Growing numbers of mothers use portable IT devices for child rearing in Japan, and most studies focus on its impact on child development. However, little is known about how the mother's use of IT devices affects the mother's well-being. This study examines how use of IT devices for child rearing affects mothers' well-being, including their adjustment into the maternal role and perceived fulfillment in life. Data were collected from 1194 mothers of preschool children living in Tokyo and its suburbs. We conducted path analysis along with theoretical modeling and found that mothers' level of concern about their child rearing corresponds with increased usage of IT devices for child rearing, which leads to greater adjustment into the maternal role and sense of fulfillment. Moreover, having supportive communication with their husband promotes mothers' IT use in child rearing, which implies that the husband plays a significant role in determining adequate IT use for child rearing.

This study discusses the relation of social stratum to parental education strategies based on an analysis of shadow education employed in 47 families from Cixi City, Zhejiang Province, China. The data reveal that the parents generally prefer shadow education regardless of their social stratum. However, their focuses depend on their social stratum. Parents in the lower class prefer their children to take supplementary lessons and rarely care for enrichment lessons, while those in the upper class, excluding private entrepreneurs, emphasize competence in entrance examinations and show a predilection for enrichment lessons. Parents in the self-employed class generally send their children for supplementary lessons because of their inferior education and lack of time to accompany their children. However, they are rarely concerned with enrichment lessons, regardless of whether they are rich or poor. As for parents who are teachers, they like to guide their children by themselves, since they regard themselves as experts in education. They also show an interest in enrichment lessons. Finally, this paper offers a general discussion of parental education strategies in the social strata of modern China.

Studies regarding the changing meaning of ‘family’ in its diversifying forms have recently been accumulating in the field of family sociology in Japan. Meanwhile, today's families have been increasingly maintained and reorganized by professional interventions or social support from outside. In such a context, this symposium aims at documenting and examining the practices of professional interventions in families in three different professional worlds: mental health clinics, judicial systems, and social welfare systems. It is also intended to bring about discussion on potential new directions in the development of family sociology. In the symposium, three speeches were presented by Shin-ichi Nakamura (family therapist), Ayako Harada (law sociologist), and Naruhisa Nakane (welfare sociologist), followed by two related discussions by sociologists Josuke Amada and Hiroto Matsuki. The symposium was organized and chaired by Hiroe Izumi and Shinji Nozawa.

Firstly, some definitions of family are noted in this paper. Secondly, the evolutionary history of family therapy is introduced, followed by an explanation of its basic characteristics and its indicative symptoms and problematic behaviors. Three major models (the communication model, the structural model, and the multigenerational model) are also introduced, accompanied by several case examples.

Since the court-annexed family conciliation system plays a significant part in the interface between Japanese family life and the law, this research focuses on the work of family conciliation proceedings and the role of conciliators. After giving a brief introduction in Section I, this paper explains the family conciliation system and conciliators in Section II. Section III discusses the latest developments in conciliation practices for divorce cases involving child custody and visitation issues, which have been felt by conciliation practitioners to be among the most difficult to solve. Section IV introduces the results of research interviews conducted by the author and argues that the current conciliators' normative discourse focuses more on the children's interest than on the divorce itself. Section V discusses from three specific points of view the issues that cause difficulties in custody and visitation disputes in the family conciliation system as a forum for family reorganization. Finally, Section VI analyzes the possible future directions of custody jurisprudence and argues the possible contribution of family sociology research for family law practice.

To work through issues arising from the death of parents of adult children with intellectual disabilities, the necessity of having a public assistance system is socially agreed, and the budget for such a system has been increased in Japan. However, the impact of this increased budget and number of users on parent–child relationships is yet to be studied. Hence, the purpose of this study is to discuss whether the increased budget and number of users of public assistance for adult children with intellectual disabilities has addressed concerns about the aftermath of the parents' death. It examines the amount of provision and utilization ratio of the Services and Support for Disabled Persons Act and confirms that a combination of care at a fare-paying institution during the daytime and care at home during nighttime by unpaid parents is the average situation of most adult children with intellectual disability. Based on this fact, this paper attests that assignation of care by society and family is still vague, and the current fulfillment of public assistance by budget growth has not yet resolved post-parental-death concerns.