‘Family context and marriageability: how one's parents, siblings and past family history affect one's attractiveness to marriage partners in Japan’
We examine how family context affects one’s desirability to potential marriage partners among the customers of a large Japanese marriage agency. The agency data provide us a unique opportunity to isolate the impact of family characteristics as well as socio-economic control variables on the “demand side” of marriage market interactions. Japan is an important test case of theories about marriage formation in societies where family and kinship are important institutions – theories that so far have mostly been tested on Western data. We show that traits associated with resource commitments, such as living with or having to support family members or being an only child, reduce attractiveness. Natal family characteristics that can be read as proxy of a lower social background, namely having three or more siblings, also reduce one’s desirability, as does a history of divorce. We also find support for the culturally specific argument that expectations of care associated with being the oldest son reduce attractiveness.
Date:
3 December 2015, 14:00 (Thursday, 8th week, Michaelmas 2015)
Venue:
66 Banbury Road (Wolsey Hall), 66 Banbury Road OX2 6PR
Venue Details:
Seminar Room at 66 Banbury Road, Oxford OX2 6PR
Speaker:
Dr Ekaterina Hertog (Nissan Institute of Japanese Studies, University of Oxford)
Organising department:
Oxford Institute of Ageing
Organiser:
Emilie Walton (Institute Administrator, Oxford Institute of Population Ageing, University of Oxford)
Organiser contact email address:
administrator@ageing.ox.ac.uk
Host:
Professor Sarah Harper (Oxford Institute of Population Ageing, University of Oxford)
Part of:
‘Narratives on Marriage and Co-Habitation’
Topics:
Booking required?:
Not required
Audience:
Public
Editor:
Emilie Walton
