• Ryota Mugiyama Associate Professor, Department of Political Studies, Gakushuin University

• Shirahase Sawako TCJS Director

Marriage timing has been delayed in parallel with the rise in non-regular employment in developed countries. However, little is known about why non-regular work is associated with delayed marriage. In addition, how the influence of non-regular work matters across different relationship status is still unclear. Using nationally representative panel survey data from Japan, we test two explanations––lack of economic independence and bad nonpecuniary job qualities––for why non-regular work is associated with delayed marriage across different relationship status. Considering differential expectation on breadwinner role, analyses are separately conducted by men and women. The results show that the association between non-regular work and delayed marriage is partly explained by lower income rather than worse job qualities. For men, lower income explains both the delayed formation of romantic relationship and the transition from romantic relationship to first marriage. For women, lower income has opposite mediating effect by different relationship status: the lower income delayed non-regular workers’ formation of romantic relationship but prompt their transition from romantic relationship to first marriage. Although worse job qualities are significantly associated with the transition to marriage, they do not explain the effect of non-regular work for either men or women.

Ryota Mugiyama is Associate Professor at Department of Political Studies, Gakushuin University, Japan. He has received his doctoral degree (sociology) in 2019 at the University of Tokyo, Japan. His research focuses on labor market inequality and life course. His other recent work includes intragenerational mobility, gender inequality, and employment trajectories around childbirth.