Community-Based Child-Rearing Support for Families : Based on an Investigation in Sapporo, Japan

Against the backdrop of a high proportion of mothers who take care of their children at home and the problem of child-rearing anxiety and social isolation among them, the Japanese government has currently expanded child-rearing support via the Community-based Child-rearing Support Centers (CCSCs). They are open spaces for infants and parents in the community, where they can gather freely, communicate with each other, and share their anxieties and worries related to child rearing. There are also many voluntary programs that are similar to the CCSCs in each region, and all of these are often called “childcare salons.” In this study, I categorize these childcare salons into 4 types based on their management bodies, namely, the center type, childrenʼs hall type, Hiroba type, and local-based type. Based on a qualitative investigation conducted in Sapporo, a Japanese urban area, I briefly summarize how these childcare salons support child rearing by “full-time mothers” and affect the formation of their childcare support networks. These childcare salons are diverse in terms of staff members and volunteers, space and facilities, and their opening hours. These features characterize the institutional support provided by these salons, which affects the relational support mutually provided among mothers who avail these services; therefore, different types of social exchanges and network formation are prevalent among the users. These childcare salons embody the idea of the “socialization of childcare” and practically “socialize” child rearing by moving it from the private sphere to the public sphere outside the family and by sharing it among families and people in the community. However, there are still issues and limitations with respect to gender division and family responsibility of childcare. (Received on November 16, 2016) 1. Child-rearing family with infants in Japan In Japan, the majority of infants are cared for by mothers at home. Although the double-income and one-parent households have been remarkably increasing, breadwinner/homemaker households have still maintained considerable proportions in terms of families with young children. Among the households with children under 6 years of age, nuclear families with a working father and a non-working mother account for 43.4% and reach 49.1% among households with children under 3 years of age (Japanʼs 29 Journal of the Graduate School of Letters, Hokkaido University Vol. 12; pp. 29-37, February 2017 ©2017 by the Graduate School of Letters, Hokkaido University Haruka KUDO: h-kudo@eis.hokudai.ac.jp 10.14943/jgsl.12.29 1 While the nuclear families with both working parents comprise 27.3% and one parent 3.0%. national census 2010). Moreover, only 12.5% of children aged 0 and 38.1% aged 1-2 used public subsidized day-care services in 2015, i.e., most infants are taken care of at home (see figure 1). With the shortage of public day-care supply especially for children under 3 years of age in urban areas, nearly a half the married women in 25-39 age group are not working, and the Japanese female employment rate still retains the M-shaped curve [Cabinet Office 2016:6]. On the other hand, it is pointed out that long-hour work practices keep Japanese fathers away from childcare. Fathers in families with children under 6 years of age spend 39 minutes a day for childcare on an average while mothers spend about 3 hours [MIC 2011]. Also, there is a considerable gap in the take-up rate of childcare leave between women (81. 5%) and men (2. 65%) in 2015 [MHLW 2016b: 11]. These facts imply the unequal distribution of childcare responsibilities by gender as well as the existence of a constant number of mothers who are taking care of their young children at home. Moreover, regarding gender attitudes, 77% of married women agree that caring role of mothers, namely, that “Until the child is around 3 years of age, the mother should not work but concentrate on looking after the child” [IPSS 2014]. This principle is known as the “myth of the first three years.” As Ochiai, Yamane &Miyasaka [2007] described, “(In Japan) the norm that mothers of young children should be devoted to child rearing is still dominant, and the employment pattern of the M-shaped curve has not collapsed. On the other hand, mothers who are devoted to child rearing lose their social networks and become isolated, and the ‘child-rearing anxiety’ such as being seized with the vague anxiety about child rearing and sometimes maltreating a child, has become a social problem” [Ibid: 3]. On the basis of this point, the next section briefly outlines the development of Japanese childcare support policies in relation to the rising problem of child rearing by “full-time mothers.” 30 Haruka KUDO Figure 1. The rate of preschool children availing childcare services Source: MHLW [2015a, 2016a], MEXT [2015] 2 15-16% of male employees in their 30s and 40s were working more than 60 hours a week in 2015 [Cabinet Office 2016: 8]. According to Matsuda [2008], the main factor that kept Japanese fathers away from participation in child rearing is long working hours. 3 In fact, more than half of mothers in dual-parent families with preschool children are not working (Japanʼs national census 2010). 4 With regard to the role of mothers and their strong commitment to maternal identity, these are the women who choose the lifestyle of becoming a housewife only during child birth and child rearing, rather than taking on the role of wives [Miyasaka 1988, 2013]. 2. Problems on child rearing and development of childcare support policies In post-war Japan, the use of public day-care services had been restricted by the employment and economic status or disease conditions of parents since the 1950s, and its target was limited to children “lacking day-care (at home)” [Shimoebisu 1994: 254-5]. Since the 1960s, the Japanese government has emphasized the significance of childcare at home and the caring role of women in relation to economic growth and the sound development of children. Parallel to the policy trends which put the importance on the motherʼs responsibility for children, the male breadwinner family or “modern family” [Ochiai 1989] had expanded and this led to “housewifization” [Ochiai et al. 2007: 3] of women in the early 1970s, i.e., the popularization of full-time mothers. However, it was also in the 1970s that “child-rearing anxiety” or “maternity neurosis” became the focus of family problems. From the 1980s onwards, studies on the cause of childcare problems are fully established and their perspectives developed from the focus on individual mothers to their social relations or the social institution of child rearing [Yamane 2000→ 2006: 53]. Katsuko Makino was one of the first researchers to study the problem of “child-rearing anxiety” among Japanese mothers. She defined childrearing anxiety, created original scales for its analysis, and found that mothers at home tended to feel monotony in daily life and isolation due to child rearing [Makino 1989]. Moreover, it was clarified that the degree of child-rearing anxiety associated with the wideness of the social networks of mothers and the relationship with their husbands [Makino 2005]. Although “child-rearing anxiety” and “isolated child rearing” had been recognized as problems among full-time mothers, the support for these parents was not established immediately. The national policy on childcare maintained its emphasis on the importance of motherhood and childcare at home as well as the self-help efforts of families with regard to child rearing [Inoue 2013: 79]. However, in the beginning of the 1990s, the decline in birthrate increased the sense of social crisis, and since then, the idea and the measures of social support for child rearing have been gradually developed. In 1998, the government finally denied the “myth of the first three years” in a white paper, and mentioned the problem of full-time mothersʼ tendency for high anxiety in child rearing, as well as the burdens of child rearing caused by the social isolation of parents due to the lack of support from relatives and neighbors. Against the background of not only the declining birthrate but also the increasing problem of child abuse, these problems came into focus, and full-time mothers became the target of childcare support [Inoue 2013: 8391]. Moreover, from the year 2000, the phrase “support for the development of the next generation” became widely used, and the idea of childcare support for “all children and families” was clearly declared in policy documents. In 2005, the Japanese government mentioned the importance of the “socialization of childcare” in a white paper with regards to the limitations of care by family and the necessity to raise children as the responsibility of families as well as society as a whole. So, far, under these circumstances, childcare support measures not only for working parents, but also for children and parents at home have been gradually developed. And these have proceeded to include the community and voluntary sectors as actors of childcare support for the family in the community. 31 Community-Based Child-Rearing Support for Families: Based on an Investigation in Sapporo, Japan