Care Without Fixed Caregivers: Building Consensus for Universal Child-rearing Support

Abstract

This study discusses the possible divisions in society over child-rearing support policies and methods to minimize such differences. The fertility- and population- decline crisis are long serious concerns. Under these circumstances, the government’s child-rearing support policy may have undergone reforms to become more inclusive with the possibility that parents who were earlier ineligible for parental leave, parental leave benefits, and the use of day-care centers now being eligible for support. Until around 2020, the benefits of child-rearing support policies were mainly for couples in full-time employment. However, now, the government seems to be aiming to provide child-rearing support to parents working in a variety of jobs other than just full-time ones. Although the government does not explicitly use the term universalism, child-rearing support policies seem to be becoming more universal. In contrast, gaining public support for the universalization of childrearing support may face certain challenges. This study especially highlights these challenges arising from certain values of the people who identify ’working persons’ as only those who are independent and concerns over the possible splitting of public support at the individual project level. For the people who believe that workers should be self-reliant and self-responsible, it is difficult to accept that those who have difficulty becoming financially independent, such as part-time workers and the unemployed, will be able to receive child-rearing support. Moreover, even among those who agree with the universalization of child-rearing support policies, there may be concerns that the support may be divided depending on whoever the individual projects assume to be the caregiver. This study proposes focusing on the concept of “care without fixed caregivers” as a basis to support as many possible projects developed and introduced as universal child-rearing support policies. The aim of this proposal is to alleviate the divisions regarding the universalization of child-rearing support policies, and the role of this proposal in public policy studies is an attempt to support the building of consensus using normative policy analysis.