(1) Identification
- Consultation from parents or relatives
- Consultation or report from a school or a medical facility
- Consultation or report from a neighbor
- Protection by police
日本語 / ENGLISH
An Introduction To Social Care In Japan
What Is
“Social Care” ?
The Japanese “social care” (社会的養護) is the system in which local governments provide protective care to children without parents or children whose parents are unable to raise the child.
This page gives the outline of social care in Japan.
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Factors That Make Child Care At Home Impossible
Not being able to raise one’s own child… it can happen to anybody.
Child Abuse
Child abuse consists of physical, psychological and sexual abuse as well as child neglect. Behind such abusive behavior, many kinds of socioeconomic factors might lay such as the parent’s health condition, economic insecurity and isolation.
Health Problems
In addition to the “physical” diseases, psychiatric diseases of a parent is also an important issue. Mental problems such as depression, schizophrenia and alcohol addiction have the potential to leave the parent unemployed or prevent the parent from taking appropriate care of the child.
Financial Problems
The employment status of the parent could affect the parent’s child rearing capability. Related to this issue, the rise of the relative poverty rate among households with children is drawing attention in Japan in recent years (referred to as 子どもの貧困).
Divorce & Domestic Violence
After divorce, the single mother/father (ひとり親) has to take all the burden of the household, from securing a decent income to taking care of the child.
Domestic violence (DV) in front of the eyes of the child corresponds to psychological child abuse.
Incidents & Accidents
Being involved in an unexpected event like a traffic accident, a fire or even a criminal incident could take away the parent’s child rearing capability. Getting paid an insurance money does not replace the loss in human resources.
Natural Disaster
Natural disasters can leave the child an orphan, and relatives might be unable to take care of him/her instead. Even if there was no casualty, the economic loss could pressure the parent’s child rearing ability.
Guaranteeing Proper Childhood Environment
Regardless Of The Condition Of The Household
The Role Of The Public Sector In Securing The Rights Of Children
Authorities in the local governments in Japan have the responsibility to provide protective care to the children whose parents do not have or are likely to lose their child care capability. Part of the welfare system aimed to achieve this is called social care (社会的養護). Social care plays the roles listed below, under the principles “for the best interest of children” and “foster children in the hand of the entire society”.
Fostering
Social care raises children who couldn’t be appropriately raised in their original households. It is believed that family-like environment is desirable in alternative care facilities. But in the cases of children that have difficult conditions such as a trauma from an abusive treatment, the balance between professional care and such family-like environment needs to be thought out.
Psychological Care
Inappropriate rearing such as child abuse causes psychological wounds or disruptions in mental development. In social care, these problems are met with therapeutic interventions by psychiatrists and clinical psychologists in order to recover proper development.
Local Community Support
Social care is putting more effort into the support of the local parents and local communities, in the hope of reducing child abuse or detecting child abuse earlier. Social care is also responsible for providing aftercare to the people who left social care facilities, which makes it even more important to build a closer relationship with local communities.
How Children Get In Touch With Social Care
Child Guidance Centers* Plays An Important Role
* Child guidance centers (児童相談所) are set up in each prefectures and government ordinance cities in Japan.
(2) Temporary Custody
The child guidance center ascertains the status of the child, and takes him/her to its temporary custody facility if necessary. It examines the child’s circumstances, and evaluate the possibility of turning the child back home to provide home assistance. If it determines that the child should not be turned back to his/her parents, it will decide a measure of alternative care such as transferring to a children’s home.
(3) Admission
The child starts living in a children’s home or a household of foster parents. Facility to which a child is placed will be based on availability. Sometimes children are placed in an unfamiliar location.
Welfare Services In Social Care
The Services And Its Providers
< Alternative Care >
Alternative care is the set of measures in which a child is separated from his/her parent(s) and raised in facilities or foster parents. The necessity of such separation is being judged by a child guidance center, and a consent of the parent(s) is not required when the court approves the child guidance center’s decision. Depending on the child’s circumstances, this separation could end in months or last until the age limit of social care (18 years old).
Temporary Custody Facility
(一時保護所)
(一時保護所)
When there is an urgent need to protect a child, the child is taken to a temporal custody facility in child guidance centers and spends there for days or more. Some children are kept under restriction for a long time when there is no permanent facilities available.
Children's Home
(児童養護施設)
(児童養護施設)
Children's homes are the facilities to raise children in the ages roughly between 2 to 18. Children live in these facilities and go to ordinary schools. Some children's homes have satellite facilities (group homes) which make use of ordinary detached housings. There are about 600 children's homes around Japan. [27,888 children (March 2016)]
More details
More details
Foster Parents
(里親)
(里親)
Foster parents raise children in the ages between 0 to 18 in their own households. In Japan, this is different from adoption in that the relationships between foster parents and a fostered child is impermanent (if they adopt the child they are no longer called foster parents). [4,973 children (March 2016)]
Infant Home
(乳児院)
(乳児院)
Infant homes take care of infants in the ages up to 2. It is virtually an infant version of children's homes, but unlike children's homes they are usually set up by hospitals. [2,901 children (March 2016)]
Family Home
(ファミリーホーム)
(ファミリーホーム)
This is an intermediate form of care between children's homes and foster parents. The owner of the home raise 5 or 6 children with the help of a couple of assistant care staffs. [1,261 children (March 2016)]
Another legal system closely related to alternative care is the special adoption (特別養子縁組) system. When a special adoption is made, the adoptive parents are legally the only parents of the adopted child. Because of the permanency of the relationship between the parents and the child, special adoption is often times not considered to be a part of alternative care system.
< Other Supportive Systems >
When there is no need to separate a child from his/her parents, social care institutions listed below provide home assistance, day care or temporary accommodation to support the child and the parents. Child guidance centers have the authority to determine what measures to be taken in which type of facility (excluding maternal and child living support facility and short-stay service).
Psychological Treatment Facility For Children
(児童心理治療施設)
(児童心理治療施設)
Facilities of this type provide psychological treatment and other related services to children who have difficulty in adapting to schools etc. Its name was changed from another name ("情緒障害児短期治療施設")in 2016. [1,399 children (March 2016)]
Facility To Support The Development Of Children's Self-sustaining Capacity
(児童自立支援施設)
(児童自立支援施設)
Facilities of this type provide directional intervention to children with delinquent behaviors. [1,395 children (March 2016)]
Mother And Children's Home
(母子生活支援施設)
(母子生活支援施設)
Facilities of this type accommodates a mother and her children who are in need of protection, for example from an abusive partner, and support their re-establishment of life. You need to submit an application to your local welfare office (福祉事務所), not the child guidance center. [5,479 children (March 2016)]
Independence Support Home
(自立援助ホーム)
(自立援助ホーム)
An independence support home provides cheap housing to those who left social care facilities such as children's homes, and support their employment through supervision and advice. Youth under the age of 20 can use (for students of higher education, until the end of the school year in which they turn 22). [516 children (March 2016)]]
Short-stay & Twilight-stay
(ショートステイ & トワイライトステイ)
(ショートステイ & トワイライトステイ)
When parents are unable to take care of their child for a short period of time, they can have their child taken care at a local children's home. Short-stay is for 1 to 7 stays overnights, whereas Twilight-stay is usually for several hours at night on weekdays. These services are used on the parents' own accord, and not included in the measures enforced by child guidance centers.
In some cases other facilities, such as institutions for children with disability, are included in "social care". Services in the private sector like dorms and babysitters are not part of the social care system.
Source(1): 厚生労働省(Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare)子ども家庭局家庭福祉課 “社会的養育の推進に向けて” September 2017 ( Link )
* The number of children are based on MHLW’s “福祉行政報告例”, as of March 31st 2016.
* Facility To Support The Development Of Children’s Self-sustaining Capacity (児童自立支援施設) includes two national facilities.
Source(2): 厚生労働省(Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare) 新たな社会的養育の在り方に関する検討会 “新しい社会的養育ビジョン” August 2017 ( Link )
The Issue Of Child Abuse
As The Number Of Child Abuse Report Explodes,
Social Care Needs A Boost In Capacity
Number of Child Abuse Reported
To Child Guidance Centers
Source: 厚生労働省(Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare)子ども家庭局家庭福祉課 “社会的養育の推進に向けて” December 2017 ( Link )
* Based on MHLW’s “福祉行政報告例”.
* Fukushima Prefecture’ data was excluded from the FY 2010 survey.
Number of Child Who
Experienced Abuse in the Past
Source: 厚生労働省(Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare) “児童養護施設入所児童等調査” February 1st 2013 ( Link )
Definition Of Child Abuse
Any of the act listed below, when done to a juvenile under the age of 18 by his/her guardian, corresponds to child abuse (児童虐待) in the Japanese law.
Physical Abuse | Hit, kick, slap, throw down, shake intensively, sear, drown, strangle by the neck, constrain to a room with ropes and the like |
|---|---|
Psychological Abuse | Verbal intimidation, ignoring, discriminatory treatment among siblings, violence to a family member or a sibling in front of the eyes of the child (domestic violence) and the like |
Sexual Abuse | Sexual behavior towards the child, making the child witness sexual behaviors, touch the child's sexual organs, make the child touch other's sexual organs, take pornography and the like |
Neglect | Lock up inside, starving, keep the child in an extraordinarily insanitary condition, leave inside a car, not taking the child to a medical institution when in serious condition and the like |
Source: 厚生労働省(Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare) “児童虐待の定義と現状” ( Link )
* In Japan, the article 2 of the Act on the Prevention, etc. of Child Abuse stipulates the definition of child abuse.
* The term “guardian” mentioned here includes a person in parental authority, a guardian of minor, a foster parent and a head of children’s home.
When You Spotted A Possible Child Abuse Case…
- The number 189 is a nation-wide dial contact to your local child guidance center (児童相談所).
- An operator at a call center will take your call. The service is given in Japanese.
- You can choose to stay anonymous when making a call.
- Information about you and your report will be kept confidential.
About The Orange Ribbon Movement
The Orange Ribbon Movement (オレンジリボン運動) is a Japanese citizen’s campaign calling to eliminate child abuse, by using the Orange Ribbon Mark (TM) as an symbol of child abuse prevention.
NPO Lights On Children is also an supporter of the Orange Ribbon Movement To Prevent Child Abuse.
Source: 認定特定非営利活動法人 児童虐待防止全国ネットワーク(NPO Japan Network for Prevention of Child Abuse and Neglect) “オレンジリボンについて” ( Link )
* The Orange Ribbon Mark is a trademark of NPO Japan Network for Prevention of Child Abuse and Neglect (認定特定非営利活動法人 児童虐待防止全国ネットワーク).
(The content of this page was revised on May 6 2018)
(Shakaidekosodate.com, currently in Japanese only)