"The Motherhood Wall: The True Nature of the Burden Cornering Child-rearing"

2023/11/14

For the past 30 years, various measures have been introduced to address the declining birthrate, and "unprecedented" measures are now beginning. Is Japan truly a country where it is easy to raise children?

This book explores the walls that mothers who wish to work while raising children encounter in Japanese society. To see what differences emerged between those who were able to enroll their children in nursery schools and those who were not, a survey was conducted in October 2017. The survey took place in City A, located in a metropolitan suburb. With the city's cooperation, the survey was administered to all approximately 2,300 households that applied to the city for admission for April 2017. More than 60% of people responded, but what stood out most was the free-response section at the end of the questionnaire. There, mothers had filled the space with their worries and thoughts.

It was filled with the voices of mothers expressing not only the lament of "I couldn't get into a nursery school and had to quit my job," but also the unbalanced burden of housework and childcare with their husbands, and frustrations at the workplace. While individual mothers were voicing personal concerns, there were mothers with the exact same worries as if they had coordinated, suggesting that these are structurally created problems.

Analyzing these responses reveals three walls facing mothers: the "Childcare Wall," the "Home Wall," and the "Workplace Wall," all of which are intertwined. In workplaces where the standard is a male employee whose wife handles all housework and childcare based on a gendered division of labor, mothers are treated like second-tier employees who feel out of place. If a mother handles all housework and childcare at home, she becomes exhausted. While some blamed the husbands in front of them, others expressed hope that everyone's way of working would change so that husbands could change as well.

Becoming a mother leads to fewer employment opportunities and lower income. This is also known as the "child penalty," and Japan is the country where this is most significant. In other words, the various burdens of child-rearing fall solely on the mother, and in Japanese society, "becoming a mother" is a trade-off for "giving something up." We must stop making child-rearing the sole responsibility of the mother and instead support child-rearing and mothers as a society. An environment is needed where mothers can give birth and raise children without worry.

"The Motherhood Wall: The True Nature of the Burden Cornering Child-rearing"

Masako Maeda

Iwanami Shoten

222 pages, 1,980 yen (tax included)

*Affiliations and titles are as of the time of publication.