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Life at Home 2050

Equality starts at home

We believe that fair and equal life start at home. IKEA Japan is launching a new project in 2024 to create home where everyone living in Japan can shine as themselves, feel happy and be healthy.

Equality is a human right. We believe that everyone has a right to be treated equally and has equal opportunities.

So how does the fair and equal world look like?  

Let's imagine it together first. What kind of life at home do you want to be living in 2050? 

Current state of Japanese society

Gender Gap Index

In the Global Gender Gap Report in 2024 by the World Economic Forum, Japan ranks 118th out of 146 countries. We are far behind the rest of the world especially in the fields of politics and economics. Meanwhile, Sweden, the country where IKEA was founded, is ranked 5th in the world and is one of the leading countries in terms of gender equality.

Gender roles remain unchanged

Gender stereotypes within the family remain unchanged, with men feeling the pressure of being the main breadwinner and working long hours, which in turn places the burden of housework, childcare, and elderly care on women. The Life at Home Report 2023 also found that women are taking on heavier duties at home in Japan.

Various elements intertwines

Equality at home is a very complex and big challenge. Our lives at home cannot be separated from our workplace and society. On the other hand, if we take a fresh look at our most important place "home" and see the challenges as our own, perhaps we can create changes in our daily lives at home. We believe that an accumulation of these small changes can have a big impact on society.

2050 feels far, but it’s closer than it seems

What can we do today to help the next generation to live in healthy and happy homes, and to build an equal society where everyone can shine? Given the current state of Japanese society, it may take time to bring about change. We need to take action now.

What we aim for

In collaboration with stakeholders

We have been working on various initiatives for "equality at home", but we have learned that "one company cannot do it alone to create a big impact". We believe that we can create significant change to address the complex social issue of equality at home by collaborating with stakeholders such as companies, government, academia, customer, and the media.

Taking a long-term view

We are taking the IKEA innovation approach for this project, aiming to create more impactful actions by repeating the cycle of "sharing“, "learning“ and "acting" together with stakeholders over the next five years. Also, when you imagine the immediate future, you may feel like giving up on change or develop a restrained way of thinking.  That is why we are broadening our perspective by looking at 2050, aiming to dream big about our own future. 

For each individual to lead a healthy and sustainable life and for Japanese society to become more equal.　　

Perhaps we can take inspiration from Sweden, one of the leading countries of gender equality. As a Swedish company, IKEA will continue to expand its circle of collaboration and create an impact to society so that everyone feels that they have fair and equal opportunities.

What we have done and are working on

Workshops with participating companies

Together with companies and academia that support Life at Home 2050, we held workshops from June 2024 to discuss our views on gender equality, sharing possibilities and challenges, and insights into the future. We continue to have dialogue to find common purpose, a picture of the future we want to create and the ways to contribute to our common purpose.

"Home Day" symposium and an event with IKEA Family members 

IKEA Japan registered 1 August as "Home Day (Yappari-ie-no-hi)" in 2010, and this year held a symposium to announce the launch of "Life at Home 2050“. The companies that participated in the workshops, the Swedish Embassy and experts who support our initiative gathered to discuss current issues of life at home and the future we aim for.

In the afternoon, we held an event for IKEA Family members. LiLiCo, a Swedish-born TV personality and film critic, and her husband, Ryouhei Odai, a TV personality and actor, shared stories of their life at home.  All guests and participants also played IKEA Japan's original “Life at Home card game” and enjoyed thinking and talking about ideas for making their lives at home better and happier. 

Life at Home card game

Through the Life at Home 2050 workshop, we learned that when it comes to the challenges around us like equality at home, it is important to reflect on it first, verbalize our own thoughts and feelings, and then continue the dialogue with others. That is why we developed a card game as a tool to support people to reflect on their challenges and think about ideas to make their lives at home better in playful ways.

Through the card game, people can talk about things they don't usually have a chance to talk about, realize that what is “normal” in their own home is different from what is normal in others’ home, and discover new ways of living and thinking in their own homes. This is a game that can be enjoyed freely as a family with children, with a partner, or with friends or colleagues.

Research on equality at home

To gain insight into how people in Japan perceive equality, we conducted an online survey of 2,067 individuals over two days, on 5 to 6 July 2024. Here are some of the highlights.

Q. Are you satisfied with your life at home?

Roughly one in two people are satisfied with their lives at home, but the percentage of women who are satisfied is slightly lower than that of men. There are also slightly more women who are not satisfied.

Q. Are you NOT satisfied with your life at home? NOT satisfied with equality at home?

When comparing men and women who live with their partners, women of all age groups tend to be more dissatisfied with their lives at home, and even when it comes to equality at home, women aged 35 and over are slightly more dissatisfied than men.

Q. Are you satisfied with equality at home / at work / in Japan?

More than half (58.6%) of the people were satisfied with equality at home (the sum of "very satisfied" and "somewhat satisfied"). However, as we move to the macro level of the workplace and society, the percentage of satisfied people is rapidly decreasing. 

Additionally, the percentage of people who are dissatisfied also increase at a more macro level.

Q. Why are you satisfied with your equality at home? Why are you NOT satisfied?

The number one reason people feel satisfied with equality at home is "we treat each other with care and respect" at 42.3%, while one in four (25%) say that the reason of dissatisfied with equality at home is "care and respect are lacking." Care and respect seem to be key to equality at home.
Additionally, 44% of people feel "they don't know" the reason why they are not satisfied. Many seem to be vaguely dissatisfied with equality at home while they are concerned about the state of equality or have not thought about the reasons.
On the other hand, we can see the trend changes. The percentage of both men and women aged 20 to 34 who answered that "my voice is heard regardless of my gender" and "It is balanced while acknowledging gender differences" was higher than in other age groups, suggesting that awareness of gender equality is increasing among younger generations.
Additionally, the percentage of men aged 20 to 34 who answered “The amount of work and workload (housework, childcare, elderly care) is equal" was higher than women of the same age group and other age groups, suggesting that they are also conscious of equality at home.

Q. "I think our home would be more equality if ● was ■." Please fill in ● and ■. (Open question)

Looking at the answers in a word cloud, it is clear that "equality" and "sharing" of "housework" are key. We also found that economic factors such as income and mindset such as care and respect are important.