Life-course Diversity, Housing Choices and Constraints for Women of the ‘Lost’ Generation in Japan

This article explores housing choices and trajectories of women in their 30s during a period of new risks and opportunities in Japan's post-growth urban context. Due to the economic recession and the broader context of neoliberal globalization, there has been an observed delay among post-youth adults in their progression through the life-course. Many of the life-course transitions including leaving parental home, family formation and purchasing home, which used to occur earlier in people's 20s, now often occur in their 30s. Thus the 30-somethings are a transitional cohort and women in particular are more likely to experience a profound impact in the context of economic deflation and deregulation. Drawing on qualitative data obtained through fieldwork, this article examines how women's diversified life-courses are shaping their housing choices; and how their housing opportunities are shaped by the wider structures of housing markets and institutions. It explores such processes of interplay between housing choices, opportunities and constraints of the ‘lost’ generation in Japan.