After-school Care in Kawasaki City after the Period of High Economic Growth

Abstract

In Japan in recent years, more mothers have begun to work outside the home, and thus the safety of children in the hours after school has become more important, and the need for after-school care has grown. Despite this, there are as yet only a small number of studies that examine after-school care. In Japan, until 1998, after-school care measures were established by each local government because such care was outside the Child Welfare Law, which was enacted in 1946 to cover baby and toddler nursery programs. Therefore, the process of development of after-school care in Japan is closely related to local context. This paper attempts to clarify the relationship between the change of supply and use of after-school care services and the local context, based on a case study of Kawasaki City after the period of high economic growth, from 1963 to 2002.

Publicly supported after-school care began in large cities such as Tokyo and Osaka in the early 1960s. Even now, in the metropolitan areas of large cities, the ratio of after-school care centers to that of primary school is higher than in other areas.

In the 1960s, Kawasaki City, a major city in the Keihin industrial area, attracted a large number of rural migrants, resulting in an increase in the number of latchkey children and young people who were considered at risk of delinquency. In response, in 1963, the Kawasaki City administration introduced after-school care measures that aimed to prevent delinquency in latchkey children. After-school care centers were built in coastal areas where there were many factories, and most of the users were low-income, full-time, blue-collar workers.

In the 1970s and 1980s, industry in Kawasaki City declined and the upcountry area was turned over to housing development. Additionally, more housewives began to work or participate in activities outside the home. Therefore, as many white-collar families came into the upcountry area, they became significant users of after-school care. Because of the increasing number of working mothers, the need for after-school care rose sharply. While the Kawasaki City administration built more centers, this did not meet the increase in need. As a result, after-school care centers managed by parent groups were established. The many events managed by parents in these centers eased communication among parents, who had to help each other economically in order to leave their children in after-school care to allow them to continue working. However, it is difficult for blue-collar mothers in industrial areas to participate in these events.

The need for after-school care continued to increase during the 1990s because more and more mothers were working outside the home. However, it was difficult for the Kawasaki City administration to expand the number of centers, because after-school care had progressed to the point where the program was so expansive, and therefore expensive, that it was considered to be a burden on public finances. A new program for all children but with fewer events was introduced, and the old after-school care measures were eliminated.

In conclusion, in Kawasaki City, after-school care was changed through the housing developments of the 1970s and 1980s, supported by the numbers of part-time working housewives that flowed into Kawasaki City. As a consequence, provision of after-school care became expensive, leading to institutional transformation.