both the husband and the wife.
⑥11-3 Troubles occur easily when the wife earns more than the husband.
⑦11-4 A marriage without producing children is an incomplete one.
⑧11-5 Being a fulltime housewife indicates the high capability of the husband.
⑨11-6 I can accept the idea of “fulltime house husband.”⑩11-7 I can accept the idea of cohabiting even if there are no plans to get married.
⑪11-8 “Shot gun marriage” is not a bad idea.
⑫11-12 Regardless of the parents’ opinion, one does not have to be married, if he/she can lead acontented life.
⑬11-13 If there is a situation where my parents and my spouse are pitted against each other, I
will most probably side with my parents.
⑭11-14 Male and female should behave according to their respective accord of masculinity andfemininity.

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⑮P19/S21-4 Experience of divorce is not a flaw any more
All items of the scales are scored using a Likert-scale ranging from 1 = strongly agree to 5
= strongly disagree.

3. Results
3.1 Choice of Marriage Partner
Japanese children selected “similarity in values and beliefs” as the most important criteria
when choosing a prospective spouse. In comparison to the Parents generation, Japanesedaughters’ criteria of “Love” is relegated to 4th position.
Table1
Most Important Criteria when choosing a prospective spouse (%)
Japanese Sonsimilarity in values and beliefs（92.6%）

Japanee Daughter
1similarity in values and beliefs(84.7%)

Love （70.2%）2income, property （52.5%）

moral （48.8%）3moral （38.1%）

house making/child careability （30.6%）

appearance（28.1%）

45

Love （37.3%）
occupation/social status(18.6%)
multiple answer(maximum 3)

Table2
Most important things when chosen spouse (%)
Japanese Father
Love （75.8%）
similarity in values and beliefs

Japanee Mother1

similarity in values and beliefs(89.3%)

2

love （69.3%）

moral （42.9%）

3moral （58.0%）

appearance（27.5%）4（74.7%）

masculinity&femininity（14.3%）

5

occupation/social status(16.7%)
income, property （16.0%）
multiple answer (maximum 3)116

In China son selected “similarity in values and beliefs” as for most important thing whenchoosing a prospective spouse. For Chinese daughters, this criteria was not in 1st position but it
was 1 rank higher than the parents’ generation.
Table3
Most Important things when choosing a prospective spouse (%)
Chinese Sonsimilarity in values and beliefs（67.2%）

Chinese Daughter
1

moral （72.2%）
similarity in values and beliefs

moral （55.5%）

2Love （53.9%）

3Love （38.5%）

appearance（32%）

4income, property （35.5%）

Occupation/social status（17.2%）

5(68.6%)

occupation/social status(31.4%)
multiple answer (maximum 3)

Table4
Most important things when chosen spouse (%)
Chinese Father

Chinese Mother

Love （63.9%）

1moral （72.6%）

moral （61.8%）

2love （50%）

similarity in values and beliefs（49.3%）

3

appearance（32.6%）

4family background （16%）

5similarity in values and beliefs(44.5%)
occupation/social status(22.6%)
appearance （19.2%）
multiple answer (maximum 3)117

In Korea both parents and children selected “Love” as the most important criteria whenchoosing a prospective spouse and chosen spouse. Further, “similarity in values and beliefs”
was in 2nd position. In the case of Korean sons, it is one rank up compared to the parents’generation.

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Table5
Most Important things when choosing a prospective spouse (%)
Korean Son
Love （74.5%）
similarity in values and beliefs（61.8%）

Korean Daughter
12

moral （35.3%）

3

appearance（26.5%）

4income, property (26.5%)

5

Love （68.7%）
similarity in values and beliefs(61.4%)
income, property （53.0%）
occupation/social status(44.6%)
moral （14.5%）
multiple answer (maximum 3)

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Table6
Most important things when chosen spouse (%)
Korean Father

Korean Motherlove （67.2%）

1

moral （49.3%）

2

similarity in values and beliefs（31.3%）
appearance（29.9%）
masculinity&femininity（23.9%）

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love （62.2%）
similarity in values and beliefs(51%)
moral （41.8%）
occupation/social status(38.8%)
Income, property （25.5%）
multiple answer (maximum 3)

In the 3 countries of Japan, South Korea and China, both the parents’ generation and thechildren’s generation viewed love, similarity in values and beliefs, moral as important in thechoice of a marriage partner. Further, in each country, a generational gap is observed in theranking of the criteria. In every country, for the criteria, “similarity in values and beliefs”, thechildren’s generation ranks higher than the parents’ generation.

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3.2. Changes in marriage values
The following 3 graphs compare the 15 selected questions for the parents’ generation andthe children’s generation for Japan, South Korea and China. Using the paired T-test, * indicatesthat between the parents and children p<0.05 and ** indicates that p<0.01.
For all the three countries, a gap is observed between parents and children in most of thequestions. In addition, for every country, the largest difference is observed in the attitude
towards cohabitation.
Graph1
Paired t-tests comparing students and parents : Japan

Jparents

Jstudents

54.54
3.5
3
2.5
2
1.5
1

①**②

③④⑤**⑥ **⑦ **⑧ **⑨ **⑩ **⑪ **⑫121⑬**⑭ **⑮

Graph2Paired t-tests comparing students and parents : China

Cparents

Cstudents

54.5

4

3.5

3

2.5

2

1.5

1

①**②

③

**④⑤

⑥**⑦ *⑧⑨**⑩ **⑪ **⑫⑬⑭⑬**⑭ **⑮**⑮

Graph3
Paired t-tests comparing students and parents : Korea

KparentsKstudents

54.5

4

3.5

3

2.5

2

1.5

1**① **② **③④**⑤ **⑥ **⑦ *⑧*⑨ **⑩ **⑪ **⑫122

The next 2 graphs show the largest differences between parents and children andalso the differences by country.
Figure1
Differences in Cohabitation, divorce, shotgun marriage among three countries’ students.

want to coghabit before
marriage
1008060

Experience of divorce is
not a flaw.

cohabiting with no plan ofmarriage is OK

40200A marriage withoutchildren isincomplete(disgree)"shotgun marriage" is OKRegardless of the parents’opinion, one does not haveto be married.
J students

C students

K students

Figure 2 shows the differences of the parents generation in the three countries on
the questions of cohabitation, divorce and shotgun marriage. For the three countries,
the parents’ values are found to be diverse. For Korean parents, their attitude towards
divorce is much more open than that of Japan and China.
Considering Figure 1 and 2 together, the differences in values for the parents’generation for the three countries are high. For all three countries, compared to theparents’ generation, the values for the children’s generation is much closer.

123Figure2
Differences in Cohabitation, divorce, shotgun marriage among three countries parents.

Experience of divorce isnot a flaw.

want to coghabit before
marriage
70
60
50
40
30
20
100

A marriage without children
is incomplete(disgree)

cohabiting with no plan ofmarriage is OK"shotgun marriage" is OK

Regardless of the parents’opinion, one does not haveto be married.
J parents

C parents

K parents

4. Discussion and conclusion
Although for most East Asian people the traditional values of sex, marriage and family
tend to be preserved, this research shows that the children’s generation has significant changes
in values.
For Japan, South Korea and China, as compared to the parents’ generation, the children’sgeneration puts high importance on intimacy. In addition, for all three countries, the children’sgeneration is more open to cohabitation, shotgun marriages.
The result of this research shows that firstly, East Asia’s younger generation’s attitude andvalues of family are changing and secondly, compared to the parents’ generation, the valuechanges are more similar among the three countries.

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