Developing a Support System for Young Carers

Abstract

“Young carers” refers to children and youth charged with caring for family members with chronic illnesses, disabilities, mental problems, and addictions. This concept was introduced to Japanese society in 2014 and has since become the focus of national and local government policies, particularly after 2018 and especially regarding child welfare. The traditional child welfare approach focus-es on children whose parents cannot raise them and those with disabilities. However, the applicability of this approach for young carers remains unclear. To address this gap, the development of a support system for young carers is discussed in this paper. Surveys about young carers annually conducted since 2018 by the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare and the Child and Family Agency are overviewed. The results of these surveys reveal a mismatch between traditional child welfare and the perceptions of young carers’ families, who be-lieve that they lead normal lives and that child welfare is only needed for “seri-ous” cases. Notably, the Child and Family Agency has promoted child and fami-ly centers since April 2024 and has launched efforts to direct child and family welfare to assist all child-rearing generations. However, these efforts have not been widely recognized. Given this situation, proposed in this paper is the de-velopment of a child support system that offers accessible and enjoyable sup-port for young carers. This indicates the significance of identifying and clarify-ing a lack of public knowledge of the changes over the last few decades regard-ing family structures and the hours spent by adults at home.