2009 Volume 8 Issue 2 Pages 46-53
Although childcare support organizations such as childcare support salons offer the most important services to relieve the child-rearing concerns of mothers, former studies report that they have various administrative difficulties. It is therefore necessary to share resources for childcare support to resolve the difficulties of childcare support organizations. This study aims to identify the difficulties in the administration of childcare support organizations and propose a solution, based on the case of childcare support salons in Mitaka City, Tokyo and its outskirts as an advanced area of childcare support. We conducted questionnaire surveys of the operators of childcare support salons and their users to determine the present conditions. The findings of this study can be summarized as follows:(1)Childcare support salons have some problems regarding administration in terms of both hardware and software; (2)Regarding the former, we propose the securing of places for children's activities; regarding the latter, we propose a mutual complementary network of specialized childcare organizations and other citizens' organizations.
