This book delivers timely research on the various interfaces of family and work, and their impacts on individual wellbeing in East and Southeast Asia. It highlights changing family structures and processes, with special attention to inter-generational relationships, gender roles, cultural norms and employment. The book presents both qualitative and quantitative research works, adopting a comparative approach to analyze a number of demographics. In-depth field studies are also included, which present in detail the daily efforts of certain populations to attain better living standards by mobilizing available resources from within and outside the family. As such, the book is a valuable addition to contemporary research perspectives on family, work and living conditions in Asia.

Research on the family has expanded considerably across Asia but studies tend to be fragmented, focusing on narrow issues within limited areas (cities, towns, small communities) and may not be accessible to international readers. These limitations make it difficult for researchers, students, policy makers, and practitioners to obtain the information they need. The Routledge Handbook of Families in Asia fills that gap by providing a current and comprehensive analysis of Asian families by a wide range of experts in a single publication. The thirty-two chapters of this comparative and multi-disciplinary volume are organized into nine major themes: conceptual approaches, methodological issues, family life in the context of culture, family relationships across the family life cycle, issues of work and income, stress and conflict, family diversity, family policy and laws, and environmental setting of homes. Each chapter examines family life across Asian countries, studying cultural similarities and differences and exploring how families are changing and what trends are likely to develop in the future. To provide a fruitful learning experience for the reader, each chapter offers examples, relevant data, and a comprehensive list of references. Offering a complete interdisciplinary overview of families in Asia, the Handbook will be of interest to students, academics, policy makers and practitioners across the disciplines of Asian Studies, Sociology, Demography, Social Work, Law, Social Policy, Anthropology, Geography, Public Health and Architecture.

This collection provides a comparative analysis of care arrangements in relation to issues of gender and transnational migration, social policy and labour migration in East Asia. Bridging the key topics of migration and gendered cared work through cross country comparisons, it examines how care work and welfare arrangements have been shaped by national and global forces against the backdrop of changing gender relationships, the rise of female labour force participation, low fertility rates and population aging in East Asia. It particularly addresses the ‘feminization of migration’ which is a salient feature of migration in Asia today as more women from developing countries undertake domestic work and care work in Japan, Taiwan, South Korea and Hong Kong. Addressing the issue of care in relation to employment, care and migration regimes in East Asia and the interaction among welfare regimes, labour markets and work-care balance, this collection provides an up-to-date assessment of gendered transnational migration in the region and sheds light on local and transnational policies and practices which aim to improve the welfare of families and migrant workers.

Chinese societies have undergone a tremendous amount of social, political, and economic change, which have been a catalyst for substantial shifts in fundamental structures within Chinese families. This edited collection focuses on the continuities and changes in gender and inter-generational relations of Chinese families in Greater China.

The past several decades of rapid organizational change and global economic activity beseech a fresh understanding of work conditions and mental health across all nations and regions. This volume addresses psychosocial factors at work, legislation, frameworks, research innovations and common perceptions in the Asia Pacific countries. It presents new research on psychosocial factors at work from an Asia Pacific perspective, introducing exciting new research on workaholism, bullying, work-life balance and conflict, work demands classifications, and psychosocial safety climate. Insights regarding workplace psychosocial factors, worker health and well-being have evolved mainly within North American and European cultural contexts and developed industrial countries. This state of the art account of knowledge development in the Asia Pacific region will stimulate new insights for researchers and policy makers to improve the quality of workers’ lives worldwide. "This very informative book highlights the significance and uniqueness of job stress problems encountered by workers of different countries in the Asia Pacific region. Occupational health researchers all around the world will find this book a great inspiration for future research." Yawen Cheng, ScD, Institute of Health Policy and Management, Taiwan “Initiatives and interventions reported from collaborative projects present useful hints for filling gaps in policies and practices for managing psychosocial risk factors in diverse work-life situations in the Asia Pacific region”. Dr. Kazutaka Kogi, President, International Commission of Occupational Health

This edited volume approaches the life experiences and well-being of Japanese people from an empirical perspective. It explores the current trend of happiness among Japanese over time and examines the association of income, lifestyle, and perceived life conditions using modern econometric models with supplementary qualitative observations. Issues relating to ageing, gender, household division of labour, and emigration are also examined to provide a wide scope of results based on both survey and field methods for culturally sensitive researchers. Going beyond the conventional cultural interpretation of the uniqueness of the Japanese case, this book provides timely, empirical evidence for understanding how the various social groups comprising the Japanese population have enjoyed a better quality of life, while some groups are very dissatisfied with social arrangements and have elected to emigrate. The book is a pioneering endeavour to reveal the detailed structure of quality of life and well-being in Japanese society.

In Asian societies, work and family issues are only recently beginning to gain attention. The pressure of rapid social change and increasing global competition is compounded by the long hours work culture, especially in the Pan-Confucian societies such