Inequality and the Work–Family Dilemma in Japan

How do working mothers in Japan experience the tension between employment and child-rearing? Drawing on in-depth interviews with 55 working mothers, this book offers a compelling account of women’s struggles under “neoliberal motherhood” in contemporary Japan. By comparing university-educated and non-university-educated women, it reveals subtle yet consequential class-based differences in how mothers balance childcare, housework, and paid work.

The book shows how motherhood ideologies, economic constraints, unequal spousal support, workplace norms and practices, intersect to shape women’s everyday lives. In particular, it brings into focus the often-overlooked challenges faced by non-university-educated women and by situating these experiences within Japan’s strong child-centered ideology, the book examines how mothers navigate pervasive expectations of intensive mothering and develop strategies to cope with them. In doing so, it reframes what are often seen as individual struggles as structurally produced inequalities.

Misako Nukaga is a Professor at the Graduate School of Education at the University of Tokyo. She received her Ph.D. in Sociology from the University of California, Los Angeles. She examines the intersections of education, immigration, ethnicity, and gender, drawing on studies of immigrant families in Japan, the United States, Sweden, and Korea, while engaging in international comparative research. Her work has been published in International Journal of Japanese Sociology, Journal of Contemporary Ethnography, and International Journal of Sociology.

Yuiko Fujita holds a doctoral degree in Communications from the University of London and an MA in Sociology from Columbia University. She is an associate professor at the Graduate School of Interdisciplinary Information Studies, University of Tokyo. Her research interests include culture, media, globalization, and gender. She is the author of Cultural Migrants from Japan: Youth, Media, and Migration in New York and London (Rowman & Littlefield, 2009). Her recent work includes “Everyday nationhood and digital media: Tracing identity among Japanese cultural migrants,” published in the International Journal of Cultural Studies (2025).