Housework - Kajiroudo

Japanese: 家事労働 - かじろうどう

Domestic work is the subsistence work necessary for human survival that is carried out within the individual home, which is the private living space. It refers to work to obtain, maintain, and manage food, clothing, and shelter, as well as the role of raising the next generation. These are essential jobs for living as a "family." However, the family referred to here is not limited to a group centered on blood ties or heterosexual marriage. It also includes single-person households. Since the 21st century, the concepts of family and domestic work have become more diverse with globalization. Specifically, it includes cleaning, laundry, cooking, shopping, raising the next generation, education, caring for family members, disposing of household waste and ensuring safety in the community, interacting with relatives, friends, and neighbors, and caring for the sick, disabled, and elderly.

[Kuninobu Junko]

Characteristics of Housework

The characteristic of this work is that it is done in the private living sphere, which is essential for the survival of humans as members of a "family," but it is not evaluated economically and no compensation is paid for the labor. In other words, it is work that has use value (usefulness in life) but does not produce exchange value (monetary value). Since the modern era of the 19th century, housework has been mainly performed by women called "housewives." Housework is performed in all family structures, such as nuclear families, extended families, and single-person households, but as long as it is a service between family members, it is unpaid. However, reflecting the recent aging society and economic downturn, there has been a sharp increase in married women seeking employment to make up for the shortfall in household expenses. As a result, private companies have entered the field to provide housework and nursing care services for a fee, and there are an increasing number of cases where housework services are purchased with money, for roles that place a heavy burden on women, such as caring for the elderly. Reflecting this situation, the Long-Term Care Insurance Act, which came into effect in April 2000, has also become widespread.

[Kuninobu Junko]

Current state of domestic work

The economic downturn has led to an increase in married women seeking non-regular employment, and part-time housewives are finding it difficult to find time for housework, leading to an increase in households simplifying their household chores. The trend toward purchasing housework services is progressing. For example, in urban areas, daily necessities and food are delivered via the Internet, and there is an increasing trend toward paid services from housework, childcare, and nursing care businesses. A new trend in the purchase of these housework services is that they are spreading among households with children and elderly households. There has also been a slight increase in eating out and eating ready-made meals (buying prepared foods and eating them at home), but in most households, the overburdened roles of women known as "housewives" in housework, childcare, and work remain unchanged. In recent years, the unemployment rate for men has increased, wages have stagnated for both men and women, and taxes have increased, leading to a tendency to save money. The child-rearing generation is also increasing, and it is difficult to secure sufficient household income. In many cases, housewives who need financial income take on part-time work under poor conditions while also spending money on housework services.

Housework has become even more labor-saving with the improvement of home electronics. The expansion of paid housework services has also lightened the burden of housework. However, a survey conducted in 2006 showed that the average time spent on housework in Japan is 4-5 hours per day, not much different from 30 years ago. This is thought to be because the spread of advanced home electronics has contributed to making housework more of a hobby and more luxurious (in terms of hygiene, electronic functions, and gourmet food) rather than reducing the time spent on it. With the decline in marriage rates, the age at marriage increasing, and the decrease in the number of children, the number of "single-person households" has increased, especially in urban areas, and housework has become more simplified and more of a hobby in urban areas. In addition, with the increase in elderly households, the phenomenon of "shopping refugees" has arisen, where people have difficulty doing their daily shopping as traditional shopping streets disappear, and the distribution of daily necessities is also undergoing restructuring.

On the other hand, there has been a slight increase in the amount of time men spend on housework and childcare. Although the term "Ikumen" (fathers who take part in childcare) has been coined, approximately 80-90% of housework in Japan is still done by women. The average time Japanese men spend on housework is around 40 minutes per day (2011), which is only one-third the amount spent by men and women in Western countries in terms of the amount of time spent on housework. Married women's roles within the home are becoming increasingly burdensome as the need for economic income increases.

Furthermore, in Japan, married women who perform housework, particularly the wives of employees (salarymen), are allowed to deduct a spouse's salary from their husband's, and spouses earning less than 1.3 million yen a year are exempt from the pension contribution obligation. There are growing calls for legal reform, but only slight reductions in the amount of deductions have been made, and no reforms to the system have been made. While it can be said that the housework of wives of employees is partially valued economically through tax deductions on their husbands' income, albeit to a small extent, the current situation is that housework performed by women other than the wives of employees is not valued under tax law.

[Kuninobu Junko]

Unpaid housework

Housework, which is done within the home, is not covered by a labor contract, and there is no relationship of paying a remuneration commensurate with the work performed. For this reason, housework roles have not traditionally been considered "labor." This is why housework is called "invisible work." This kind of unpaid work is called unpaid work, as opposed to market work, or paid work.

Housework is unpaid, even though it is essential for the survival of family members. It has been explained that the activities of reproduction (pregnancy, childbirth, and breastfeeding), in other words the production of "life," cannot be evaluated in monetary terms like the production of "goods" and "services" in market labor. For this reason, domestic work, including these, is not subject to economic evaluation, and even if it is, it tends to be low-paid worldwide. It has been pointed out that in the future, domestic work (subsistence work), which is essential for survival and meets basic life needs, needs to be converted and economically evaluated based on certain standards. There is also a movement to compare it with gross domestic product (GDP) to accurately grasp the roles played by women statistically in terms of time, etc., and to contribute to improving the status of women and realizing a society with gender equality.

If housework is evaluated economically in the same way as market labor, the establishment of quality and quantitative evaluation criteria for that labor becomes an issue.
(1) Lost earnings due to not being able to work paid work due to unpaid housework
(2) Housework expenses are calculated as expenses for specialized agency services by area
(3) Methods such as calculating expenses for general domestic services (hiring a housekeeper) and the like have been tried, but in reality these are difficult to utilize.

[Kuninobu Junko]

Equal division of household labor between men and women

The recognition that housework is unpaid work has spread along with the expansion of women's economic activity, but the problem is that because they are houseworkers, their opportunities for regular employment in the economy are limited, and the widening wage gap remains. Women who are houseworkers have few opportunities to improve their status in the economy, and the number of non-regular workers is increasing. In an economically stagnant society, both men and women are increasingly becoming non-regular workers, and there is a steady decline in the marriage rate and the total fertility rate (the average number of children a woman will have in her lifetime). As a result, the issue of unpaid housework has often led to the creation of new niche industries. These include nursing care businesses, delivery services, and the expansion of private companies' entry into the shortage of daycare centers, but charging a fee in these areas does not solve the problem of unpaid subsistence work such as housework.

It must be recognized that the "labor" of housework, childcare, and caregiving, which is generally undertaken by women, widens the gender economic gap and reinforces and strengthens sex discrimination. In order to prevent unequal distribution of social resources between men and women, it is essential that unpaid housework be shared equally between men and women. To achieve this, both men and women should be involved in economic activities, and then housework should be shared equally between men and women in terms of both time and energy allocation. Furthermore, it would be desirable to consider ways to prevent inequality from arising within families by having children become independent in their lives and share the burden.

[Kuninobu Junko]

"Housewives: The Forgotten Workers" by Ray Andre, translated by Yagi Kimiko and Kuroki Masako (1993, Keiso Shobo)" ▽ "The Labor Big Bang and Women's Work and Wages" edited by Nakano Asami, Mori Masumi, and Kinoshita Takeo (1998, Aoki Shoten)" ▽ "Reportage on the Deteriorating Employment Recession" by Takenobu Mieko (Iwanami Shinsho)

Source: Shogakukan Encyclopedia Nipponica About Encyclopedia Nipponica Information | Legend

Japanese:

家事労働とは私的生活圏である個別の家庭内で行われる人の生存に必要な生活上の仕事（サブシスタンス・ワークsubsistence work）であり、衣食住の調達・維持・管理のための仕事、および次世代育成役割をさす。これらは「家族」単位の生活を営むうえで不可欠な仕事である。ただしここでいう家族とは血縁あるいは異性間婚姻を核とした集団のみに限定しない。また、ひとり世帯をも含む。21世紀以降グローバル化とともに家族概念、家事労働概念も多様化している。具体的には家族内で行われる掃除、洗濯、料理、買い物、次世代育成、教育、家族の世話、地域の生活廃棄物処理・安全確保、親戚縁者・友人や近隣とのつきあい、病人・障がい者・高齢者介護などである。

［國信潤子］

家事労働の特徴

この仕事の特徴は、「家族」の成員としての人間の生存に必要不可欠な私的生活圏で行われる仕事であるが、経済評価されず労働対価が支払われないことである。つまり使用価値（生活における有用性）はあるが、交換価値（金銭価値）を生じない仕事である。家事は19世紀の近代以降はおもに「主婦」とよばれる女性によって担われてきたものである。核家族、拡大家族、独身者世帯などいずれの家族形態でも家事はあるが、家族員間サービスである限り無償である。しかし近年の高齢社会や経済低迷を反映し、家計費不足を補うため既婚女性の就労希望が急増している。そのため高齢者介護など女性への負担の大きい役割について、民間企業が参入し家事・介護サービスが有償で提供されるという、家事サービスを金銭で購入する例が増えている。このような状況を反映して、2000年（平成12）4月施行の介護保険法も浸透してきている。

［國信潤子］

家事労働の現状

経済低迷から既婚女性の非正規就労希望者が増加し、パート労働の主婦たちの家事時間がとりにくくなり、簡略化を進める家庭が増えている。家事サービス購入の傾向が進行しており、たとえば買い物行動では都市部ではインターネット注文による日用品・食品の宅配があり、家事・育児・介護の事業者による有償サービスの増加傾向がある。これらの家事サービス購入には子育て世帯、高齢者世帯への浸透がみられるのが新たな傾向である。食事も外食、中食(なかしょく)（総菜を購入し自宅で食べる）の微増があるが、ほとんどの家庭で、「主婦」とよばれる女性たちの家事・育児・仕事の過重役割状態は変わらない。近年はさらに男性失業率の増加、男女ともに賃金低迷、増税のなかで節約志向があり、十分な家計収入確保も困難という子育て世代が増え、経済収入の必要性に迫られた主婦たちが、劣悪な条件のパート労働を担いつつ家事サービスにも経済支出するというケースも多い。

　家庭用電化製品の機能向上によって家事はさらに省力化されている。また有償家事サービス業の拡大も家事労働の負担を軽減している。しかし2006年（平成18）の調査では、日本における家事労働時間は1日当り4～5時間で、30年前と大差はない。これは高度化した家庭電化製品の浸透が、時間短縮よりも家事労働の趣味化、高級化（衛生面、電子機能面、グルメ化）に寄与したためとみられる。婚姻率の低下、婚姻年齢の高齢化、子ども人数の減少とともに都市部ではとくに「ひとり世帯」の増加があり、家事内容も都市部では簡便化と趣味化がみられる。また、買い物行動においては高齢者世帯の増加とともに、都市部においても従来の商店街が消えるなか日々の買い物にも苦労する「買い物難民」といわれる現象が生じ、生活物資の流通の再編も進行している。

　他方、男性による家事・育児担当時間には微増がある。「イクメン」（子育てをする父親）などということばも生まれているが、日本において家事労働の約8～9割は依然として女性によって担われている。日本男性の家事労働時間は1日当り約40分（2011）で、これは欧米諸国などの男女の家事労働時間調査と比較しても3分の1程度と短い。既婚女性の家庭内役割は経済収入の必要性の高まりとともに、さらに過重化している。

　また日本では家事労働を担う既婚女性、それも被雇用者（サラリーマン）の妻に対してのみ夫の給与に配偶者控除、年収130万円以下の配偶者の年金積立て義務の免除などが認められている。法改正の声も高まっているが、控除額の微減にとどまり、制度改正には至っていない。被雇用者の妻についてはわずかではあるが家事労働は夫の収入への税控除などで一部経済評価されているともいえるが、被雇用者の妻以外の女性がする家事労働は税法上は評価されていないのが現状である。

［國信潤子］

家事労働の無償性

家庭内において行われる家事という仕事は労働契約下になく、遂行された労働に見合う報酬を支払うという関係にはない。そのため従来、家事役割は「労働」とみなされてこなかった。家事労働が「見えない労働」invisible workといわれるゆえんである。このような報酬の支払われない労働は、市場労働、つまり有償労働（ペイドワークpaid work）に対して無償労働（アンペイドワークunpaid work）とよばれる。

　家事は家族成員の生存には不可欠な労働であるにもかかわらず無償である。それは、たとえば生命再生産の営み（妊娠・出産・哺乳(ほにゅう)）つまり「いのち」の生産は、市場労働で行われる「モノ」「サービス」の生産のように金銭評価できないからという説明がされてきた。このため、それらを含む家事労働というものは経済的評価の対象とされず、またされたとしても低賃金であることが世界的な傾向である。今後は、基本的生活ニーズを満たす生存に不可欠な家事労働（サブシスタンス・ワーク）を、一定の基準のもとに換算して経済評価する必要が指摘されている。またそれを国内総生産（GDP）と対比することにより、女性の果たしている役割を統計的に時間などで正確に把握し、女性の地位向上や男女共同参画社会の実現に資することを図ろうとする動きもある。

　家事を市場労働と同様に経済評価すると、その労働の質・量的評価基準の確立が問題となる。評価の方法として
(1)家事という無償労働を行うことで有償労働につけないための逸失利益換算
(2)家事を領域別専門代行サービスへの経費として換算
(3)家事を家事一般代行サービス（家政婦雇用）などの経費として換算
などの方法が試行されているが、現実的には活用されにくいのが現状である。

［國信潤子］

家事労働の男女均等分担

家事労働が不払い労働であるという認識は女性の経済活動の拡大とともに浸透しているが、その問題点は家事担当ゆえに経済活動における正規労働就労機会が限定され、賃金格差拡大が解消されない点である。家事労働担当者である女性は経済活動においては地位向上の機会が少なく、非正規労働者の増加がみられる。経済低迷社会において男女ともに非正規労働者化が進行しており、婚姻率の低下、合計特殊出生率（1人の女性が生涯に生む平均的な子ども数）の持続的低下がある。結果として家事労働の無償性の問題は多くの場合、新たなすきま産業の創出に結び付いてきている。介護事業、宅配サービス、不足する保育園の私企業参入拡大などであるが、この領域の有償化は家事労働というサブシステンス・ワークの無償性という問題を解決するものではない。

　一般的にある女性が担う家事・育児・介護「労働」によって、ジェンダー間経済格差が拡大し、性差別が補強・強化されることが認識されなければならない。社会資源の不平等分配が男女間に生じないようにするには、無償労働である家事労働の男女均等分担が不可欠となる。このために男女がともに経済活動をしたうえで、家事労働を時間的にもエネルギー配分のうえでも男女均等に分担する。さらに子どもも生活自立し分担することによって、家族間に不均等が生じない方法を考えることが今後の望ましい形といえよう。

［國信潤子］

『レイ・アンドレ著、矢木公子・黒木雅子訳『主婦――忘れられた労働者』（1993・勁草書房）』▽『中野麻美・森ます美・木下武男編『労働ビッグバンと女の仕事・賃金』（1998・青木書店）』▽『竹信三恵子著『ルポ雇用劣化不況』（岩波新書）』