The Constitution of Social Capital and Support Systems: A U.S. -Japan Comparison

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The Constitution of Social Capital and Support
Systems A U.S. -Japan Comparison

• Mito Akiyoshi
• Senshu University

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How do we compare and contrast the composition of
networks across societies?
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Personal Community Study By Shinsuke Otani (1999)

• A study of personal community networks in Japan
• A valuable attempt to compare Japan to the US and
  Canada
• Confounding effects of community, country,
  period, and questionnaire design? inconclusive
  results

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Otanis Datasets-apples and oranges?

• Japan- Chugoku-Shikoku Survey (1989) by Otani
• US -Northern California Community Study (1977) by
  Claude S. Fisher and GSS (1985, 1986, 1987)
• Canada - East York Social Network Studies (1968,
  1989) by Barry Wellman

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Yet the question remains important
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Interests in social relations renewed with the
introduction of social capital in political
discourse

• The concept of social capital (Putnams version
  in particular) is imported into the vocabulary of
  policy-makers in Japan.
• The Cabinet Office commissioned a study on social
  capital in 2002.
• Social capital is treated as a panacea to
  various social problems in the report.

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But we do not know

• How is the composition of supportive networks
  compared across societies?
• An important question because it is concerned
  with the generalizability or universal validity
  of the concept as an analytical framework.

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Dataset

• International Social Survey Programme (ISSP)
• 2001 Social Relations and Support Systems
• Based on common questionnaires- comparative
  analysis made easy.

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Study Description

• United Stats
• N1,149
• February 2002 (GSS)
• Adults (21)
• Multi-stage area probability sampling
• In person, self-admined questionnaire

• Japan
• N1,321
• November 2001
• 16 yrs old and older
• Two-stage stratified random sampling
• Drop-off-pick-up questionnaire

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The Japanese are embedded in family and
kin-centered Networks.

• Likely to live with adult children and/or elderly
  parents
• Likely to have a relative or family member as
  their best friend

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The Japanese are more likely to live with their
adult children and elderly parents than Americans
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(No Transcript)
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The Japanese are likely to live with their
elderly parents and adult children.

• 48 of the Japanese live with at least one child
  aged 18 or older . (18 in the US)
• 21 of the Japanese live with their mother (5 in
  the US).

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Americans value the idea of taking care of
family more than the Japanese do.
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Americans value family care and support

• Americans agree with the statement Adult
  children have a duty to look after their elderly
  parents more than the Japanese do (36 Americans
  versus 25 Japanese strongly agree).
• 44 of American respondents strongly agree with
  the statement You should take care of yourself
  and your family first, before helping other
  people, versus 36 of the Japanese.

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The Japanese are more likely to identify a
relative as their best friend.
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A Relative as Ones Best Friend

• Now think about your best friend, the friend you
  feel closest to (but not your partner). Is this
  best friend
• 1 a male relative
• 2 a female relative
• 3 a man who is not a relative
• 4 a woman who is not a relative
• 5 I dont have a close friend

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• 31 of Americans and 55 of the Japanese identify
  a relative as their best friend.

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• In general, the Japanese have stronger family- or
  kin- based relations.
• But who in each country are more likely to seek
  support and companionship from relatives?

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Who choose a relative as their best friend?

• Japan Women, older people and married people
• U.S. Lower income (association is not very
  strong) gender, age, and marital status are NOT
  statistically significant