Does the Labor Force Participation of Married Female Immigrants Decrease in a Low Female LFP Host Country? Evidence From Japan

Yang Liu and Risa Hagiwara

Population and Development Review, 2025, vol. 51, issue 3, 1047-1074

Abstract: This study uses large‐scale census data to present some of the first evidence on the labor force participation (LFP) of married female immigrants, focusing on those who migrated from relatively high female LFP home countries to a low female LFP host country (Japan). First, our results indicate that source‐country culture plays an important role in determining female immigrants’ LFP. Both the wife's and husband's source‐country cultures have significant effects on immigrant women's work, the effect being greater for the wife than for the husband. Second, although immigrants usually act more like natives the longer they live in the host country, after controlling for individual characteristics, we found that female migrant LFP rates increase after five years compared to the initial years following arrival. This result suggests that source‐country culture plays a large and persistent role in determining female LFP, which leads to cultural assimilation proceeding slower than economic assimilation. However, we do not claim that acculturation is weak, as we find further evidence of considerable acculturation among second‐generation immigrants and those who arrived during childhood. Acculturation is thus likely driven by childhood socialization rather than culture integration during adulthood.

Date: 2025
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