Background
The Ie (家), or "household," was the basic unit of Japanese law until the end of World War II: most civil and criminal matters were considered to involve families rather than individuals. The "Ie" was considered to consist of grandparents, their son and his wife and their children, although even in 1920, 54% of Japanese households already were nuclear families.
This system was formally abolished with the 1947 revision of Japanese family law under the influence of the Allied occupation authorities, and Japanese society began a transition to a more Americanized nuclear family system. However, the number of nuclear families only slightly increased until 1980, when it reached 63% and the Confucian principles underlying the "Ie" concept only gradually faded and are still informally followed to some degree by many Japanese people today.
Read more about this topic: Family Law In Japan
Famous quotes containing the word background:
“They were more than hostile. In the first place, I was a south Georgian and I was looked upon as a fiscal conservative, and the Atlanta newspapers quite erroneously, because they didn’t know anything about me or my background here in Plains, decided that I was also a racial conservative.”
—Jimmy Carter (James Earl Carter, Jr.)
“Silence is the universal refuge, the sequel to all dull discourses and all foolish acts, a balm to our every chagrin, as welcome after satiety as after disappointment; that background which the painter may not daub, be he master or bungler, and which, however awkward a figure we may have made in the foreground, remains ever our inviolable asylum, where no indignity can assail, no personality can disturb us.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“... every experience in life enriches one’s background and should teach valuable lessons.”
—Mary Barnett Gilson (1877–?)