Abstract
We surveyed father' s perception of child care and family life with 100 Japanese and 74 Korean residents in Japan from the Osaka area and the data was analyzed on the basis of differences of ethnicity. Results were as follows : 1) Generally, there was no marked difference in a family life style between Japanese and Korean fathers and mothers mostly took care of children ; 2) Japanese fathers had closer contact with their children but they mentally felt far from their children, compared with Korean fathers ; 3) Korean fathers had less contact with their children, but did not feel far from their children, compared with Japanese fathers ; 4) The third generation of Korean fathers took more care of their children than the second generation ; 5) Korean fathers were suggested to inherit the spirit of Confucianism and had a clear image of fathers in Confucian families ; 6) Japanese fathers did not have a clear image of fathers and seek for an image of a new type of father. Both Japanese and Korean fathers are clearly changing in terms of child care and it seems that these changes are continuing to proceed.
