Socio-economic Inequality in the Aging Society

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to examine the extent of income inequality and the pattern of providing support to mothers in contemporary Japan. The extent of income inequality among households with the elderly aged 65 and over has expanded between 1986 and 1995, and has declined recently. The main reason why such a recent decline in income inequality has occurred was due to the decrease in income inequality in couple-only households whose number has most increased between 1986 and 1998. While the relative difference in the average disposable income between single female households and couple-only households became small during these years, the single households of the elderly female are substantially at a disadvantage in their economic well-being.The type of the household was an important determinant in providing economic support to their own mothers. Married daughters are likely to provide economic support when they co-habit with their mothers or when their mothers live alone. On the other hand, in offering economic support to their mothers-in-law, whether their husbands were the eldest son was critical. When their husbands were the eldest son, married women tended to support their mothers-in-law economically. The household type in which their mothers-in-law lived was not significant in determining the economic support to them. The social norm of being the eldest son still had a substantial impact on providing economic support and care to mothers-in-law.The household is one of the important factors in explaining social inequality among the elderly. On the other hand, the significant change in the household structure has occurred : the number of multi-generational households has declined and the number of elderly single households and elderly couple-only households has increased. How we can reconstruct the welfare state in which the economic and social well-being of the elderly is basically guaranteed no matter which households they belong to is one of the important socio-political issues to discuss.