Author Archives: japansociology

Environmental Issues: Foundation and Framing

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by Samuel Slaten

Environmental problems and the solutions to overcome them should be on the minds of everyone rich or poor, it affects everyone  in one aspect or another. However we are seeing more and more the blatant disregard of primary issues such as global warming, toxic waste, and destruction of ecosystems. So what exactly is reason for the lack of interest in such important issues? I believe the problem resides in the way the issues are being portrayed to the public and the how the the problems are being shown relating to everyday life. So how do we address these problems? In two steps, by adding a foundation for people to base their perception of the issues on. It is essential to show people that these issues do affect everyday life and how exactly they can observe it. Then in order to bring the issues to heart it is necessary to frame it so that people can actually understand the causes and science behind the issues. Trying to understand the issues without understanding the actual substance of the issues results in misinformed people who can easily be mislead.

So how can scientists, authors, and news analysts add a foundation for people to base their perception upon? First it is essential to show that even though other issues might not be affecting them other issues are. And that these issues are interconnected to other serious issues affecting different communities.  One of the issues effecting urban populations is air pollution, smog is one of the better examples of this. Smog , I think, is one of those issues that can be used not only to educate and inform the population but also to draw awareness to other environmental issues. Smog is also easy to form a foundation around because it is one of the easier issues to see and relate with. According to one news source smog is so abundant in 10 of the 11 most populated states in America and that in many of their cities the air quality level has reached above the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) level of safe air (Meth). Another example is from Ontario Canada where in the past 10 years there have been over 100 Smog advisories  lasting 275 days in total (“Ontario Ministry of the Environment” ). Thus it can be assumed the issue of smog is one that many ordinary citizens are affected by and can observe directly. Thus, by using an issue like the one of smog environmentalists, sociologists, and scientists alike can raise the awareness levels and then direct them into other issues that are linked to smog, Such as rising air temperature (global warming), emission standards ( the impact of industry), and waste dumps(toxic and normal). Thus by adding a foundation that is easy for people to observe and understand we can raise the interest and awareness levels of other issues. Here I used smog as an example but in truth any issue can be used as long as it meets various criteria, the different columns of the foundation: 1. It relates to vast amounts of people everyday. 2. It is easily observed. 3.It has connections with other issues around the world.

So now that the idea of a foundation has been established the question is how can we frame the issues in question so that everyone doesn’t need a science book near by in order to understand the issues? If people do not understand the reason for why the problems are arising then how can they be expected to advocate for their change. First, public figures need to be able to explain these issues themselves. People need to be able to rely on their elected officials when problems affecting their communities arise. Secondly the facts and data surrounding the issues needs to be simplified to terms and reasoning  that everyone can accurately perceive. People will not have an interest in something they do not understand.  This also coincides with how people of influence portray the importance of these issues and the people they affect. According to Mr. Gibbons from the University of Georgia whom did a survey of ecology graduate students. The number one problem facing the environment today is apathy (Gibbons). How can normal citizens be expected to show concern when the people representing them show no concern for the issues. How can people be expected to understand the issues when their leaders and idols themselves do not understand the issues, or at least not well enough to explain them. How can an English, American, or French citizen be expected to relate to a scientist in India or Japan or vice versa? They also must be able to see that these issues affect everyone and one cannot simply remove themselves from the problem. This inverted quarantine effect  (the idea that one can just remove themselves from a problem that affects everyone) is not a long term solution but a quick fix that will end with the same result. Each communities’ leaders and icons should show concern and advocate that we have to come together for a solution, not expect change to just occur. As they say, home is where the heart is. So show people things that adversely affect their home and loved ones and then they will demand for change.

Bibliography

Gibbons, Whit . “WHAT ARE OUR TOP 10 ENVIRONMENTAL PROBLEMS?.” uga.edu. UGA, 06 206. Web. 2 Dec 2012. <http://srel.uga.edu/ecoviews/ecoview060326.htm&gt;.

Meth, Madeline . “Center for American Progress .” Center for American Progress . (2006): n. page. Web. 2 Dec. 2012. <http://www.americanprogress.org/press/release/2006/11/30/15683/new- report-u-s-breathes-dangerous-levels-of-smog/>.

“Ontario Ministry of the Enviroment.” Ontario Ministry of the Enviroment. (2012): n. page. Web. 2 Dec. 2012. <http://www.airqualityontario.com/press/smog_advisories.php&gt;.

Gender Norms

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by Mayu Shibata

Many societies have adopted the notion of gender norms in history.　Most of them are such idea as ‘Men working outside the home and women staying at home and holding house.’ Although it is gradually weakening after women’s rights movement, it is still strongly rooting our society in various fields and it’s more likely for developing countries to hold this idea.

The word sex means biological differences between men and women while ‘gender’ refers to just about everything else. It’s related to a custom or tradition. For example, who usually take care of children? Who usually provides the majority of household income? Who usually changes his or her name on marriage? What kinds of toys do boys play with and what about girls? And then, who decided it? If it’s a custom or tradition, what makes them act so is people’s stereotype such as ‘boys should like soccer more than cooking.’ This idea makes us who we are and how we act in a way. If you are a boy, you know how people expect you to act like through talking with mom and dad, for example. You would be likely to be provided with car toys than Barbie dolls. Then you grow up as a ‘boy’ with a sense of a boy. Like this stereotypes and categorizing is everywhere around us and we are tied to them and act as expected.

I, as a woman, don’t think women should be free of house holding and child care even though I won’t be good at it because women have rights to go outside houses and participate in society regardless of marriage but I think biologically women are better at child care in many cases. Of course it’s about one’s personality and we can’t decide which is better but according to physical differences women will do better on average. But I think they at least have a choice. As I mentioned, it’s depend on one’s personality and not one’s sex. On the other hand men who prefer house holding should be welcome and they don’t always have to be the role of working outside. Both sexes have choices. And what suffer them are the stereotypes and categorizing. People see a person who does something different as ‘deviant’ and not all of them are brave enough to take the choice. So I think the most important thing on gender norms is to change the trend. People suffer between own desire and society’s way when they are in troubles. However, they don’t recognize that they are tied to society’s stereotypes until they are in troubles. What is required here is that all people should recognize the unfair restriction and understand that we all have choices of how we live.

Social movements all around the world

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by Mao Shibata

In these times of globalization, social movements become not only domestic movement but also international and world-wide movements. For instance, the Arab Spring that originally occurred in Tunisia and spreading throughout Arab world is one of the largest revolutionary waves of demonstration, protest, and war, which began on 18 December 2010 remain vivid in most people’s memory. Social movements collect particular people to appeal particular thinking or idea, and moreover, people are organized as unity using their social networks and attempt to change or promote their society and politics. To achieve their goals, framing is essential for every social movements.

Framing enable to integrate people together and determine their direction of movements. Furthermore, social movements can incorporate more groups with a broader range of goals and great influence on popularity and public policy.

When I watched the movement against nuclear power plants in Hukushima, I was so impressed and I understood the relation between framing and social movements. I know the concepts of both framing and social movement, however, I was a little bit confused how do they impact on mutually. In the movie, women in Hukushima stood up and started to take action as they want to protect all of their children who live in radiation exposure area and moreover, they feel anger with the government who did not deal with nuclear problem seriously and sincerely. These are the framing. That’s why they decided to take action as social movements. They are now organizing social movement against nuclear plants to attain their goal that abolish the nuclear plants and turn other-not only media but also all citizens- attention to them.

However, social movements sometimes compete with each other and they miss their purpose or goal. What they need is to keep less abstract and more personal and not to focus on only one frame. We usually carry around multiple frames in our head and every people grasp affairs in difference ways. Keep thinking for example, what framing being more successful? Do people convey any clear consisting frame? And carrying on effort to reframe and considering solution lead to achieve their real goal. Social movements act to change political debates, governmental institution and wider culture under their own purpose. Sometime there are some obstacles that are put in their way such as government, police, media or their opposition campaign and it is really difficult to convey their goal to entire world, though they try to promote awareness and action that extends beyond the boundaries of one movement or campaign by pressing and carrying images and words.

Inequality for Women and Men in Japanese Society

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by Misato Okumura

In general, people all over the world say our inequality between women and men are remarkable in Japanese society. This is true. For example we have a little number of female CEOs or any kinds of head of firms, and a lot of Japanese mothers quit their job and stay home when they got their children. Some people don’t quit their job even if they have small kids but the mothers need to do both house and care work and actual work at a company. And most working women are not satisfied with their working conditions and change or quit their jobs. The way to solve this problem is not only offering more works for them and getting them promotions more easily. This is not that easy. For example, if they get them more promotions, it makes them more difficult to leave their job and it will be more burdens for women who have their children at home because they need to do both jobs. Moreover, this is not a disadvantage only for women. It is also unfair for the fathers to spend less time with their children than the mothers do. Then how can we change this structure?

Before we think about this question, I would like to analyze how the structure of Japanese society creates this inequality. I think we have 3 characteristics which influence on this. They are the lifetime employment system, lack of kindergartens and decreasing birthrate and aging population. These problems don’t let us leave the inequality.

First, the lifetime employment system makes it easier for women to leave their jobs. In this system, people can work till they become 60 years old once they got hired. But also, they need to stay working for the company as long as possible to get promotion. This system is not applied to women. So if they need money, men need to work and women need to take care of children at home.

Then what if mothers want to go working rather than to stay home and raise up their children? Basically, they leave their kids at the kindergarten during their working. But this is difficult because we don’t have a lot of kindergartens in each community and almost no kindergarten at company. To make the matter worse, some people don’t have enough money to leave their kids there.

Moreover, our society is aging and losing young people every year. The number of elder people is increasing every day. And these people think that women should stay home to do care work and men should earn enough money to take care of this family. In short, the number of people who have this idea is huge. This makes it difficult to share care work between women and men.

In conclusion, Japanese unique social structure has created an inequality between women and men. I think we need to establish more public kindergartens and hire more teachers and to make the opportunity to let elder people and young people share and understand their ideas in order to change our social structure.

What is gender equality in Japan

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by Ayaka Nishizaki

Gender inequality has been one of controversial topics for a long time in many countries as well as Japan. This time, I would like to think and mention gender inequality in Japan.

During my class, I learned an inequality of work opportunities for women in some countries. I heard that women’s job opportunities have increased than before, but women still have to do house work because of traditional idea and women will be more burden than men. I understood that is called gender inequality. However, I felt gender inequality cannot be said from only that point. This is because the meaning of the inequality is different in each countries’ situation, and I wondered ‘what does gender inequality mean in Japan?’ When it comes to say gender inequality, the premise that women are responsible for taking care of children and doing house work always seems to be rooted in Japanese Society. I think that premise is only women’s side. For a long time, while women have been thought as domestic worker, men have been thought that they have heavy responsibility for work to support whole members of family. The number of men who commit suicide is higher than that of women because of pressure of work. Also, if men want to do care work, it is difficult to do because support system from government and companies is not enough. In my opinion, there is not only inequality of burden for women but also inequality of care work opportunities or pressure working for men, but Japan has seems to highlight women as a most part of gender inequality to date.

Today, Japan society faces difficult situation because Japan regarded gender inequality as women’s side inequality, I think. Recently, women’s job opportunities have increased by gender equality movement, but at the same time, married couples have difficulty in keeping life balance. there are few opportunities to do care work for men because Japan didn’t think gender inequality from men side. Therefore, women can’t ask men to do house work while men have no choice to work at companies and they can’t help care work. When we improve gender equality, the important thing is to keep life work balance so that married couple can keep good relationships. I realized that even if some movements or measures for the inequality are made, if these actions are composed of only one side view point, it will just create ‘time squeeze’ I learned in my class, Thus, my opinion is that when Japan takes some actions for improving equality, Japan society should think gender inequality from both women and men sides.

Promoting Super Dads and Permitting Normal Moms

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by Ayaka Nakamura

One of my Japanese American girl friends told me, “I hate the idea ‘equal rights’ between men and women. Why do I have to work like a man? I just want to marry someone and be a mother.” I was surprised, as I had always wanted to have a professional job and be treated in the same as men. She continued, “Who on earth did start to talk about equal rights? I want to go back to mom’s generation! Then, no one would blame me for not having a job.” Although I had not thought about the equal rights in that way, I could understand what she was saying. She was afraid of working in the same conditions as men because she wanted to have a child, so that a happy marriage was the only way to realize her desire. It is actually too tough for women to have a job with being a great mother at the same time. Equal right discourses having a place in Japan are about promoting women’s rights and giving the same amount of opportunities in job hunting, which would be good for those who want to work like men but not for those who want to enjoy being women. Also, this type of equal rights does not let men to enjoy their fatherhood either because raising children is still entrusted to women and embedded in women’s rights. Although the Japanese government declare equal rights, gendered ideologies and norms still remain vital. Therefore, some women, such as my friend, are having struggles between expectations for powerful women and the reality of women. The government set the equal opportunities, but women often have different life styles from men because male and female are different and only female can give a birth (I would like not to touch arguments about trans-sexual here), so that different approaches to realize the equality within considerations of gender differences are necessary.

We cannot ignore existing gender ideologies, such as women are supporters of men, women are inferior to men, women are emotional and illogical beings, and child caring is women’s job, which have been continued within this patriarchal society. We cannot skip any steps to realize the equality. It seems that giving equal opportunities is an idea of “gender-neutral society” in which people do not have gendered fetters and only one’s ability is a criterion of a judgment. Yet, Japan obviously has not reached that point, so that it has to aim for “gender-understanding society,” as the first step, in which people accept the differences of sexes and gender roles and aim to get equal results. Also, at this point, people understand not only that women have been victimized and had lower statuses at work, but also that men have been marginalized from child caring and forced to work outside.

In order to realize gender-understanding society, I believe education would play a key role to develop people’s new norms. Current Japanese schools are saturated with gendered ideas. From my experiences, girls’ bathrooms were more beautiful and had more mirrors than boys’. Girls had different P.E. curriculums. Girls were expected to perform better than boys in home economic (kateika 家庭科) classes. Boys were expected to perform better than girls in science and math classes. Girls were more likely to go on to language majors at universities. Scientific schools (rikei 理系) were full of boys. Most of English teachers were women while math teachers were men. All art history professors were women at American University in Washington, D.C. As to job hunting, mostly men got in a career course (sogoshoku 総合職) and women in a non-career course (ippanshoku 一般職). These examples seem to prove that Japanese gender ideologies are generated in children’s minds from elementary schools to universities. Therefore, it should be changed. All students and teachers have to be aware of gender norms and gendered decision-making processes. Having a lecture about gender at elementary school level would help children to have more equalized and neutral ideas about their future. Moreover, ability-based, not gender-based, curriculums and advices would give students wider opportunities to find their best field.

However, only education would not be enough for a gender ideology reform. Politics that promote gender-understanding society would be necessary. Ikumen 育メン, which can be translated to cool fathers, project has started with supports of the Ministry of Health Labour and Welfare of Japan. According to its website, the projects aim for increasing the percentage of paternity leave from 2.63 % to 10 % by 2017 and 13 % by 2020.[1] I believe this project is worth to try for both purposes: to release women from child caring roles and to let men fulfill their fatherhoods. Moreover, companies’ supports by establishing a new paternity and maternity leave system are essential to produce ikumen and to achieve gender equality. Equal start lines that only force women to work like men do not bring reasonable results, thus companies must let women have a paid maternity leave that can cover their living for a limited time. Also, accepting mothers and fathers who have worked at the companies as part-time workers while they need a certain time for childcare. Those part-time workers should be able to have salaries at the same rate as full-time workers. I believe the experienced part-time workers are more worth to hire than a new graduate full-time worker who have not got any skills yet. Although giving a paid maternity leave is an expensive solution for companies, contributing society will end up bringing benefits for them, too. Many people would choose more flexible and more secured companies to work with than old-fashioned companies that use women as tea servers and fire pregnant workers.

If educations are improved and society understands gender ideologies and norms, then the number of female workers will increase and women will get more independent and free lives, and someday the society could achieve the real gender equality appreciating equal start lines. Yet, the change would not come in one or two years because the whole patriarchal system has lasted for hundreds of years and is a part of Japanese culture. Gendered ideas construct the bases of its society. Therefore, ikumen project and other gender equalizing projects must be kept going until we see the change in next generation. I hope, in the future, there are more super dads who are evolved from ever-at-work dads and normal moms who are released from pressures of being super moms.

[1] “育メンプロジェクト” Ministry of Health Labour and Welfare of Japan.　http://ikumen-project.jp/project/index.html

Gender Structure in Working Place in Japan

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by Asako Morita

Gender role has been considered as a part of culture and behaviors of people tend to be based on gender role. In Japan, historically men have worked outside and women have been housewives. This family structure is recognized as common sense so many workplaces are not well prepared for women to work long and secured. Because of the whole structure, women are easy to be in an economically vulnerable position. In this short essay, I would like to seek Northern European countries where more women have well advanced in society and what systems can fit in Japanese system.

In Japan, lifetime employment system has been normal and once you quit a job, it is hard to get a job which has as same as the previous condition.  However, with the onset of cataclysmic changes in the economic climate in 2009, employers began laying off and dismissing massive numbers of non-permanent workers and workers employed on a part-time or contract basis for periods of less than one year. Compared to regular employment, non-regular employment is able to receive limited company’s benefit package and unsecured. In Japan, about 60 percent of women quit jobs after they get married or give birth and afterward, they only have option to work as a non-regular or part-time workers. Because of the common sense of gender role, men tend not to do housekeeping or child caring but working as a breadwinner. It means only super women can raise children and work at the same time.

On the other hand, in Northern European countries, even though most women work as non-regular workers, they are satisfied with the job condition and they are able to handle both raising children and working since non-regular workers can work flexibly. The biggest difference from Japanese system is that non-regular workers are also well secured and they can receive a good benefit package from company. Therefore, most women choose to take non-regular jobs and they do not have to give up anything. Other difference is how long men contribute to family and households. I think one of the reason is working hour of Japanese men is too long and not enough time to be at home.

Surely it is difficult to fit the whole system of Northern European countries to Japan. However, I think Japanese working environment has way less flexibility and it hinders the entrance of women into the workforce. Now it is essential to create more flexibility at workplaces and expanding career switch market for both women and men’s opportunity for balancing work and family.

Frame on the Social Movements

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by Hiroki Matsukura

Through learning the concept of “frame” on our society in class, I found it being the conception of exclusion from “society”. It finally decides outsiders or insiders about one issue. In this system, they, insiders, seem to ignore outsiders saying. What, in addition, we must not forget is there is not only the exclusion from the insiders when it comes to seeing from the outsiders view to protest the situation. The outsiders also create their own frame against the frame that excludes them. Thus, at last, they lead to exclude each other. We might see the social movements as one of the figures of exclusion between both sides.

Thinking of this exclusive system, we may conclude that the situation cannot be solved from this approach that people just insist toward each other what they want to do or to be. We need to establish the “framework” to include each other well. To reach such framework, we should know well about the structure of our society. In this blog post, I would like to use the Japanese structure as the example. As we can know from a lot of the Japanese contemporary novels and movies, in the old days, around 1960s, the social movements were led by especially young university students, and it was seen as a sort of extreme or crazy movements. On the other hand, the present movements are seen relatively as being milder and behaving itself. However, this does not mean their movements are thought as agreeable.

The social movements are seen as something strange as long as they are labelled with the name of “social movement” in Japan. It means that social movements in Japan are regarded as heterogeneity for the frame of homogeneity, “being usual.” Notably, the Japanese government is an important symbol seemed to be established over the frame of the Japanese usualness. Nevertheless, those who join the social movements expect the government to change its policy along with them. Additionally, as mentioned above, even in Japan we have to think about the both-side-exclusion between a frame and a frame of anti-frame existing. From this, we can point out that this situation seems contradictory. As this explanation, we can state our Japanese society is under a top-down structure. In short with a simple expression, it means when the government says something is its justice, the thing becomes everyone’s justice in Japanese society.

This is being a Japanese common sense under conscience about social activities. In any frame, the Japanese society always is cuffed with the thought. Thus, the social movements firstly try to make the government accept their ideas for Japanese politics. From the point of my view, I point out that they lose the recognition that the people themselves are the politics itself, not the government. To establish the framework to understand and include various standing points in Japan, we firstly need to throw away the top-down structure from Japan and to create a people-centred society in a new sense. Abandoning the symbol of “being usual,” we find us standing on even ground.

Gender Equality in Work Place Will Protect Japanese Economy

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by Eriko Maruyama

The Japanese society is facing serious economic problems, such as stagnant GDP growth, aging population, raising unemployment rates. In response to these issues, the Japanese government is now trying to encourage women to enter the labour market. The employments of women in Japan are around 60 percent, while those of men are 80 percent (OECD). The Economist magazine (2012) estimated that if this gap of employment rates were improved, GDP of Japan would grow at 9 percent by 2020. As this statistic suggested, it is important to promote women to enter the labour market. In order to achieve this, we need to create new working environment which enables men and women to reconcile their jobs and housework. It is important to target not only women but also men, because the problem of gender is not only about women. It is a problem of both men and women.

Firstly, we need to start with remaking of system of companies. Companies should allow employees to work flexibly. For example, we can work everywhere with high tech devices today. We do not need to go to companies any more. We can have meetings in different places thorough Internet, or we can share documents on web clouds. Thus, companies have become less important places. If employee could do their job at home, they could finish housework and do childcare at the same time.

Nevertheless, still we need to go to work places, especially for people who work for factories and service sector. Therefore, it is necessary to create places which take care of children. There are not enough number of nursery schools and kindergarten in Japan now, so many mothers give up their job and engage in childcare. I would suggest that employing the retired people as carers of children. It is estimated that one of four people would be over 60 by 2030 in Japan, and as we can see, the elderly is very active after retirement. If it was encouraged to employ these active grandparent for taking care of children, parents could engage in their jobs and also the elderly could stay healthy. It is a win-win relation. If the government pushed women into labour force without enough support, women would be blamed for neglecting housework, and this would promote women’s returning to home again. In order to prevent this phenomenon, it is important to enhance the childcare systems.

In short, in order to sustain economic growth in Japan, it is necessary to create more flexible working environment which enables more people to enter labour market. At the same time, the government should implement social policies and provide more childcare systems in order for parents to focus on their jobs. It is expected for government to see gender issue as the interconnected problem of both women and men.

Bibliography

OECD (n.d.). OECD Better Life Index Japan. Retrieved from http://www.oecdbetterlifeindex.org/countries/japan/

The Economist (2012). The Contribution of Women. Retrieved from http://www.economist.com/news/economic-and-financial-indicators/21564857

Global Care Chain: Where Can We Locate Japan?

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by Akie Kuwano

In their theses, authors like Ehrenreich & Hochschild and Parreñas explained the system of “global care chain.” This revealed how child care work has been internationalized and in some countries exploited women from Third World while allowing women in developed countries to work outside. However, this trend is not quite applicable to a country like Japan, where the economy has thrived and more women are engaged in paid work these days. Some may argue that it is because Japan is well behind the Western country in terms of integrating women into a society; however, that is not the only reason why Japan can be located outside of “global care chain.” This essay will further explore the relation between Japanese society and this global trend of trading female care workers.

One reason why foreign nannies are uncommon in Japan is that there is simply no culture of accepting care workers from outside into one’s household. The culture is contrary to that of Western countries, where it is common to hire someone to look after their child and in some cases even offering a spare room for nannies to stay. Rather Japanese tend to send their children to pre-school (Hoiku-en) or kinder garden. Therefore, while Japanese parents are outside working, Hoiku-shi (workers in Hoiku-en) takes care of children instead of care workers from Third World.

Moreover, Japanese people hold limited image of Hoiku-shi; that is, there is certain quality of who to be engaged in care work. It is commonly women, as shown in the figure that male care workers consist only 5% of total. Although there have been some political attempts to fill the gap, the stereotype for Hoiku-shi as women are still widely prevailed. Also, the occupation is dominated by Japanese because one has to be qualified to be a Hoiku-shi. There are some requirements of completing certain degree in college or university.

In conclusion, there are no tendencies in Japan of “global care chain” as seen in other industrialized Western countries. There are several reasons; one is that it is not simply common for Japanese to invite stranger into their house for care work. The other is that Hoiku-shi as occupation is limited for certain type of people. From above, we can see the “domestic care chain” in Japan where women are still serving for care work even when they think they are working outside.

REFERENCE:

Atsuko, Aono (2009).  ”Male Childcare Workers’ Attitude Toward Child Day Care: From the View Point of Gender-Free Child Day Care” Journal of the Faculty of Human Cultures and Sciences, Fukuyama University. 9 (1-29).