1998 Volume 71 Issue 12 Pages 859-886
Since the mid-1970s, a growing number of Japanese women have begun to work as wage labor, while the infant population fell sharply. In this situation improvements in the circumstances of birth and childrearing have become an important issue. Day nursery facilities are receiving attention because their functions support childrearing. Using a time-geographical simulation model aided by the ARC/INFO geographic information system, this study investigates the utilization of day nursery facilities in Nakano Ward, Tokyo, with special reference to the accessibility of the facilities from both residential areas and workplaces, which is dependent on child age and influenced by sharing escort duties among family members. This simulation model is composed of 1) activity programs of those escorting a child (ren) to/from the day nursery facility; and 2) the street network. The former was based on questionnaires, and the latter takes into account actual activity locations and the trav-el environment.
The simulation outputs reveal that there is a regional difference in the access to day nursery facili-ties. In concrete terms those who escort a child (ren) and live in the central and southern parts of Nakano Ward can work in the central business district distant from residential areas, while those liv-ing in the northern parts work near residential areas only. These outputs also elucidate that there is a difference in the access to day nursery facilities due to inequitable service levels based on child age. The facilities are ordinarily open from 8:30 AM to 5:00 PM, so that full-time workers are forced to use the extended care-hours system, called “exceptional care, ” for which the service is available from 7:30 AM to 6:00 PM. Since that system is not available for children aged less than one year, how-ever, those with a child aged less than one year must work part-time. Additionally, only a few facili-ties accept children immediately after a maternity leave of eight weeks. Because such insufficient serv-ices restrict the day nursery access of workers with a child aged less than one year, it is difficult for them to continue to be employed full-time before and after the birth of their child. In this case, the shar-ing of escort duties among family members is not effective, although it generally seems to improve the access to day nursery facilities and makes it possible for those escorting a child (ren) to work full-time.
In Nakano Ward there is an institutional barrier to workers to continue to be employed full-time dur-ing birth and childrearing, since workers' access to day nursery facilities is severely limited when chil-dren are less than one year of age. Thus workers with the responsibility for escorting their child (ren) to/from day nursery facilities are forced to choose new jobs, usually part-time ones available near the facilities. Women tend to change to part-time jobs and then escort their child (ren) to/from the facilities. For women with children, a barrier to full-time employment exists due to the nature of the day nursery facilities available.
It is concluded that the quantity and quality of day nursery services seem to influence women when making decisions on their life courses during the birth and childrearing stages. If day nursery facilities cannot provide flexible services, this becomes a factor restricting women's life courses.
