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Note: The statement (b) is new.
Q52 Do you agree or disagree with the following opinions? - Men should go to work while women should stay at home and take care of the house
- When children are young, the mother should have the responsibility for looking after them
- Agree
- Disagree
- Don't know/no answer
Two statements were used to ask about views on gender roles.
In Japan, 16.1% of the respondents agreed with the opinion that 'men should work and women should stay at home and take care of the house,' whereas 68.5% disagreed.
When compared to the figures of the previous survey, the percentage disagreeing with the opinion increased from 61.2% to 68.5%. Looking at changes in the figures over the years, the percentage agreeing with the idea was found to be on the decrease, while the percentage disagreeing has increased consistently. (Figure 7-8)
Figure 7-8 Gender Roles (Changes over the years, Japan)
a Men should go to work while women should stay at home and take care of the house
Compared with other countries, the number of respondents disagreeing with the opinion was highest in Sweden with 92.6%, followed in descending order by Korea, the U.S., Germany and Japan. (Figure 7-9)
Figure 7-9 Gender Roles (Country Comparison)
a Men should go to work while women should stay at home and take care of the house
About the opinion, 'when children are young, the mother should have the responsibility for looking after them,' 22.9% of the Japanese respondents said they agreed, whereas 63.7% disagreed.
Compared with other countries, more German and Korean respondents agreed than disagreed. In Sweden, Japan, and the U.S., the number of respondents who disagreed was larger than those who agreed, and the figure was especially high in Sweden at 85.3%. (Figure 7-10)
Figure 7-10 Gender Roles (Country Comparison)
b Mother should take care of children
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Q53 How do you feel about marriage? Please select only one answer that comes closest to your own view. - One should marry
- It is better to marry
- It is not necessary to marry
- It is better not to marry
- Don't know/no answer
In Japan, 16.0% of the respondents said that 'one should marry' and 55.8% said that 'it is better to marry,' meaning that 71.8% had a positive view on marriage. On the other hand, those who have a negative view on marriage accounted for 23.7%, with 22.4% of them saying that 'it is not necessary to marry' and with 1.3% of them saying 'it is better not to marry.'
Looking at the changes over the years, the constant increase in the rate of the negative view ended in the sixth survey because the rate decreased slightly in this survey from 27.5% to 23.7%. (Figure 7-11)
Figure 7-11 Marriage (Changes over the years, Japan) 
When compared with other countries, over 70% of the respondents had a positive view toward marriage in both Korea and Japan. In the U.S., the number of those with a positive view was slightly more than those with negative view. (Figure 7-12)
Figure 7-12 Marriage (Country Comparison) 
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Q54 How do you feel about divorce? Please choose the one answer that comes closest to your view. - Once married, divorce should not be allowed for any reason
- It should be impossible to divorce if there are children, but otherwise certain circumstances can make divorce unavoidable
- Regardless of whether there are children, certain circumstances can make divorce unavoidable
- Divorce should be opted for if there is no mutual love in the marriage
- Don't know/no answer
Almost equal number of the Japanese respondents supported two extreme opinions about divorce: one saying 'once married, divorce should not be allowed for any reason,' cited by 8.1%, and the other saying 'divorce should be opted for if there is no mutual love in the marriage,' cited by 10.3%. Each of the moderate opinions, 'it should be impossible to divorce if there are children, but otherwise certain circumstances can make divorce unavoidable' (38.2%) and 'regardless of whether there are children, certain circumstances can make divorce unavoidable' (37.5%), accounted for a little less than 40%.
Looking at the other countries surveyed, the Korean and Japanese respondents who said 'it should be impossible to divorce if there are children, but otherwise certain circumstances could make divorce unavoidable' were found to be more in percentage points than those who had the same opinion in other countries. In Korea, the percentage of those who said that 'one should not divorce for any reasons' was high (25.4%). Many respondents in Sweden, Germany and the U.S. said that 'divorce should be opted for if there was no mutual love in the marriage.' (Figure 7-13)
Figure 7-13 (Country Comparison) 
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