Profound economic, social, and cultural changes have affected Asian societies during the latter half of the twentieth century. Among those changes have been industrialization, the growth of large cities as rural inhabitants have migrated to urban areas, a revolution in technology and communications, rapid declines in fertility and mortality rates, and dramatic improvements in education and living standards.

Nowhere has this transformation been more apparent than in the countries of East and Southeast Asia, particularly Japan. And with the new social and economic circumstances have come challenges to cultural traditions and values.

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This volume by prominent social scientists from Asia and the United States examines the ways in which families in Japan, South Korea, Thailand, and China (including Taiwan) are coping with modern pressures and compares the situation in those countries with that in the United States. It explores such issues as structural changes within the family and intergenerational roles in societies influenced by Confucianism, attitudes toward marriage, family formation, and living arrangements of the elderly.

The analysis draws upon evidence from censuses and surveys, including a recent national survey of Japanese families conducted by Nihon University and Mainichi Newspapers. The volume's editors conclude that despite the pressures of modernization, traditional familial values have proven remarkably resilient in the four Asian societies.