Extending the Family

Thursday, May 19, 2022, 19:30-21:30 (UTC+9)

1. Panel
2. Reading List

Mr. Douglas L. Hymas

Financial Consultant, Investor, and lawyer

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Doug Hymas is a financial consultant and investor and has worked in Japan’s financial services
industry for over 25 years as a lawyer (California-licensed) and later as Japan country head for
several firms including The Bank of New York Mellon (2014-2021), ING Investment
Management (2009-2014), Wells Fargo Securities (2005-2009) and Citigroup Investment
Management (1998-2005).
Doug serves as a Vice President of the American Chamber of Commerce in Japan (ACCJ). He
has been active in urging reform of Japan’s financial regulatory framework to ensure a level
playing field for foreign companies and to introduce global best practices. Doug’s previous
ACCJ roles include Governor (2018-2021), Investment Management Committee Chair
(2005-2008, 2013-2016), Securities Committee Chair (2008-2009), and several advisory councils
and tasks force memberships. He also served as Chair of the Asset Management Committee of
the European Business Council / European Chamber of Commerce in Japan (2009-2014).
In support of non-profit activities, Doug is a long-term volunteer leader with the Boy Scouts of
America and currently serves as Treasurer for the Far East Council. He was a founding vice-chair
of 30% Club, Japan, and has been a guest speaker and advocate for increased participation by
women on Japanese company boards. He was also a founding director of Hands On Tokyo, a
non-profit dedicated to matching volunteers with CSR and other service opportunities in the
Kanto region.

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For most of human history and in all human societies, a family has been and remains the first unit of existence. Virtually all human interactions have been and are undergirded by family connections or affiliations.

And in all societies, the definition of “family” has been flexible enough to include some born outside the nuclear family, such as through the adoption of children, participation in the family economic unit by non-family members, and of course the inclusion of non-nuclear relatives and multiple generations both up and down one’s family tree.

“Community” is not the same as “family”, and each implies different opportunities and obligations. How do they differ and why? What does the data tell us about each? How should policymakers distinguish these two important institutions in order to tailor policies and incentives appropriately to strengthen a society? And can the extension of families be recognized and supported with a view to strengthening the community, while maintaining the unique nature of the family as something more than a mere community?

In the modern era, greater economic prosperity allows more people to look beyond mere survival and toward improvement and enjoyment, as noted by Maslow in his well-established hierarchy of needs. Similarly, competition to survive has given way to competition to advance economically.

But this focus on improving quality of life has led some to conclude that an institution such as a family that doesn’t meet the needs of every member of society should be scrapped, despite the fact that no other suitable institution is even remotely capable of replacing family on a broad scale and that empirical evidence suggests that communities enjoying relatively high quality of life and economic prosperity tend to be more family-centered and that such family orientation is a primary, if not the primary, factor contributing to greater economic, social and psychological stability, as measured by income mobility and rates of crime and divorce.

What does the data tell us? Are governments following it, and if not, why? What progressive steps should policymakers take to align policies and incentives with the data on the impact of strong families in a community? Does it really make sense to weaken support for the family as an institution? Does any empirical evidence exist to justify this change, or is doing so actually regressive and ends up “throwing the baby out with the bathwater”?  Would it not make more sense for governments to follow the science and the data by strengthening the institution of family through public policies, including tax and other economic incentives, that encourage dual-parent families to stay together for the benefit of their children as well for themselves as they age?

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Ms. Miwako Hosoda

Professor, Seisa University and Founder, Inclusive Action For All

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Professor Miwako Hosoda has been doing her sociological research by observing human relations in the healthcare and environmental ethics field, both locally and globally. She graduated from the University of Tokyo, in 1992, and received an MA and Ph.D. in Sociology from the University of Tokyo.  After working as a research fellow for The Japan Society for the Promotion of Science, she studied at Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health and Harvard School of Public Health. She has joined Seisa University as a professor since 2012 and served as vice-president from 2013-2020. Prof. Hosoda has been President of Sociology of Health of the International Sociological Association (ISA) since 2019, and Vice-president of Asia Pacific Sociological Association(APSA). She founded the Inclusive Action for All (IAFA), NPO/NGO for international aid and lifelong education, in 2020.

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What is family? At first glance, this question seems easy for anyone to answer, but it is quite a tricky one. In fact, there has been a great deal of debate and a vast amount of research on this question.　For almost everyone, family is an extremely familiar and sometimes troublesome existence, whether one feels surrounded by loved ones in a happy home or spends one’s days without a close family member.

Some called friends, pets, and business associates’ family. Conversely, some people refuse to call their wives, children, or parents family. Who is right? Some said that because they live in the same house, they know better than others whether they are really family or not. Others argued that they knew more objectively about their families because they were not members of the household.

The “nuclear family,” as it is commonly referred to, is a group consisting of a combination of father, mother, and children, and this is probably typical of what is associated with the word “family” in many cases. Even if there is a difference in whether or not there is a genetic link between the parents and the children (biological or adopted), the combination of opposite-sex parents and children seems to be considered the prototype (the very nucleus) of what constitutes a family.

What about two people who are related by marriage? Can a married couple who are separated by marriage be considered a family? On the other hand, can a couple who are not married but living together be considered a family? Or, are former couples who have dissolved their marriages family members? These are two groups of people whose legal relationship does not necessarily match the reality of their lives, but each is a borderline case in which the meaning of “family” differs.　

Anthropology and sociology have focused on the function of the family. Two representative examples are Murdoch’s four-function theory and Talcott Parsons’ two-function theory. Murdoch pointed out four functions of the nuclear family. These are sexual, reproductive, economic, and educational functions. As long as the nuclear family fulfills these functions uniquely, he said, the nuclear family exists in human society. Parsons believed that as the social system differentiates in modernity, the family will also retain only family-specific functions. This is namely the basic socialization of children and the stabilization of adult personalities. These two were presented as the unique functions of the family.

Therefore, when the socialization of the child and the stabilization of the adult personality are threatened, the family is dysfunctional. In this dialogue, we would like to discuss what is family, what are family norms, and what are family responsibilities.

家族とは何か。一見すると誰もが簡単に答えられそうだが、なかなか厄介な問いである。実際、この問いをめぐってこれまでに、様々な議論がなされ、膨大な研究が積み重ねられてきた。円満な家庭の中で大切な家族に囲まれていると感じている人、家族と呼べる存在が身近にない状態で日々を過ごす人、ほとんどすべての人びとにとって家族は、きわめて馴染みのある、時に煩わしい存在である。

友だち、ペット、会社仲間を家族と呼ぶ人もいた。逆に、妻や子ども、両親を家族と呼ぶのを拒む人もいた。誰が正しいのだろうか。ある人たちは、自分たちは同じ家に住んでいるから、自分たちが本当の家族かどうか他人よりよく分かると述べた。また、ある人たちは、自分は世帯のメンバーでないからこそ、家族についてより客観的に知っているのだと主張した。

一般的に「核家族」と呼ばれるのは、父・母・子の組み合わせから成る集団であり、これが多くの場合に「家族」と言われて連想される典型であろう。父母と子の間に遺伝的なつながりがあるか否か（実子か養子か）という違いがあるとしても、異性から成る両親と子の組み合わせが、家族なるものの原型（まさに核）と考えられているように思われる。

婚姻関係にある二者はどうだろうか。婚姻関係にあるが別居中の夫婦は家族と言えるだろうか。反対に、婚姻関係にはないが同居中のカップルは家族と言えるだろうか。また、婚姻関係を解消した元夫婦は家族と言えるのだろうか。これらはいずれも、法的な関係の有無と生活の実情とが必ずしも合っていない場合のある二者集団だが、それぞれどのような意味で「家族」と呼ばれうるのかが異なる境界事例である。　

人類学や社会学は、家族の機能に着目してきた。代表的なところでは、マードックの四機能説と、タルコット・パーソンズの二機能説がある。マードックは、核家族の機能を4つから指摘した。それは、性的機能、生殖的機能、経済的機能、教育的機能である。これらの機能を核家族が固有に果たしている間は、人間社会に核家族が存在しているという。パーソンズは、近代における社会システムの分化に応じて、家族もまた家族固有の機能のみを残すことになると考えた。これはすなわち、子どもの基礎的な社会化、および、成人のパーソナリティの安定化である。この二つが家族の固有の機能として提示した。

子どもの社会かと成人のパーソナリティの安定が脅かされる時は、家族が機能不全になっていると言える。このダイアローグでは、何が家族か、家族の規範は何か、家族の責任とは何かについて話し合いたいと思う。

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Mr. Yasumasa Ishizaka (Masa)

Investment Banker

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He has grown up in Europe and America as well as in Japan. He has worked as an investment banker in New York and Tokyo, then as Assistant to the Chairman for Club Med Asia. After creating, managing, and selling an investment advisory firm to a private equity fund, he is currently a Japan advisor to a global hedge fund.

Masa is a graduate of Brown University and Harvard Business School. He is married with two children.

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In a speech given by a Japanese astronaut who went to the international space station on a NASA space shuttle, what intrigued me the most was what surprised him about NASA’s definition of family. Family members were invited to watch the launch from a special observation tower. The Japanese astronaut thought he would invite his wife and his parents to witness this historical event which could of course potentially be dangerous so it would be comforting for them to witness the launch firsthand.

NASA told him that yes, his wife and if he wanted to, his children could attend the launch but his parents could not attend as family members. The astronaut realized the cultural difference between American and Japanese idea of individualism and independence. Rules may have been changed by now but at the time, by NASA’s definition, once you were married and had your own family, you became an independent family unit so your parents were no longer considered family members. For some parents, this concept may not be a problem since it means that they succeeded in raising a child who managed to grow up and be fully independent.

In Japan, however, your parents are the people that nurtured you so they are family no matter what. If you tell them that their child is independent and they are no longer considered part of the child’s family, they will either be sad or be offended by the exclusion. This is true even when this belief works against the parents. For example, if a person commits a crime, the general public silently assigns part of the blame on the parents. The parents oftentimes apologize to the public for the sins of their offspring. This is not always the case in Western countries where the parents somberly tell the public that the child is actually not a bad person, that the crime committed was either a mistake or accidental.

To be fair, most adult Americans probably would consider their parents part of their family but just the idea to not consider an adult person’s parents as a non-family member would probably not enter anyone’s mind in most Asian cultures.

Britanicca defines family as “a group of persons united by the ties of marriage, blood, or adoption, constituting a single household and interacting with each other in their respective social positions, usually those of spouses, parents, children, and siblings.”

            Of course, all generalizations have exceptions and not all Japanese children have a father and mother. Koreeda films make this clear, making the audience question the definition of family. But let’s assume a three generational family with grandparents, parents, and children. If you were to make a film, would they be living in one house? In two or three houses?

            Both of us have lived with our grandparents during our formative years of childhood. This has allowed us to learn important values. It is only from our grandparents that we can get firsthand accounts of interesting and embarrassing stories about our parents. And through stories, we learn values that have been passed on for generations. Our children now live with Masa’s mother which is stimulating not only for our children but for their grandmother. In her words, our children let her travel because “I listen with fascination, admiration and envy to their dreams, thoughts and ambitions.”

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