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
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