Intergenerational coresidence of older adults in contemporary Japan: Traditional cultural norms in divergent styles

Intergenerational coresidence is one of the distinct types of living arrangements of older adults that reflects their socioeconomic conditions and the cultural values shared by their family and society at large. Although the prevalence of coresidence is decreasing in most of the developed nations in the world, Japan remains an anomalous case because of its relatively high prevalence of coresidence and the intricate connections between coresidence and the traditional cultural norm of filial piety.;The goal of this dissertation is to investigate the ways in which traditional cultural norms are reflected in current intergenerational coresidence arrangements between older parents and adult children in Japan---a society that has undergone extensive modernization in the past decades. Particular focus is given to the generally overlooked diversity within this type of living arrangement by examining multiple types of coresidence. The three individual studies that make up this dissertation involve analyses of two sets of national data on Japanese older individuals: the Japanese General Social Survey (JGSS) in 2001 and the Nihon University Japanese Longitudinal Study of Aging (NUJLSOA) in 1999.;The findings of this dissertation indicate the elastic and divergent nature of the culture of coresidence in Japan. First, traditional cultural norms and values in society are not static; rather they become modified and variegated in tandem with the individual experiences of families, the socioeconomic conditions of older adults, and the community contexts in which families are embedded. Second, the coresidence culture in contemporary Japan takes on divergent styles, including both traditional styles that mirror the traditional cultural norms, and non-traditional styles that are contingent on the imminent needs and resources of older parents and adult children. Finally, the sustenance of coresidence practice requires not only the embracement of traditional cultural norms but also sufficient levels of socioeconomic resources that enable families to maintain households shared across generations. These results suggest that the sociopolitical environment in modern society needs to become more versatile in order to accommodate diverse needs and preferences of older individuals and their aging families.