ABSTRACT
Throughout the postwar era, the Japanese state has used women as a point of adjustment to negotiate varying social, economic, and political imperatives; this is probably most clearly reflected in family and child care policies. Ever since the introduction of the child welfare law in 1947, which laid the legal foundation for the state to provide public child care to “children lacking in care” at home, interpretations of what constitutes “a child lacking in care” have vacillated in response to the market demands for women’s labor, political demands to strengthen the family’s welfare obligations, and public pressures for more social care. Hence, a simple overview of family and child care policies shows a continuous shift in government positions vis-à-vis the social care of children. For example, the first decade after the introduction of the legislation saw enthusiastic state support for the idea of public child care, but by the mid-1950s that position was reversed as the state began to endorse the idea of mother-centered child care. However, with economic growth, increased demand for women’s labor, and public pressure from working mothers for more child care, the 1960s saw another shift toward more flexible and expansionary public child care. Then, with the economic downturn of the mid-1970s, the state’s formal policies shifted once again. This time child care provisions were rolled into the state’s social welfare restructuring plan, which strongly favored reinstating the family’s traditional obligations. The extension of public child care and many other family support programs were thus brought to a halt, as the state sought ways to cap its social welfare expenditures amid a rising tide of public demand for child care.
