Gender and elder care: social change and the role of the caregiver in Japan

The family has been the locus of caregiving in Japan. Wives and daughters-in-law have had the day-to-day responsibility for frail, elderly relatives. However, social changes are creating alternatives for elder care. Moreover, broad socioeconomic and demographic trends have led to increasing numbers of men taking on what is generally considered 'women's work'. Men now constitute 15% of caregivers to the elderly in Japan. In this paper, we examine some of the ways in which men and women experience caregiving differently based on past gender socialization and on gendered societal expectations. We find that, although gender matters in the experiences caregivers bring to their role, men as well as women are influenced, and their caregiving judged, by shared cultural notions of good caregiving. Individual and cohort variations in the type of tasks the caregivers perform, their relations with other family members, and their reliance on formal services also transcend gender differences. We conclude by contemplating the changes that are in store for family caregiving in an era of increased government programs designed to relieve the burden on both male and female family caregivers and to make medical and social care a right of all older people who need it.