• Holly Hummer Harvard University Department of Sociology

• Sawako SHIRAHASE Director of TCJS

In this presentation, I will provide early findings from a comparative, interview-based study with childless women in the U.S. and Japan. The presentation will focus on how the lived experience of being childless is shaped by unique cultural and structural factors that differ in the U.S. and Japan.

Holly Hummer is a PhD candidate in Sociology at Harvard University. I study social and demographic trends using qualitative, cultural, and gender-informed lenses. Before starting graduate school, I taught English in Tokyo for a year under the JET program.