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Child Rearing in Japan
Abstract
In this chapter we focus on child rearing in Japan. We are particularly interested in the changing role of fathers, who have frequently been characterized as marginal figures in the Japanese family system. We first undertake a brief historical overview of the Japanese family in order to understand how the role of mothers and fathers has evolved during the modern period. We then review recent research findings on parenting in Japan. We conclude with an overview of the steps that policy makers and educators can take to support Japanese parents’ ability to nurture their young and improve the wellbeing of all family members.
... Indirect socialization strategies that promote autonomous learning through children experiencing the consequences of their actions are highly valued (Holloway, 2010). Japanese parents also value explaining and reasoning to stimulate children's sense of empathy towards preparing them to skillfully interact with others in kind, humble, and socially sensitive ways (Holloway & Nagase, 2014;Rothbaum et al., 2000). ...
... China and Malaysia share a similar level of economic development (based on GDP per capita; The World Bank, 2022). However, Japan is more economically developed than China and Malaysia (The World Bank, 2022) but shares more cultural similarities with China than Malaysia due to broad Confucian and Buddhist influences on childrearing that co-exist with Shinto beliefs (Holloway & Nagase, 2014). Comparing parenting across these three countries can potentially allow for some disentangling of the roles of culture and economic development. ...
... Additionally, Japanese culture emphasizes socializing individuals to immerse themselves into a group and follow social rules naturally and willingly rather than forcing them (Dien, 1999). Accordingly, Japanese parents value an indirect socialization strategy called "mimamoru" (Holloway, 2010), especially when interacting with young children (Holloway & Nagase, 2014), which allows children to learn through the consequences of their own behaviors rather than from parents' interventions. These factors may have accounted for the low levels of endorsement of most parenting dimensions in our Japanese sample. ...
This study compared parenting across four non-Western cultures to test cross-cultural commonality and specificity principles in three aspects: measurement properties, parenting normativeness, and their associations with child outcomes. Both mothers and fathers (N=1509 dyads) with preschool-aged children (M=5.00 years; 48% girls) from urban areas of four countries (Malaysia, N=372; China, N=441; Turkey, N=402; and Japan, N=294) reported on four parenting constructs (authoritative, authoritarian, group harmony socialization, and intrusive control) and their sub-dimensions using modified culturally relevant measures. Teachers reported on children’s internalizing, externalizing, and prosocial behaviors. The
commonality principle was supported by two sets of findings: (1) full measurement
invariance was established for most parenting constructs and sub-dimensions, except that intrusive control only reached partial scalar invariance, and (2) no variations were found in associations between parenting and any child outcomes across cultures or parent gender at the construct level for all four parenting constructs and at the sub-dimensional level for authoritarian and intrusive control sub-dimensions. The specificity principle was supported by the other two sets of findings: (1) cross-cultural differences in parenting normativeness did not follow the pattern of economic development but yielded culture-specific patterns, and (2) at the sub-dimensional level, the authoritative parenting and group harmony socialization sub-dimensions were differently associated with child outcomes across cultures and/or parent gender. The findings suggested that examining specific dimensions rather than broad parenting constructs is necessary to reflect cultural specificities and nuances. Our study provided a culturally-invariant instrument and a three-step guide for future parenting research to examine cross-cultural commonalities/specificities.
... Japanese childrearing styles may create stress for mothers with two reasons. First, many scholars agree that children are viewed as being inherently good in Japan (Holloway & Nagase, 2014). In this view parents' responsibility is to nurture the child's innately predisposed nature of purity and virtue. ...
... 4). This non-interventional approach and respect for children's natural developmental rhythm appears to be associated with the traditional Japanese view of children as being innocent (Holloway & Nagase, 2014). ...
... This is the first study showing that parents are advised to use the mimamoru approach for infants younger than 1 year old. Such recommendations for taking a mimamoru approach for very young children contrasts with previous research depicting Japanese mother-child interactions as being interdependent and involving close physical proximity (Holloway & Nagase, 2014). Dennis et al. (2002) also found that the interaction between Japanese pre-schoolers and their mothers was physically closer than in U.S. dyads. ...
The Japanese pedagogical strategy of mimamoru (watch and protect) has been identified by cross-culture researchers as an implicit component of early childhood education in Japan. However, little is known about the types of advice given by experts to parents regarding mimamoru. Accordingly, this study examined expert advice related to the mimamoru approach in Japanese parenting magazines from 2015 to 2019. The majority of discipline-related articles examined included discussion of the mimamoru approach for infants and toddlers in the context of dangerous child behavior, conflicts with other children, sleep problems, and daily habit building. Experts cited promotion of child autonomy and development and avoidance of over-involvement as reasons for using mimamoru. However, concerns were also raised that the mimamoru approach may increase the childrearing stress of mothers when dealing with children’s defiant behavior. The study provides an important window into the Japanese strategy of mimamoru and suggested areas of future research.
... It is important to note that the Confucian ideology has greatly influenced Japanese society by emphasizing the development of morality and social skills among the youth. Parents with Confucian ideals are more likely to believe that children need to nurture morals and helpfulness qualities, which will safeguard them against the corrupting impact of modern civilization (Holloway & Nagase, 2014). Additionally, Japanese parents also encourage their children to be persistent, kind, empathetic, obedient, and polite (Holloway, 2010;Holloway & Nagase, 2014). ...
... Parents with Confucian ideals are more likely to believe that children need to nurture morals and helpfulness qualities, which will safeguard them against the corrupting impact of modern civilization (Holloway & Nagase, 2014). Additionally, Japanese parents also encourage their children to be persistent, kind, empathetic, obedient, and polite (Holloway, 2010;Holloway & Nagase, 2014). To develop social skills, Japanese parents utilize unique strategies for socializing their children. ...
... To develop social skills, Japanese parents utilize unique strategies for socializing their children. For example, parents tend to avoid direct conflict with children; instead, they draw their children's attention to the consequences of misconduct and often stimulate the sense of empathy by referring to the affective outcomes of conduct on another person (Holloway & Nagase, 2014). Further, individualistic and collectivistic values coexist in the socialization of Japanese children. ...
Promoting prosocial behavior among adolescents protects them against problematic outcomes and ensures their positive development. This study aimed to examine (1) the association between adolescents’ representation of acceptance-rejection from multiple attachment figures (father, mother, best friend, and teacher) and prosocial behavior toward multiple targets (stranger, friends, and family) and (2) the mediating role of sense of authenticity in these relationships. The sample comprised 784 adolescents (56% boys), aged 12–15 years (M = 13.98 years, SD = .83). Data were collected online by a research company using six self-report measures. The structural equation model suggested that paternal acceptance-rejection was significantly directly associated with prosocial acts toward three targets and maternal acceptance-rejection was indirectly associated with prosocial acts toward a stranger. Moreover, best friend and teacher acceptance-rejection was related to prosocial acts toward family and friends, and friends respectively. Sense of authenticity mediated the association between maternal and best friend acceptance-rejection and prosocial behavior toward strangers. The findings reveal that the benefits of providing acceptance or love in a relationship are reciprocal and offer personal benefits and increased welfare of others.
... It will take some time for Japanese society to overcome these hurdles facing Japanese families, but the government has taken several measures to support Japanese working mothers, especially since the 2010s (e.g., increasing the number of day care facilities, encouraging Japan's business associations to increase the hiring, promotion, and empowering of women among member firms; Alkubati, 2019;Holloway & Nagase, 2014). In line with such changes, contemporary Japanese fathers may have become more involved in child-rearing in recent years, but they are still less likely than men in other countries to have a strong interest in parenting (Holloway & Nagase, 2014). ...
... It will take some time for Japanese society to overcome these hurdles facing Japanese families, but the government has taken several measures to support Japanese working mothers, especially since the 2010s (e.g., increasing the number of day care facilities, encouraging Japan's business associations to increase the hiring, promotion, and empowering of women among member firms; Alkubati, 2019;Holloway & Nagase, 2014). In line with such changes, contemporary Japanese fathers may have become more involved in child-rearing in recent years, but they are still less likely than men in other countries to have a strong interest in parenting (Holloway & Nagase, 2014). Thus, in this case presentation, it seemed that Miki needed to seek help from her husband in an effective way to balance her work and family life. ...
... As discussed earlier, contemporary Japanese mothers tend to take full responsibility for taking care of family matters even if they are working full time. Such cultural models are, of course, not necessarily applicable to all individuals in a community, but in the case of Japan, there may be more homogeneity than in most countries, due to the fact that Japan has a long island country history behind it, has sharply restricted immigration, and does not have the racial and ethnic diversity of the United States or Western Europe (Holloway & Nagase, 2014). In this case study, the series of treatments largely adhered to the Japanese version of the PCIT manual, without major modifications to the original protocol. ...
Parent–child interaction therapy (PCIT) is an empirically supported behavioral parenting intervention developed for families with young children who have significant behavior problems. In Japan, PCIT was introduced in 2008 as a parenting intervention method and later introduced to therapists. This case study reports on the detailed use of PCIT, originally developed in Western cultures, for a 5-year-old Japanese boy with behavioral problems and his mother. During the treatment, the mother successfully acquired PCIT skills in the early stages of the coach sessions that led to improvements in the child’s problematic behavior. However, especially in the later stages of the treatment, the mother was too tired/distressed to focus on the treatment, which complicated the implementation of PCIT (e.g., unable to do homework, canceled sessions). This was mainly because she was a full-time working mother who was very busy with work, housework, and child-rearing, and also had no help from her husband. Cases such as this are commonly seen in current Japanese society. In summary, this case study supported the potential effectiveness of Western-originated PCIT for Japanese families with children who have behavioral problems, and also argued that there is a need for PCIT therapists to carefully assess and address the primary caregiver’s distractions outside the session room especially when working with Japanese working mothers.
... A reported 70% of women quit their jobs after childbirth, compared to one third in the United States (Wingfield-Hayes, 2013;Yu, 2009). Many women cite reasons such as the chronic shortage of childcare, Japan's culture of long working hours, the low participation of fathers in child-rearing, and harassment from employers who would prefer that women quit their jobs because of the presumption that they cannot balance child-rearing and work responsibilities (Holloway & Nagase, 2014;Koide, 2015). ...
... Women are expected to devote themselves to child-rearing, their husbands, and sometimes their aging parents and in-laws. Through the media, the government introduced policies and commissioned several reports to promote women's roles as housewives and the importance of forming a maternal bond during the first 3 years of their children's lives (Holloway & Nagase, 2014). Women who choose to work deal with not only the stress of juggling work and childcare commitments but also the disapproving attitudes of extended family, neighbours, and sometimes even their own colleagues (Jolivet, 1997). ...
... Women in the study believed that the traditional role fostered by Japanese society encourages discrimination from their male counterparts and that this creates stress at work. For many women in Japan, the most accepted pattern is to enter the full-time labour force on completion of school, leave at marriage or the birth of the first child, and return, usually as a part-time worker, when child-rearing responsibilities lessen (Holloway & Nagase, 2014;Yamazaki et al., 2011;Zhou, 2014). ...
Most foreign women living and working in Japan, while raising multicultural children, may find it challenging to manage their roles as caregivers and cultural and linguistic transmitters while pursuing their professional goals. In a patriarchal society, where more old-fashioned expectations of women prevail, foreign working mothers must endeavor to navigate their way not only culturally and linguistically but also professionally. The aim of this study is to explore foreign working mothers’ efforts across their multiple roles in Japan. Data obtained via questionnaires consisting of qualitative and quantitative items from working foreign women practicing multicultural child-rearing were scrutinized and statistically analyzed to provide a rich understanding of the participants’ experiences. Findings outline the challenges they face in tending to their roles and responsibilities and the strategies they adopt to deal with the challenges experienced. The authors further canvass and discuss the societal and familial factors that have contributed to their journeys. 日本在住で仕事をしている多くの外国人女性は、キャリアを追求しつつ、多文化の子育てをするうえで、子育てと自らの文化および言語の伝達という役割を困難に感じているであろう。家父長制の社会においては、女性に対して、より保守的な考えが流布しており、仕事を持つ外国人女性は、文化的言語的観点からだけではなく職業的観点からも自身の進路を切り開く努力をしなければならない。この研究目的は、日本で子供を持つ外国人女性の多文化的役割への取り組みを調査することである。仕事を持つ外国人女性の多文化的子育てについての量的、質的質問項目から構成されたアンケートを用いてデータ取集を行い、データを精査し統計分析を行った。その結果、被験者の経験について深い理解に行き着いた。彼女達の役割や責任において直面した課題とその課題への対処法を、研究結果として概説する。彼女らの道程に寄与した社会的家族的要因についても、詳しく調査し議論する。
... On the other hand, the long hours spent by Japanese men on their work virtually prevent them from more active fatherhood. Japanese fathers are not only much less involved in childrearing than mothers, but also rarely exhibit a strong desire and determination to become more fully engaged as fathers (Holloway and Nagase 2014). ...
... This allows for less space for individuals to leverage their relative resources in negotiations of family decisions. Another explanation may be that the competition faced by children to gain academic achievement and success in life is less severe in Japan than in other East Asian societies (Holloway and Nagase 2014), which, therefore, entails lower expectations of the better qualified parent to take sole charge of decisions. ...
Previous research on household labor has focused more on its physical participation and less on the mental and managerial responsibility. In this paper, using data from the 2006 East Asia Social Survey and the 2012 International Social Survey Program, we evaluate how couples made childrearing decisions and the role of relative education in shaping such decisions in urban China, Taiwan, and Japan. We find a dominant “co-pilot” model of childrearing decision-making among the urban Chinese with both husbands and wives participating, a “separate sphere” model among the Japanese with least sole decision-making by the husband, and a mixed model among the Taiwanese. Regardless of gender, the better-educated parent in China and Taiwan is more likely to take sole charge of childrearing decision-making. This suggests that the human capital of parents may play an increasingly salient role in parenting behavior in contemporary East Asia in the sense that the better-educated parent has a greater responsibility for making childrearing decisions while the gender boundaries become more blurred over time.
... For instance, it is discussed that collectivist cultures discourage the expression of high arousal positive affect, but value calm and peaceful positive affect that will maintain group's inner adjustment (Tsai, 2007). It is also stated that in cultures where interdependency is highly valued, mothers express less anger toward their children and anger expression is widely discouraged in order to protect the inner harmony of the family and/or the social group against conflicts (Friesen, 1972;Roland, 1996;Holloway and Nagase, 2014). ...
... Japanese mothering style amplifies inter-relatedness and oneness, by a strong bond between the mother and child, frequent physical contact, and high maternal responsiveness (Friedlmeier and Trommsdorff, 1998). Japanese mothering style suppresses anger expression toward the child in order to maintain the harmony and avoid separation from oneness (Roland, 1996;Holloway and Nagase, 2014). On the other hand, Turkish family model is described as an emotionally interdependent family model, where emotional interrelatedness is maintained while promoting autonomy at the same time (Kagıtçıbaşı, 2005(Kagıtçıbaşı, , 2007Fişek, 2018). ...
Panksepp, the father of Affective Neuroscience, dedicated his life to demonstrate that foundations of mental life and consciousness lay in the archaic layers of the brain. He had an evolutionary perspective emphasizing that the subcortical affective systems come prior to cortical cognitive systems. Based on his life-long work, the Affective Neuroscience Personality Scales (ANPS) was constructed, and a new neurodevelopmental approach to personality was started. The new approach suggested that personality was formed based on the strengths and/or weaknesses found in the subcortical basic affective systems, which are initially regulated by the mother-infant attachment styles and later by early life experiences. ANPS measured six basic affects: CARE, PLAY, SEEK, SADNESS, FEAR, and ANGER; along with a Spirituality subscale. Up to date, it has been translated to several languages, and these studies confirmed that ANPS is a reliable and valid tool. Based on the observation that these ANPS studies have both universal and culturally specific findings, cross-cultural affective neuroscience (CAN) was initiated in 2012, with the approval of Panksepp. As a new research field, CAN aims to investigate the influence of culture on the regulation of basic affective systems. CAN claims that this influence can be studied by observing the cultural variations in (1) the level of emotional interdependency, (2) the types of reinforced or suppressed effects, and (3) the types of affects that accompany interdependent or independent self-construals. Cross-cultural comparisons of Turkish and American ANPS findings and the results of our first Euro-Asian CAN project among Japan, Turkey, and Germany support these claims. These cultures regulate the basic affective systems in unique ways, while maintaining certain similarities with each other. In a way, each culture has a unique affective personality profile and a specific function in the global affective network. The conclusion of this review shares guidelines, suggestions and ethical codes for future CAN researches.
... This brings the question how mothers, who are described as having prolonged symbiotic mothering styles (described by Roland 1988Roland , 1996, express their maternal sensitivity for their off-springs. In Japanese child rearing practices, maternal sensitivity is shown by not expressing negative emotions like anger towards the child and presenting high patience and tolerance for the needs of the child (Friedlmeier and Trommsdorff 1998;Holloway and Nagase 2014). Supporting this argument, our study also found that Japanese females had the lowest ANGER scores. ...
... In a way, Turkish mothers seem to display high CARE besides high ANGER, which enables self-object inter-relatedness and separateness simultaneously. On the contrary, not expressing ANGER towards the child is the core aspect of Japanese child rearing practices (Roland 1996;Holloway and Nagase 2014) in order to protect the inner harmony of the family against conflicts and separations (Friesen 1972). In other words, Japanese mothers may be providing CARE with minimum ANGER, which strengthens interdependency, while suppressing the sense of separateness. ...
Mothering styles and family models of different cultures- that vary in interdependency and independency combinations—can influence the development of basic affects differently. The present study carried out the cross-cultural comparisons of samples from Japan, Turkey and Germany on self-construals, basic affects and Big Five factors. The countries were selected along a Euro-Asian spectrum, from highly collectivistic Japan to least collectivistic Germany, with Turkey as a bridging culture. The sample consisted of undergraduate and graduate students from Kyoto in Japan (n = 353), Istanbul in Turkey (n = 327) and Bonn in Germany (n = 222). The questionnaire included the self-construal scale (SCS), the affective neuroscience personality scales (ANPS) and the big five scale (B5S). SCS scores showed that the level of interdependent self-construals decreased from East to West, but independent self-construals did not gradually increase. Highest independency score was found in Turkey. Theoretically well-known German individualism was not found to be based on higher independency, but on lower interdependency. On ANPS, female groups seemed very similar on positive affects whereas for negative affects they had differences; like Japanese females had higher FEAR, Turkish females had higher ANGER. Similarly, Japanese males had higher FEAR and SADNESS, Turkish males had higher ANGER. On ANPS, Turkish and Japanese males were more similar and distinct from the German males who had lower scores almost on all affects. However on B5S; Turks and Germans were found to be quite similar and distinct from the Japanese. Turkey seemed to maintain more subcortical affective personality similarities with Japan, while attuning more to B5 factors displayed by Germany. Findings are discussed in light of child-rearing styles in each country.
... Esetükben a hangsúly inkább a gyermekkel való jó kapcsolat kialakításán, a hatékony kommunikáción, az őszinteségen és az elfogadáson, valamint az érzelmek nonverbális kifejezésén, és az önállóság tiszteletén van. A magyar szülők számára fontos, hogy támogassák, következetesen és szeretetteljesen neveljék a gyermeküket, míg a japánok a jól működő interperszonális kapcsolatok kialakítását, az önszabályozást és az egyéni önállóságra való nevelést tartják fontos értéknek a szülő szempontjából, ezzel megtanítva, hogyan helyezzék előtérbe a közösséget, és hogyan tartsák fenn a harmóniát(Holloway & Nagase, 2014). Mindkét csoport fontosnak tartja a szülő mentális egészségét, azonban ez a magyaroknál inkább a szelfre (például hiteles, önismeret), japánoknál a társas kapcsolatokra vonatkozik: kapcsolatok rendezettsége, önszabályozás és háttérben maradás. ...
A szülői nevelési értékeket és célokat, ezeken keresztül pedig a szülői nevelési stílusokat jelentősen befolyásolja a kulturális környezet. E tanulmány japán és magyar szülők neveléssel kapcsolatos céljait és a „jó szülőről” alkotott elképzeléseit vizsgálja (A kutatás mintája: N=64; Njapán=28; Nmagyar=36;). A vizsgálati személyeknek nyitott kérdésekből álló kérdőívet kellett kitölteniük. A válaszok alapján különítettünk el kategóriákat, melyek mentén a hasonlóságokat és a különbségeket vizsgáljuk: (1) A tudatos nevelés fontosságának érzése; (2) A nevelésről szerzett tudás forrása; (3) A szülőkép és a környezet viszonya; (4) A nevelés célja. Az eredmények azt mutatják, hogy ezen kategóriákban megmutatkoznak a kulturális különbségek, azonban fellelhetők általános jegyek, valamint a nyugati, elsősorban észak-amerikai kultúra individualista értékei, vonásai egyaránt.
... In addition, the fact that the factor analysis was conducted by relying on the data of Japanese parents' responses may have contributed to the division. In other words, since, in general, Japanese parents have been indicated to be greater controlling than their Western counterparts 32,33 , controlling parenting styles may have been finely categorized. Accordingly, measuring two different types of controlling styles in this way provide a better precise understanding of Japanese controlling parenting. ...
Parenting is an essential factor affecting child development. Therefore, several studies have focused on individual differences in parenting (i.e., parenting styles). However, there exist only a few useful scales in Japan, especially for parents who have preschool children. Therefore, a new scale for assessing parenting styles in Japan, based on the traditional theoretical framework, was developed, and examined for its validity and reliability. In Study 1, 82 original items were constructed and 1236 parents with preschool children completed these items. Next, 28 items for the Japanese Parenting Style Scale (JPSS) were selected based on factor analysis and the analyses of the graded response model. The JPSS included four factors: warmth, hostility, permissiveness, and harsh control. The results showed that each sub-scale had sufficient conceptual validity and internal consistency. In Study 2, the criterion-related validity of the JPSS was examined. A total of 1236 parents, non-participants in Study 1, completed the JPSS and other scales. The results showed sufficient criterion-related validity for the scale.
... Ennek maradványai a mai napig fellelhetőek például a szülői akarat fizikai erőszakkal való érvényre juttatásában, azonban a mai társadalmi értékrend ezt elutasítja. A japán kultúrára különböző vallási rendszerek, például a hagyományosan japán sintoizmus és az Indiából Kínán át begyűrűző buddhizmus, melynek később létrejöttek különböző japán irányzatai is, illetve a kínai konfuciánus eszmék és értékek, valamint a rizstermesztő mezőgazdasági berendezkedés és az ebben létrejövő szamurájerkölcs, a busidó (Holloway & Nagase, 2014). Az így formálódott mai értékrend elemei például az idősek feltétlen tisztelete, a hűség és a csoport érdekeinek előtérbe helyezése, melyek még mindig erősen befolyásolják a szocializáció folyamatát (Trommsdorff, 1985). ...
... In East Asia, especially Korea and Japan, the maternal role is seen as crucial, while paternal responsibility is considered minimal [8][9][10][11][12]. With no further examination of differences in parenting, Asian parenting, particularly East Asian parenting with regard to children's education, has been seen as authoritarian, leaving little room for children's autonomy, competition-oriented, and suggestive of "tiger-parenting" [13,14]. ...
This study looks into the parenting beliefs and behavior of female Japanese immigrants, who have stayed in Korea for more than 20 years, and attempts to explore factors for their distinct parenting style compared to their Korean counterparts. In Korea and Japan, a mother’s parenting is seen as crucial, while paternal responsibility is considered minimal. There are few studies that look into parenting patterns of Japanese immigrant women in Korea, especially from the perspective of their children. The study is based on in-depth interviews and participant observation in 2014 with 21 young Japanese-Korean adults recruited through snowball sampling. In raising children, the priorities of mothers were not academic but instead focused on children’s autonomy, wholesome personality, religiosity, various life experiences, maintaining health, and non-intervention. The mothers’ own cultural background and strong Japanese identity, limited interaction with Korean mothers or exclusive interaction with Japanese mothers, the role of the father figure as only a breadwinner, and mothers’ strong devotion to church activities tend to influence their parenting. An exploration of the mechanisms behind the differences in their styles of parenting is important before judging their parenting to be improper or maladjusted. Understanding parenting styles of families from diverse backgrounds helps to understand what society will look like in the near future.
... Based on their belief in children's early learning capabilities, Indian parents start guiding children from a very young age and initiate toilet training as early as one year of age (Isaac et al., 2014). However, depending on their circumstances and motivation to change, generations of parents differ in obeying cultural models (Holloway & Nagase, 2014). ...
This study was a point of departure for future research on the need for a coherent understanding and knowledge of parenting in Bangladesh. This article presents the findings from an integrative research review on parenting in Bangladesh. A comprehensive search conducted in PubMed, Science Direct, and PsychINFO using the keywords “parenting”, “childcare”, “motherhood”, “fatherhood”, “mothering”, “fathering”, each paired with “Bangladesh” yielded 246 articles. Twenty papers published between 2006 and 2018 were selected for thematic analysis based on pre-set criteria. In most studies, the term mother was used interchangeably with parent, with mothers regarded as the primary caregiver. Parenting in the Bangladeshi context was found to be conceptualized primarily in terms of attitudes, disciplinary practices, feeding, parent–child interaction, and psychosocial stimulation. Parenting components aimed at moral development and attachment building in children were underrepresented. The data revealed largely inconsistent and uncoordinated discussions of parental practices, demonstrating the lack of a holistic approach in the literature in Bangladesh. Research on parenting in Bangladesh favors gendered assumptions of females as the primary caregiver. Based on their findings, the authors recommend qualitative studies to better reflect and conceptualize the concept of parenting in Bangladesh.
... In early 1990s, the government once appealed to the public about the importance of husbands' participation in childrearing. Although the campaign was criticized by the conservative parts of the society, currently, husbands are much more interested in and participate in childrearing [28]. This is a proof that such campaigns can change social norms slowly but steadily. ...
This study examines the gender-identity hypothesis in the context of the work hours and life satisfaction of highly educated wives based on the prototype model in identity economics, using the survey concerning social life and time budget 2007 by the JTUC Research Institute for Advancement of Living Standards (RENGO-RIALS), Japan. The empirical analyses showed that, first, the gender-identity hypothesis was supported only for wives with children. Second, with or without children, wives’ life satisfaction declined sharply when they worked for more than 20 h. These findings suggest that gender identity was an important factor for Japanese wives with children when they were choosing their number of work hours outside the home and underlined the Japanese social behavioral norm that “wives with children should not work.” This research contributes to the study of the Homo economicus’s non-rational economic behaviors, thus deepening analysis of the relationship between gender identity and working time; furthermore, it better explains why women undersupply labor in the market despite being highly educated.
... Using data from interviews of mothers conducted over a 3-year period, Yamamoto (2015) shows that middle-class mothers put a great emphasis on cultivating their children's human capital from an early stage. Holloway and Nagase (2014) argue that, despite the government's effort to increase the involvement of fathers in children's development, they remain less engaged in raising children and more attached to workplace. ...
This paper examines the role of parental transfers on family size. We introduce a simple theoretical model of fertility decision where preferences towards children may differ between female and male spouses. Parental transfers increase both the household income and the bargaining power of the recipient spouse. Therefore, transfers from wife’s and husband’s parents may have dissimilar effects on the number of children. Our empirical result, based on a unique household-level data for Japan, supports this hypothesis. In particular, received transfers from the wife’s parents are negatively associated with the demand for children. In contrast, both received and expected transfers from the husband’s parents are positively associated with the demand for children. These results hold important policy implications.
... However, Japanese fatherhood is not a homogeneous prac- tice (Yeung 2013). Not only can a change of the Japanese father ideal be traced historically (Ishii-Kuntz 2013, Nakazawa and Shwalb 2013, Holloway and Nagase 2014) but the contemporary discourse on fatherhood in Japan is diverse as well (Nakatani 2006). Social problems, such as bullying and teenage suicides have been discussed in relation to the absence of fathers from families and have led to doubts about the breadwinner ideal (Nakatani 2006). ...
Ikumen is a buzzword that describes fathers who are actively involved in childrearing. This article focuses on the process in which the term ikumen and its meaning are diffused and investigates how soon-to-be fathers, themselves potential ikumen, view the ikumen discourse. Our endeavor is to grasp the transformation of father roles and the wider family in contemporary Japan through the public and individual engagement with the term ikumen. In this article, we combine macro and micro approaches to analyze ikumen as a discourse circulating in Japanese society and study the way in which the subjects of the discourse – soon-to-be fathers – view the ikumen discourse and interact with it. Utilizing an analysis of newspaper articles, we inquire into the process in which the concept ikumen became popular in Japan and the images that are affiliated with it. Through interviews, we then investigate how soon-to-be fathers as potential ikumen themselves perceive the term. Our results show the way in which an ikumen discourse emerged in Japan in opposition to the term kazoku sabisu, which since the 1970s describes the activities fathers engage in for the satisfaction of their families and fulfillment of social expectations. However, while the term is very popular in the media, the young families we interviewed see ikumen more skeptically. They both resist the popular discourse and adapt it into their construction of paternal identities through a differentiation between a strong versus a weak ikumen image.
... However, the majority of Japanese mothers are more or less facing strong pressures to be a main provider of child care and household care because many Japanese still uphold the traditional idea that a mother's continuous presence is critical for a child's development during their first 3 years (Sansaiji-Sinwa). Japanese fathers are still not engaged in child care, although the Japanese government is running an active media campaign to encourage a departure from the myth of "workaholic fathers" and "full-time mothers" to "ikumen (fathers who participate in child care)" (Holloway& Nagase, 2014). Such pressure on working mothers' commitment to child care without adequate support would affect maternal mental health and time management, which in turn, would likely affect the quantity and quality of mother-child communication. ...
Human development is embedded in various social contexts, such as family, peers, and cultures. Since Bronfenbrenner’s theoretical work, many developmental psychologists have investigated environmental influences on human development. In this article, we review the research investigating how social environments interactively affect the development of theory of mind (i.e., the ability to attribute mental states to oneself and to others). We first introduce Bronfennbrenner’s ecological systems theory of human development. Based on his socio-ecological perspective, we review previous research discussing the relationships between proximal (i.e., parents and siblings) and distal environments (i.e., socio-economic status, culture, and educational system), and the mental state understanding of children. Finally, we discuss future directions of developmental research in this area and potential applications in education.
This chapter aims to contribute to the dearth of research on the relational lives of children born of international marriage families. It focuses on the experiences of Japanese-Filipinos, children of Japanese and Filipino migrants in Japan, whose childhood and family lives are influenced by the social, economic and cultural conditions in Japan and the Philippines.
Building on multi-sited fieldwork in Manila and Tokyo, and interviews with seventy Japanese-Filipino children and seventy Filipino mothers, the chapter examines their care labor in maintaining transnational household and intergenerational relations, and the entanglement of their subjective im/mobilities, and those of their Filipino mothers in Japan as well as extended kin in the Philippines.
Using children’s perspective in analyzing transnational family relations, this chapter argues that Japanese-Filipino children actively participate in exchanging care and mutual support towards their parents and kin carers. Informed by utang na loob (debt of gratitude), the Filipino cultural logic of reciprocity and cooperation, their multiple immobilities facilitate co-residence with extended kin in the Philippines, while their multiple im/mobilities support co-residence and breadwinning with and for their migrant parents in Japan. Japanese-Filipino children’s im/mobilities interlocking with the im/mobilities of their Filipino kin and migrant parents reinforce not only existing socio-economic, cultural, and legal divergence between Japan and the Philippines but also the power relations between them and their families. The contradictory outcomes of their tangling im/mobilities and care work reorient Japanese-Filipinos on the significance and sustainability of intergenerational reciprocity in their current and future lives.
Key words: Japanese-Filipinos, Filipino migrants, Japan, Philippines, intergenerational relations, transnational family, care, utang na loob
The emotional, social, and economic challenges faced by migrants and their families are interconnected through complex decisions related to mobility. Tangled Mobilities examines the different crisscrossing and intersecting mobilities in the lives of Asian migrants, their family members across Asia and Europe, and the social spaces connecting these regions. In exploring how the migratory process unfolds in different stages of migrants’ lives, the chapters in this collected volume broaden perspectives on mobility, offering insights into the way places, affects, and personhood are shaped by and connected to it. OPEN ACCESS with support from Knowledge Unlatched: https://library.oapen.org/bitstream/handle/20.500.12657/57164/external_content.epub?sequence=1&isAllowed=y
Lay abstract:
Parents of children with autism experience high rates of parenting stress. Assessing parenting stress in them has crucial clinical implications because increased parental stress is associated with psychological disorders and personal distress, which can result in worse child-parent relationships. Theorists have proposed that a person's cognitive appraisal determines whether or not a situation or an encounter is personally stressful. However, prior scales merely measure the outcomes of parental stress as a stress response: little the scales were designed to assess events and cognitive appraisal-related parenting stressors of parents of children with autism. We investigated whether a new index for assessing parenting stressors-the Developmental Disorder Parenting Stressor Index is a valid measure to assess parenting stressors of parents of children with autism using longitudinal online surveys at three times. Participants were 212 Japanese parents of children with autism aged 2-18 years who completed the Developmental Disorder Parenting Stressor Index and measures of autism symptoms and stress response . Overall, the findings indicated that the Developmental Disorder Parenting Stressor Index can be reliably used to measure both experiences and cognitive appraisal of parenting stressors among parents of children with autism. Moreover, the Developmental Disorder Parenting Stressor Index has several advantages and is a valuable measurement tool to be able to evaluate parenting stressors in clinical settings; Developmental Disorder Parenting Stressor Index is shorter, easier to complete, and can evaluate both viewpoints of parenting stressors.
Three cultural comparisons address specificities and commonalities in the acculturation of infant behaviors and maternal parenting practices. Immigrant Japanese, Korean, and South American families were compared to nonmigrant families in their respective cultures of origin (Japan, South Korea, and South America) and their single common culture of destination (United States). Altogether, 13 infant behaviors and 15 maternal parenting practices in 408 5½-month-old infants and their mothers were examined. About half of infants' and half of mothers' behaviors showed specificity and half commonality in group-level acculturation comparisons. Immigrant infants differed from infants in their cultures of origin and destination with respect to emotional expression, vocalization, and physical development. Immigrant mothers differed from mothers in their cultures of origin and destination in speech to their infants, permitted sounds in the environment, and encouraging infants' physical development. Implications of specificity and commonality in acculturation of infant and mother behaviors across groups are discussed.
Establishing a family is a major step in everyone’s life. Changing expectations to culturally and socially defined beliefs in the gender roles of modern Japanese families have led to a significant realignment of fathers’ responsibilities within the home and childcare. Gender equality in Japan lags behind many of the OECD countries of the developed world, and due to a lack of incentives, companies have been slow to provide flexible working opportunities or enforce employees statutory paternal leave entitlements. In response, the new “father movement” has been revolutionizing the traditional habits and the structure of parenting. The word ‘Ikumen’ translates as hunky dads and connects and communicates the modern “cool Japan” role of fatherhood by combining work and fathering. Magazines like FQ Japan and NPOs (Non-Profit Organization) like Fathering Japan, communicate the initiatives through numerous media platforms. Also, governmental family policy reforms like the ‘Ikumen Project’ seeks to increase the participation of fathers in the parenting at home. Interestingly, results are showing that the new ‘working fathers’ involvement in childcare and paternal leave has increased. Additional tensions at home and in the workplace have occurred. Therefore, government’s recognition of the problems associated with an aging population and falling birth rate encouraging the introduction of revised equal opportunity legislation and workplace safeguards. Organizations have been increasing their efforts to take more measures towards fathers’ childcare involvement and work-life-balance. This thesis seeks to support a correlation between the influence of organizations and the effect of reforms on father’s childcare time.
Physical and emotional punishment of children is highly prevalent in the Asia-Pacific region. These actions predict a range of physical and emotional harms, prompting a worldwide effort to eliminate them. A key strategy in this effort is to change parental beliefs regarding the acceptability of physical and emotional punishment. The Positive Discipline in Everyday Parenting (PDEP) program was designed to change those beliefs by teaching parents about child development and strengthening their problem-solving skills. A sample of 377 parents in the Asia-Pacific region completed the program: 329 mothers and 47 fathers of children ranging in age from infancy to adolescence. The parents lived in Australia ( n = 135), Japan ( n = 172) or the Philippines ( n = 70). In all three countries, parents’ approval of punishment in general, and physical punishment specifically, declined and they became less likely to attribute typical child behavior to intentional misbehavior. By the end of the program, at least 75% of parents in each country felt better prepared to respond nonviolently to conflict with their children.
The aim of this study was to test the relationship of theory of mind (ToM) and maternal emotional expressiveness with children's aggressive behaviours (i.e., relational aggression, physical aggression). ToM is vital to relational aggression, which involves harming others through purposeful manipulation and damaging peer relationships. However, little is known about how ToM and family emotional environment are interactively associated with aggressive behaviours. Fifty‐one Japanese children, aged 4 and 5 years, completed measures of ToM and receptive vocabulary. Mothers reported their emotional expressiveness towards their children and classroom teachers rated each child's aggressive behaviours. The results revealed that when boys have mature ToM and their mothers show high negative emotional expressiveness, they exhibit higher relational aggression in their peer relationships. Such interaction effect was not found for girls. The findings suggest that boys with mature ToM are likely to learn to use ToM for antisocial purposes via negative family emotional environments.
Highlights
• This study examined the relationship of Theory of Mind (ToM) and maternal emotional expressiveness with aggressive behaviours in young Japanese children.
• When boys had both mature ToM and mothers who express high negative emotional expressiveness, they exhibited higher relational aggression in their peer relationships.
• The results suggest that there is a gender‐differentiated effect of family emotional environment on children's socio‐cognitive development.
Background
Despite the increasing trend of paternal engagement in caregiving, fathers remain underrepresented in studies on parenting and childhood obesity.
Objectives
This study examined the association between father involvement in caregiving and child's weight status within a longitudinal dataset from Japan.
Methods
The data were obtained from a population‐based cohort study in Japan (N = 29 584). The association between father's involvement in child caregiving (age 18 months) on the weight status of the same children at age 3.5 years was examined by logistic regression and linear regression analysis. Furthermore, we checked the interaction between maternal employment & father involvement by creating four mutually exclusive groups of families.
Results
Children whose fathers were highly involved in caregiving were less likely to be overweight (OR = 0.90, 95% CI, 0.85‐0.96). Employed mothers with high paternal involvement in caregiving were 30% less likely to have children with overweight or obesity compared to those with low paternal involvement (95% CI, 0.55‐0.90).
Conclusions
Father involvement in caregiving is associated with the development of overweight or obesity in early childhood, and may also modify the association between maternal employment and child's weight status. Social policies to support shared child‐rearing such as expanding paid parental leave could help families to raise children with healthy weight.
In her analysis of the gendering of public disaster preparedness discourses in Japan after the triple disaster of 11 March 2011, Koikari (2013) finds that these discourses tie women closely to the “national recovery” and make them the ones responsible to prepare their families for any future disaster.1 These “assignments” stem from a gendered understanding of women’s roles as mothers taking care of domestic issues, as protectors of the home, and as defenders of the family. The discourses construct the ideal of obedient mothers as protectors of the family. But while gender plays a significant role when it comes to distribute assignments and make families shoulder it, on the side of the “state,” Saito (2012, 265) critiques particularly local governments for failing to implement “a gender perspective in emergency planning and response,” both in the responses to the 1995 Hanshin-Awaji earthquake in Kōbe as well as the 2011 Great East Japan earthquake.
This journal aims to explain Japan's strategy in achieving gender equality in response to UN criticism through the Ikumen Project/ NPO Fathering Japan. The condition of gender inequality in Japanese society has generated worldwide attention and has also received criticism from the United Nations (UN) through CEDAW (The Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women). This is due to the high application of conventional cultural values of Japanese society which is commonly referred to as patriarchal culture. Therefore, the theory and concept used in this research is Gender Empowerment which looks at the efforts of state actors through the government in empowering men and women, Civil Society by looking at the important role of civil society groups in dealing with content trends in an organization. Countries and the concept of the Non-Profit Organization which looks at the history of the involvement of NPOs in dealing with several problems in the country. The author uses qualitative research and descriptive research by collecting data from secondary sources, books, theses and theses, journals and articles from online sources. The results of the study show that the increased participation of men in child care in 2017. This is the result of the existence of cooperation between the Japanese government and NPO Fathering Japan as an effort to increase public awareness to shift conventional cultural values, namely patriarchy which has become the main cause gender inequality to get criticism and pressure from several UN panels to immediately address the related issues and towards the achievement of gender equality.
Direct reciprocity plays an essential role in forming cooperative relationships. Direct reciprocity requires individuals to keep track of past interactions and condition their behavior on the previous behavior of their partners. In controlled experimental situations, it is known that children establish direct reciprocity according to the partner's behavior, but this has not been verified in real life. This study aims to identify the establishment of short-term direct reciprocity in response to peers' behaviors among Japanese preschoolers aged 5 and 6. It employs naturalistic observation at a nursery school. In addition, the psychological process for direct reciprocity was examined. The findings demonstrated that after receiving prosocial behavior, the recipient child returned the prosocial behavior more frequently within 7 minutes, compared with control situations; this suggests that 5-to 6-year-olds formed direct reciprocity in the short term when interacting with their peers. Additionally, recipient children tended to display affiliative behavior after receiving prosocial behavior. Positive emotions toward initiating children may have been caused by receiving prosocial behavior, and this psychological change modified short-term direct reciprocity.
The differences in the rates and trends of the overall low birth weight and term low birth weight in recent years are unknown for the Japanese prefectures. In this ecological study, we revealed the rates for each prefecture and investigated the factors affecting the regional differences in these outcomes. Aggregated vital statistics data from 2007 to 2019 were obtained from the Ministry of Health, Labour, and Welfare in Japan. The association between the outcomes and the variables, including the infants’ birth characteristics, medical characteristics, and socioeconomic characteristics of the prefectures, were analyzed. An analysis of repeated-measures data was conducted using the data from 2013 and 2018 for each prefecture. The trend for the rates of overall low birth weight and term low birth weight over the years differed among the prefectures. Moreover, the proportions of multiple births and lean (body mass index <18.5 kg/m2) and obese (body mass index ≥25.0 kg/m2) women had a statistically significant positive association with both the overall low birth weight rate and the term low birth weight rate among the prefectures. It was suggested that to resolve the difference in these outcomes among the prefectures, being obese or underweight needs to be addressed in mothers.
We build a tractable SIR-macro-model with time-varying parameters and use it to explore various policy questions such as when to lift the state of emergency (SOE). An earlier departure from the SOE results in smaller output loss and more deaths in the short run. However, if the SOE is lifted too early, the number of new cases will surge and another SOE may need to be issued in the future, possibly resulting in both larger output loss and more deaths. That is, the tradeoff between output and infection that exists in the short run does not necessarily exist in the long run. Our model-based analysis—updated weekly since January 2021, frequently reported by media, and presented to policymakers on many occasions—has played a unique role in the policy response to the COVID-19 crisis in Japan.
The present study tested the links between perceived maternal and paternal parenting and internalizing and externalizing problems across ten cultures (China, Czech Republic, Hungary, the Netherlands, Slovenia, Spain, Switzerland, Taiwan, Turkey, and the United States). Self-report data were collected from N = 12,757 adolescents (Mage = 17.13 years, 48.4% female). Multigroup confirmatory factor analyses and structural equation models tested whether: (1) the six parenting processes (closeness, support, monitoring, communication, peer approval, and conflict; Adolescent Family Process, Short Form (AFP-SF, 18 items) varied across cultures, and (2) the links between parenting processes and measures of internalizing and externalizing problems varied across cultures. Study findings indicated measurement invariance (configural and metric) of both maternal and paternal parenting processes and that the parenting—internalizing/externalizing problems links did not vary across cultures. Findings underscore the ubiquitous importance of parenting processes for internalizing and externalizing problems across diverse Asian, European, Eurasian, and North American cultures.
Objective: The objective of this study is to determine the factors associated with time spent performing housework/childcare by fathers of children under 12 years of age (preschool and elementary school children) in Japan. Methods: An online survey of employees and employers was conducted in 2017. Of the 7,796 total responses to the survey, those of 621 fathers of children aged 0–12 years were analyzed. Participants were divided into two groups: fathers of children aged 0–6 years, and fathers of children aged 7–12 years. Multiple logistic regression analysis was performed on the items for which there was a significant intergroup difference, setting time spent performing housework as the dependent variable and the survey items as the independent variables. Results: For fathers of children aged 0–6 years, working 40 hours or less per week and commuting for one hour or less were associated with more time spent performing housework/childcare. For fathers of children aged 7–12 years, working less than 40 hours a week, working from home more than once a week, and having spouses with full-time jobs were associated with more time spent performing housework/childcare. Conclusion: This study revealed the factors associated with the time spent by fathers of children under 12 in performing housework/childcare. As several of these factors cannot be altered by the fathers’ efforts alone, companies and society in general must endeavor to improve work styles to better suit the habits and preferences of fathers. This will promote work–life balance and create better family relationships.
Gender inequality is prevalent and has a large impact on children’s development and educational processes in Japan. As a key element leading to children’s gendered aspirations and educational processes, we conducted a study examining the effects of gender and mothers’ educational levels on Japanese mothers’ aspirations and expectations regarding their children’s educational attainment. Participants consisted of 109 mothers with a first grader (age 6 or 7) who attended public school in Osaka, Japan. We analyzed quantitative and qualitative data collected through surveys and interviews for this study. Results revealed significant main effects of gender and mothers’ educational levels, as well as a significant interaction between the two factors on mothers’ educational aspirations. Gender had a significant effect on mothers’ realistic educational expectations, but mothers’ educational levels demonstrated a marginal effect. Maternal educational aspirations and expectations were higher for sons than for daughters. Regardless of gender, mothers with college education tended to demonstrate higher educational aspirations than mothers with partial or no college education. We also provided qualitative evidence pertaining to quantitative results found in mothers’ aspirations and expectations regarding their children’s education.
Ikumen is a buzzword that describes fathers who are actively involved in childrearing. This article focuses on the process in which the term ikumen and its meaning are diffused and investigates how soon-to-be fathers, themselves potential ikumen, view the ikumen discourse. Our endeavor is to grasp the transformation of father roles and the wider family in contemporary Japan through the public and individual engagement with the term ikumen. In this article, we combine macro and micro approaches to analyze ikumen as a discourse circulating in Japanese society and study the way in which the subjects of the discourse – soon-to-be fathers – view the ikumen discourse and interact with it. Utilizing an analysis of newspaper articles, we inquire into the process in which the concept ikumen became popular in Japan and the images that are affiliated with it. Through interviews, we then investigate how soon-to-be fathers as potential ikumen themselves perceive the term. Our results show the way in which an ikumen discourse emerged in Japan in opposition to the term kazoku sabisu, which since the 1970s describes the activities fathers engage in for the satisfaction of their families and fulfillment of social expectations. However, while the term is very popular in the media, the young families we interviewed see ikumen more skeptically. They both resist the popular discourse and adapt it into their construction of paternal identities through a differentiation between a strong versus a weak ikumen image.
The indigenous Japanese concept of amae has provoked interest from scholars across disciplines. Many have provided their own version of defining amae without much attempt to synthesize it into a demonstrative definition. Non‐Japanese scholars have attempted to understand the concept through their own interpretations, which has often led to confusions and erroneous conclusions. The present paper analyzes the concept of amae, focusing on its everyday use with illustrative evidence to provide contextual meanings of varied amae phenomena. A multifaceted view to approach amae is introduced. The new approach proposes to consider amae in different contexts and in three developmental phases, with evidence to support that amae is, in fact, different in each category. Future amae research is discussed.
How do we study human diversity in a meaningful manner? In this essay I(a) raise some fundamental relations between ‘culture’,individuals, and social groups; (b) make a case for agency and individuality, and (c) propose ways to rethink relations between culture, power, and inequality.1 I further ask whether culture is something ‘out there’ for us to discover, or whether it is produced and sustained through discourse and power, and question whether shared meanings are the basis for cultural units. As will become increasingly clear, I view cultural psychology as a critical undertaking. Those who map cultural phenomena must therefore be aware of the forces that give rise to culture (p. 186). After all, we have not reached Habermas’s utopian ‘ideal speech situation’ where discourse can take place without the intrusion of power relations. Hence there is no politically neutral position from where to study culture.
This book takes an interdisciplinary approach to one of Japan's thorniest public policy issues: why are women increasingly forgoing motherhood? At the heart of the matter lies a paradox: although the overall trend among rich countries is for fertility to decrease as female labor participation increases, gender-friendly countries resist the trend. Conversely, gender-unfriendly countries have lower fertility rates than they would have if they changed their labor markets to encourage the hiring of women—and therein lies Japan's problem. The authors argue that the combination of an inhospitable labor market for women and insufficient support for childcare pushes women toward working harder to promote their careers, to the detriment of childbearing. The book provides policy recommendations for solving not just Japan's fertility issue, but those of other modern democracies facing a similar crisis.
Are Japanese families in crisis? This book looks back at two key moments of “family making” in the past hundred years—the Meiji era and postwar period—to see how models for the Japanese family have been constructed. The models had little to do with the families of their eras and even less to do with families today, it finds. The book vividly portrays the everyday reality of a range of families: young married couples who experience fleeting togetherness until the first child is born; a family separated by job shifts; a family with a grandmother as babysitter; a marriage without children.
Social contexts shape the development of attention; however, little is known about joint attention beyond infancy. This study employed behavioral and eye‐tracking measurements to investigate cultural variations in how caregivers direct 3‐ to 4‐year‐old children's attention and subsequent changes in children's attention to objects and contextual backgrounds in the United States (predominantly non‐Hispanic Whites) and Japan (N = 60 mother‐child dyads, 29 girls, 31 boys). The findings revealed that caregivers directed children's attention to culturally sensitive information, and significant cross‐cultural differences in attention emerged after caregiver–child interaction, with Japanese children shifting their attention to the backgrounds. Results provide new insights into the role of social interaction and cultural diversity in the development of attention.
In this article trends of low fertility in Japan, its demographic, socioeconomic and cultural determinants and policy responses to it are overviewed in an internationally comparative perspective. While fertility has declined and stagnated below replacement level since the 1970s among almost all developed countries, they are currently divided into two groups, that is, moderately low fertility countries and very low fertility countries. Japan belongs to the latter, together with Italy and Germany. Fertility decline below replacement level has been caused universally among developed countries by the postponement of childbearing, but as the postponement has been so strong and its recuperation was so weak in Japan, the latest cohort completed fertility has already declined to just less than 1.5. Such postponement was mainly brought about by the postponement of marriage in Japan, because later and fewer marriages among women aged 20s were not compensated by the prevalence of cohabitation and the increase of extra-marital births which were observed in moderately low fertility countries. Marital fertility declined in Japan, but it was rather a recent phenomenon. Among background factors related to declining fertility, such factors as（1）the coming of an affluent society, accompanied often by rising cost of childcare and（2） social emancipation of women, reflected in their rising levels of educational attainment and labor force participation, which is commonly observed in the developed countries,（3） the phenomenal increase of non-regular employees, recently noticed in Japan, and（4） the traditional family and/or gender norms, common to very low fertility countries, are discussed. Lastly, the status-quo of such specific policy measures as economic support for childcare, measures for helping to balance work and childcare, policy options for reducing non-regular employees and ways for achieving gender equality are summarized and evaluated.
This chapter examines the downward trend in the fertility rate, and provides an overview of recent studies on married women's labor force participation. Second, it considers mothers' working patterns, especially on the continuation of work before and after the first childbirth in Japan. Third, it compares mothers' work in Japan with that in other industrial nations, focusing on the extent of their contribution to the household economy. It shows how the wife's income affects the number of children in Japan and elsewhere.
Social drinking is an accepted aspect of working life in Japan, and women are left to manage their drunken husbands when the men return home, restoring them to sobriety for the next day of work. In attempting to cope with their husbands' alcoholism, the women face a profound cultural dilemma: when does the nurturing behavior expected of a good wife and mother become part of a pattern of behavior that is actually destructive? How does the celebration of nurturance and dependency mask the exploitative aspects not just of family life but also of public life in Japan? The Too-Good Wife follows the experiences of a group of middle-class women in Tokyo who participated in a weekly support meeting for families of substance abusers at a public mental-health clinic. Amy Borovoy deftly analyzes the dilemmas of being female in modern Japan and the grace with which women struggle within a system that supports wives and mothers but thwarts their attempts to find fulfillment outside the family. The central concerns of the book reach beyond the problem of alcoholism to examine the women's own processes of self-reflection and criticism and the deeper fissures and asymmetries that undergird Japanese productivity and social order.
Despite increasing rates of university attendance among women, a significant gender gap remains in socialization and educational processes in Japan. To understand why and how gender-distinctive socialization processes persist, this study aimed to examine both middle-class and working-class mothers’ beliefs about gender, education, and children’s development. Qualitative analyses were conducted on in-depth interviews with 16 Japanese mothers with preschool children who participated in the research study for three years. The meaning of education differed depending on the children’s gender and social class context. While there is a social class difference in mothers’ expectations of their daughters’ educational attainment, the majority of women in this study saw their daughters as caregivers of family members in the future. This study also demonstrates the dilemmas and mixed messages in women’s narratives in relation to gender norms and the processes of raising their children.
Japanese women have often been singled out for their strong commitment to the role of housewife and mother. But they are now postponing marriage and bearing fewer children, and Japan has become one of the least fertile and fastest aging countries in the world. Why are so many Japanese women opting out of family life? To answer this question, the author draws on in-depth interviews and extensive survey data to examine Japanese mothers perspectives and experiences of marriage, parenting, and family life. The goal is to understand how, as introspective, self-aware individuals, these women interpret and respond to the barriers and opportunities afforded within the structural and ideological contexts of contemporary Japan. The findings suggest a need for changes in the structure of the workplace and the education system to provide women with the opportunity to find a fulfilling balance of work and family life.
The papers in this volume, a multidisciplinary collaboration of anthropologists, linguists, and psychologists, explore the ways in which cultural knowledge is organized and used in everyday language and understanding. Employing a variety of methods, which rely heavily on linguistic data, the authors offer analyses of domains of knowledge ranging across the physical, social, and psychological worlds, and reveal the importance of tacit, presupposed knowledge in the conduct of everyday life. The authors argue that cultural knowledge is organized in 'cultural models' - storylike chains of prototypical events that unfold in simplified worlds - and explore the nature and role of these models. They demonstrate that cultural knowledge may take either proposition-schematic or image-schematic form, each enabling the performance of different kinds of cognitive tasks. Metaphor and metonymy are shown to have special roles in the construction of cultural models. The authors also demonstrates that some widely applicable cultural models recur nested within other, more special-purpose models. Finally, it is shown that shared models play a critical role in thinking, allowing humans to master, remember, and use the vast amount of knowledge required in everyday life. This innovative collection will appeal to anthropologists, linguists, psychologists, philosophers, students of artificial intelligence, and other readers interested in the processes of everyday human understanding.
Obentōs are boxed lunches Japanese mothers make for their nursery school children. Following Japanese codes for food preparation-multiple courses that are aesthetically arranged-these lunches have a cultural order and meaning. Using the obentō as a school ritual and chore-it must be consumed in its entirety in the company of all the children-the nursery school also endows the obentō with ideological meanings. The child must eat the obentō; the mother must make an obentō the child will eat. Both mother and child are being judged; the subjectivities of both are being guided by the nursery school as an institution. It is up to the mother to make the ideological operation entrusted to the obentō by the state-linked institution of the nursery school, palatable and pleasant for her child, and appealing and pleasurable for her as a mother.
The strategies that Japanese and American mothers use to gain compliance from young children were compared. Six hypothetical compliance-relevant situations were described to 58 Japanese and 67 American mothers. Their responses were scored for the rationale or cognitive structure they offered as a basis for compliance and the flexibility or psychological space evident in their negotiations with the child. Japanese mothers were more likely to utilize feeling-oriented appeals and demonstrated greater flexibility than their American counterparts. American mothers relied more extensively on appeals to their authority as mothers. The cultural contexts that contribute to these different responses are discussed.
This paper summarizes beliefs and values about child-rearing and education in Japan at a time when direct Western influence was minimal. The chief materials for the analysis are documents written by experts of those times for the general public. Japanese writers argued that children are innately good rather than evil; environmental factors rather than innate ones account for differences among children; and children are autonomous learning beings rather than passive to experience. Goals were related either to maintenance of harmonious human relationships or to faithful performance of one's assigned task. The basic method of training was to observe children's maturation and assign age-appropriate tasks to them. Young infants were conceived as competent beings in the sensory and perceptual domain, but they were also thought to be unstable and fragile. Observational learning and internal regulation of behavior by older children were emphasized. Up to the age of seven, adults did not deal with boys and girls differently; both sexes were treated permissively, even indulgently.
We examine how relative resources, time availability, gender ideology, living arrangement, child-care demand, and job satisfaction are associated with the levels of younger Japanese fathers’ involvement in child care for preschoolers. A theoretical model that includes these factors is tested using 1994 data collected from Japanese fathers and mothers with preschool children (N = 442 couples). We find that practical considerations such as fathers’ shorter work hours, mothers’ full-time employment, fewer adults and more children in households, and younger ages of children are associated with higher levels of paternal involvement. Implications of these findings are discussed in light of attention to ways to encourage Japanese men's sharing of child-care responsibilities with their wives.
Maternal expectations about development help organize parental behavior by providing internal referents against which a child's growth and behavior are evaluated, thus identifying occasions for intervention by the adult. Fifty-eight mothers from Japan and 67 mothers from the United States were interviewed about the ages at which they expected their four-year-old children to acquire a number of specific developmental skills. There were no differences between the two groups of mothers in mean age of mastery expectation across all 38 items but Japanese mothers expected early mastery on skills that indicated emotional maturity, self-control, and social courtesy. Mothers in the U.S. expected mastery at an earlier age on items indicating verbal assertiveness and social skills with peers. Maternal expectations were found to correlate with children's performance on tests of school aptitude when the children were six years of age.
Using a representative sample of Japanese and American fathers and their adolescent children, this cross-national study examines the extent of paternal involvement and fathers' and children's perception toward their relationships. Consistent with the media image of involved fathers, we found that American fathers spend more time with their children than their Japanese counterparts. However, although American children's perception toward their fathers is associated with such interaction, Japanese children's views toward their fathers are not strongly related to the quantity of father-child interaction. Concerning fathers' evaluations, both American and Japanese men consider themselves understanding and feel closer to their children when they interact more frequently with their offspring. We conclude that a cross-national comparison of paternal involvement and perception toward fathers' roles must take into account different types of activities rather than aggregate time of father-child interaction. Several explanations for the observed findings are discussed and suggestions for future cross-national research on fatherhood are offered.
Bamba and Haight provide an in-depth understanding of the everyday experiences and perspectives of maltreated children and their substitute caregivers and teachers in Japan. Their innovative research program combines strategies from developmental psychology, ethnography, and action research. Although child advocates from around the world share certain goals and challenges, there is substantial cultural variation in how child maltreatment is understood, its origins, impact on children and families, as well as societal responses deemed appropriate. The authors step outside of the Western cultural context to illustrate creative ecologically-and developmentally-based strategies for supporting the psychosocial well-being of maltreated children in state care, provide an alternative but complementary model to the prevalent large-scale survey strategies for conducting international research in child welfare, and provide a resource for educators to enhance the international content of human development, education, social work, and child welfare courses.
Conditions that confront students in formal schooling–instruction in groups, sharing teacher’s attention, working independently, dealing with arbitrary rules regulating behavior–are not conducive to learning. Teachers deal with these circumstances by encouraging facilitative dispositions in students or by making learning events more appealing. Cultures differ in the emphasis they place on these two strategies. Japanese tend to stress developing adaptive dispositions; Americans try to make the learning context more attractive. National differences in educational achievement may be more completely understood by analysis of cultural differences in student dispositions. The interaction of student characteristics and teacher strategies creates very different classroom climates in the two countries.
This article grounds perceptions and perspectives of taibatsu (‘corporal punishment’) in the Japanese socio-cultural context in order to better understand why and how it is used in schools and sports. By discussing how people define taibatsu and the various perspectives from which they decide their definitions, this article illustrates the importance of socio-cultural context in analyzing contemporary social practices. By laying out the various perspectives held about the meaning of taibatsu today in relation to other important Japanese concepts, e.g. bōryoku (violence), shidō (guidance), shitsuke (discipline), gyakutai (abuse), kibishii (strict), seishin (spirit), konjō (guts), this article also puts forward the argument that taibatsu is a multi-vocal symbol.