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- Convenor:
-
Hiroko Takeda
(Nagoya University)
Send message to Convenor
- Stream:
- Economics, Business and Political Economy
- Location:
- Torre B, Piso 3, T11
- Sessions:
- Friday 1 September, -
Time zone: Europe/Lisbon
Short Abstract:
The overarching purpose of the proposed panel is to explore the ways in which structural reform can be carried out to support both care work at home and the promotion of women's employment and career advancement.
Long Abstract:
With the Japanese government's recent loud calls for building a One Hundred Million Total Active Society, the issues of the gendered division of labour at home and the expansion of women's labour participation have been elevated to the top of the national agenda. Despite this, little progress was made in the areas of family support and women's employment, as demonstrated by the rise of nation-wide protest movements joined by young mothers. Furthermore, the current demographic condition in Japan often causes the need for families to engage in the elderly and child care concurrently, exacerbating the burden of care responsibilities individuals have to bear. Thus, it is today an imminent task to figure out and implement effective measures to support care work at home while enabling both men and women to engage in paid employment and balancing between work and the family life, and this requires the national government to concurrently carry out structural reform of the workplace, the social security system and the family.
The overarching purpose of the panel is to explore the ways in which structural reform can be carried out to support both care work at home and the promotion of women's employment and career advancement. In order to achieve this, the first paper examines through data sets the current state of care work at home where individuals are often required to carry out doubled burdens of the elderly and child care. The second paper outlines the development of government policies in the areas of family support and women's labour in the last 30 years and identifies factors that have been impeding policy progress. Then, the third paper juxtaposes the Japanese case against the those of Scandinavian countries where care work at home was defamiliarized and women have achieved substantial career advancement. The comparison with the Scandinavian cases helps us to contemplate the ways in which the conundrum of reconciling care work and paid work and improving the quality of life, a problem that many Japanese people are now facing, would be tackled.
Accepted papers:
Session 1 Friday 1 September, 2017, -Paper short abstract:
This study examines the state of elderly care provision by adult children at home and the gendered distribution of care responsibility in Japan by using "Survey to grasp the state of balance between work and elderly care responsibility, 2013".
Paper long abstract:
This study examines the state of elderly care provision by adult children at home and the gendered distribution of care responsibility in Japan. Japan has experienced a rapid increase in the ratio of elderly population. The percentage of the population of aged 65 or older was 24.1% in 2013, which is the highest rate in the world (Cabinet Office 2013). This suggests that taking measures for proper elderly care provision is one of the urgent issues for the Japanese government. Although the Long-Term Care Insurance Act, which provides public care service for elderly with care needs, was enacted in 1997, routine/daily care services are still mostly provided by relatives within the household (MHLW 2000). The Japanese government has maintained the male-breadwinner-housewife social security model, which assigns care responsibility to women within the household. Thus, 72.2% of elderly care services are provided by women (MHLW 2000). Due to the incompatibility between paid work and elderly care responsibility, 80 thousand workers quit their jobs for elderly care responsibility in 2010 (Oshima 2012).
This study uses "Survey to grasp the state of balance between work and elderly care responsibility, 2013" to investigate gendered elderly care provision in Japan. The sample consists of male and female respondents (aged 40-59 year old) who has quit their job for elderly care responsibility. The main findings are following: (1) Elderly care services are mainly provided by women (daughter or daughter in law). (2) Respondents report that their care burden has increased since they quit their jobs. The percentage who report that "the burden increased a lot" is higher for female respondents than is for male respondents. (3) However, both male and female respondents who provide care at home shoulder heavy care responsibility as approximately 50% respondents provide care every day.
These results suggest that public care provision is far from sufficient, and women take most care responsibility privately within the household. However, once men become a care provider, they also share heavy care responsibility. Policy implications are discussed.
Paper short abstract:
This paper discusses reasons as to why the policy reforms conducted by the Japanese government in the areas of birthrate decline and the elderly care in the last 30 years have been so ineffective by considering the political logic and ideas behind the policy-making,
Paper long abstract:
It was in 1990 that the birthrate decline was first identified by the policy-making elites as an imminent political problem that the Japanese state was facing. The issues of ageing and the elderly care were acknowledged in the policy-making process much earlier. For more than 30 years, a series of policies have been proposed and implemented to tackle the issues of birthrate decline and the elderly care. Indeed, family policy is one of the most dynamic policy areas in Japan in which we can observe frequent reforms. Yet, the current states of childbirth and the elderly care suggest that these reforms have achieved very little policy outcome. This urges us to ask some fundamental questions about the political process concerning the issues of birthrate decline and the elderly care: why have the policies targeting the issues of birthrate decline and the elderly care been so ineffective and how can these policies be improved to realize the intended policy outcomes?
The proposed paper is a small attempt to consider some of the questions above. The first section of the paper traces the trajectory of policy-making in the areas of birthrate decline and the elderly care for the last 30 years by identifying first, the policy objectives and tools of each piece of policy, and second, the implications generated from the interplays of different pieces of policy. Then, the second section examines government documents and parliamentary discussions to identify the political logics and ideas behind the Japanese government's policy-making. By taking these steps, the paper aims to achieve a concrete understanding of gaps between policy rhetoric and the reality of policy implementation. In particular, the paper highlights the national government's persistent reliance on the family as the care provider, even under the Abe government which has been advocating loudly the promotion of female labour force. In this sense, policy changes in the area of family policy have not yet touched upon the fundamental structural problems, and hence, 'structural reform' in the area of family policy is yet to be seen.
Paper short abstract:
This paper compares the policy development in Scandinavian countries with that in Japan to understand why gender equality at the workplace lags behind the other industrially advanced countries 30 years after the introduction of the Equal Employment Opportunity Law.
Paper long abstract:
It has been already three decades since the Equal Employment Opportunity Law (EEOL) was enacted in Japan. There is not, however, much progress in gender equality at the workplace. Why has so little change made during the last thirty years? We all know that the EEOL has been revised several times and successive governments have tried to alleviate gender imbalance in employment, as exemplified by the Abe government "Womanomics". Researchers have pointed out various causes and solutions for gender inequality in the business sphere. There must be fundamental problems in Japan that have been impeding the promotion of gender equality.
With this question in mind, the author has endeavored to find out the success factors of countries where gender equality has been much progressed in the area of employment. The author chose three countries, i.e. Norway, Denmark and Netherlands for the comparison with Japan.
The research is currently at the data-gathering stage, and field research centring on interviews with female managers, scholars in universities and politicians in local governments has been conducted. The research has identified the key turning point for the three countries - when policy direction was decided in response to the economic development and consequent labour shortage. Whereas those of Scandinavian countries chose to defamiliarize and share care work at home in the society, Japan chose the path to put the work and burden to private household/family. As a result, the three countries have achieved women's advancement not only in employment but also in every area of people's lives. On the other hand, Japan has developed the entire economy, society and company management practices based on the system with which individuals or families take on childcare and elderly care. With this system, Japan achieved economic success and people's perceptions and cultures have also been cultivated. How can we deconstruct established the social and economic system and develop new values, culture and practices for gender equality and subsequent affluent society with a high quality of life? This would be the question facing Japanese society.