The importance of the issue of “child poverty” has been discussed since the late 2000s in Japan. Within this issue, the concept of “jiko-koteikan (self-esteem),” which is directed at the child’s mind, is often used. Much of the previous research has investigated the measurement indicators of this concept and sought to support the improvement of the condition. Some studies discuss the problems of replacing economic issues in the minds of children. In this study, we argue for the importance of giving a description of the methodology in which the concept is used. Specifically, from an ethnomethodological perspective, we will focus on how and by whom this concept is used and what is accomplished by it. The analysis showed that when the “child” mind addressed the topic, the description was made using the characteristics of the “child” category, being included in both the “family” and “stage of life” collections. It was also revealed that the use of the concept of “jiko-koteikan (self-esteem),” made it possible to describe the way of relating to a wide variety of children as a moral relation of “support”. This suggests that it is possible to link the various supports under the frame of the “child poverty” issue. The use of self-affirmation in this way allows the {adult-child} relationship to be identified by the {supporter-supported} relationship.

From the perspective of medicalization theory in medical sociology, this paper examines the increasing number of children in residential care facilities diagnosed with “ADHD.” Previous discussions on the medicalization of these children have focused on the assignment of psychotherapy staff and psychiatric interventions, highlighting the growing number receiving medical diagnoses and pharmacotherapy. Meanwhile, it has also been noted that these issues relate to challenges associated with communal living. However, in addition to large-scale facilities that primarily adopt a communal living arrangement, some facilities provide more “family-like” care, such as small-group homes and unit-based systems. Past research on medicalization has paid little attention to differences in forms of care environment and the likelihood of children receiving medical diagnoses and pharmacotherapy. This study analyzes data from a questionnaire survey conducted at approximately 600 children’s residential care facilities nationwide to examine the relationship between forms of care environment, the prevalence of “ADHD,” and the prescription rates of psychotropic medication.

The analysis confirmed that many facilities have children diagnosed with “ADHD” who proceed to pharmacotherapy. Examining the characteristics of children receiving medical diagnoses and pharmacotherapy by form of care environment, such children were present in significant numbers across all care arrangements. However, they were more prevalent in facilities adopting unit-based or small-group home systems, which are closer to a “family” environment, than in large-scale facilities based on communal living. This paper discusses why children diagnosed with “ADHD” and proceeding to pharmacotherapy are more commonly found in facilities adopting a “family-like” care environment, which is generally considered to reduce stress from communal living and provide a more stable living situation.

This study explored the role and significance of family caregivers accompanying children with cancer during hospitalization. An observational survey was conducted on hospitalized children with cancer and their families, with findings analyzed through case studies. Results indicated that mothers not only provided emotional support but also managed their children’s daily needs. For the children, the presence of family caregivers and other members served as important support in coping with treatment. However, while many mothers strived to fulfill their caregiving roles, some experienced physical and psychosocial burdens. In addition, other family members were forced to adapt their lifestyle and roles to accommodate the child’s illness. Improving the hospital environment for pediatric patients requires fostering a cooperative relationship between families and medical staff. It is also necessary to provide comprehensive social support for all family members, such as measures that facilitate mothers’ reintegration into society and improved care for siblings who remain at home.

This study examined how individuals who resided in child-welfare institutions interpreted their childhood experiences and how those experiences were associated with or dissociated from their own family formation, as reported through their narratives on marriage. The research focused on former residents of child-welfare institutions who married or engaged in romantic relationships with the goal of marriage. Using semi-structured interviews, the study explored participants’ interpretative practices in terms of their childhood experiences and family formation, drawing on Holstein’s (1993) framework. Study findings revealed that some participants described their child-welfare institution and biological family experiences with characterizations such as “family fragmentation,” “negative experiences with their original family,” or saw their biological family as a “negative model.” These individuals’ interpretative practices linked their experiences to a strong desire for family formation. Others associated post-institutional experiences, including “feelings of loneliness” and “unstable housing conditions,” with their aspirations for family formation. Still others referred to experiences of domestic violence, parental conflict, or abuse in their biological families; the interpretative practices of those participants led to fears of rejection and lack of understanding, resulting in narratives expressing reluctance to form a family. In contrast to these associations, a group of participants engaged in interpretative practices that dissociated their concept of family from their childhood experiences in child-welfare institutions. The varied findings suggested that the narratives and interpretative practices regarding family formation among former residents of child-welfare institutions did not uniformly reflect a desire to eliminate stigma or attain a “normal family.” Rather, they demonstrated diverse perspectives and aspirations that challenged uniform assumptions.

This study addresses the issue that there is little research on junior high school students’ high school choices and career guidance in both junior high schools and cram schools. By analyzing the career guidance practices at junior high schools and cram schools, this research clarifies the relationship between career guidance in these institutions and junior high school students’ sense of localism in the Tokyo metropolitan area. In this analysis, the concept of localism was used as an analytical framework to capture individuals’ regional perceptions.

The analysis revealed the following findings. In junior high schools, career guidance that does not make active use of “hensachi” maintains or strengthens students’ localism. In contrast, in cram schools, career guidance that encourages students to aim for high schools with higher “hensachi” modifies their localism. Additionally, cases from cram schools suggest that when localism is modified, students’ range of high school choices expands. Based on these findings, we discussed the mechanisms of high school choice in the Tokyo metropolitan area.

The key insight is that different career guidance approaches—those that either maintain or modify localism—activate distinct logics for high school choice. In junior high schools, career guidance that does not actively use “hensachi” maintains or strengthens localism, leading students to choose local or in-prefecture high schools. In contrast, cram schools encourage students to aim for high schools with higher “hensachi,” modifying localism and expanding their view to include out-of-prefecture schools. By considering both junior high schools and cram schools, this study highlights potential mechanisms of high school choice in the Tokyo metropolitan area that have been overlooked in previous discussions.

This paper has analyzed the reality of educational attainment in non-urban area of rural prefecture, focusing on the regional nature of the educational selection system and high school career guidance. The following three points are made clear in this paper.

First, in the absence of sloped selection system, special advanced course succeeds in raising educational aspirations. Students are more confident in belonging to special advanced course because it is limited to a small number of students.

Second, if the number of students who wish to enter special advanced course increases, the intensive allocation of resources to special advanced course may cause dissatisfaction among students in regular course who did not make it to special advanced course, and may reduce their commitment to the high school. In this context, positioning special advanced course as a place for thorough study creates a psychological barrier and causes them to avoid special advanced course. By creating a system that does not allow students to heat up special advanced course, cooling down becomes unnecessary.

Third, for the students in regular course, many of them were placed in vocational model, such as a qualified job, and their commitment to high school was maintained by having them realize these goals through entrance examinations with designated school recommendations. On the other hand, teachers do not favor the recommendation of designated schools as a way to avoid the physicalization of study habits. Therefore, although there are countless slots for designated school recommendation, students are only allowed to enter universities within the range they desire.

In previous studies, the low rate of higher education in rural areas was often discussed in terms of macroeconomic variables. However, the reality of the situation cannot be captured without careful observation of the internal circumstances of high schools.

This paper examines how classroom spaces within in-school educational support centers—positioned as “intermediary spaces” that integrate characteristics of both school-based and non-school-based educational environments—shape children’s behaviors. By analyzing the hidden curriculum emerging from classroom spatial organization and object arrangement in institutionally regulated schools, this study clarifies how these unique educational spaces influence children’s actions and interactions.

The classroom spaces of these centers, though influenced by the regulated settings of regular school classes, also incorporate elements of alternative educational spaces. As such, they function as distinctive environments where regulations directing children toward fixed educational objectives, such as structured learning, are comparatively relaxed. These spaces provide children with greater autonomy in choosing their engagement with educational materials, allowing for a more flexible learning environment than traditional classrooms.

While these spaces are designed to facilitate children’s reintegration into regular classrooms, they simultaneously allow for greater spatial flexibility in object arrangement—something difficult to achieve in conventional settings. This flexibility enables children to exercise agency in selecting both the spaces they use and how they interact with them. The in-school educational support centers analyzed in this paper remain influenced by traditional classroom environments yet retain distinct characteristics. As such, they can be conceptualized as “loosely institutionalized spaces” that emerge from the coexistence of school-based and non-school-based elements.

Moreover, children in these centers interact with spaces and objects arranged according to the intentions of teachers and staff. Simultaneously, they actively utilize the flexibility and autonomy permitted, often engaging with objects in ways beyond the intended design. This suggests that in-school educational support centers not only embody the “loosely institutionalized” framework described above but also provide opportunities for children to transform and redefine the institutional structures governing these spaces.

This paper investigates the motivations of upper-class Japanese mothers who enroll their daughters in “Youji-Kyoshitsu”, a type of preschool. It examines the rising emphasis on “new abilities” as an educational goal in developed economies since the 1980s. In Japan, children’s educational success is increasingly linked to parental investment, a phenomenon termed “parentocracy.” While exam-focused cram schools receive considerable attention, the range of educational choices is expanding. Research suggests that upper-class mothers prioritize not only academic skills but also the development of these “new abilities.” However, investments specifically targeting these abilities have been relatively neglected in research, despite their increasing popularity. Furthermore, the potential influence of a child’s gender on educational investment decisions remains under-investigated. This study aims to address this gap by exploring the reasons behind upper-class mothers’ choices regarding “Youji-Kyoshitsu” for their daughters.

Therefore, this paper focuses on “Youji-Kyoshitsu” as a specific type of educational investment aimed at fostering both “new abilities” and the foundational skills necessary for traditional academic achievement. To understand the motivations behind this choice, semi-structured interviews were conducted, with upper-class mothers who send their infant daughters to “Youji-Kyoshitsu”.

The interviews revealed two key motivations driving this decision. First, mothers express a desire to equip their daughters with the adaptability needed to thrive in a future characterized by evolving skill demands. They perceive “Youji-Kyoshitsu” as an environment that cultivates these “new abilities” while simultaneously building a strong foundation for future academic success. Second, mothers view “Youji-Kyoshitsu” as a means of realizing their aspirations for their daughters’ futures. These aspirations encompass a range of outcomes, including: (1) expanding their future options and opportunities, (2) fostering self-reliance and independence, and (3) facilitating a fulfilling and comfortable life. Mothers believe that participation in “Youji-Kyoshitsu” can play a significant role in helping their daughters achieve these long-term goals.

The concept of “the culture of children” in the field of play was proposed by Konosuke Fujimoto (1933–1995), a Japanese educational anthropologist in the 1960s. Fujimoto considered children’s society to exist independently of the society constituted by adults. He defined children’s lifestyles, especially the variety of play, as the culture of children. While Fujimoto’s view, based on cultural relativism, respected the uniqueness of children’s lifestyles, the concept of “the culture of children” was problematic in that it made the power imbalance between children and adults invisible. This concept ultimately strengthened the typical image of the relationship between immature children and mature adults, based on the developmental perspective. In addition, it generalized the view that play was only children’s lifestyle.

This study reconsidered the concept of the culture of children by examining the cosmology of play proposed by Japanese anthropologist, Keiji Iwata (1922–2013). Iwata regarded play as interactions between humans and Nature. His philosophy was based on an ontological perspective that criticized the dichotomy between Culture and Nature. In the cosmology of play, the culture of children would manifest as both a sense of wonder and self-expression.

Based on Iwata’s view, this study considered not only children, but also adults, including the author, as performers who create play together. The study’s ethnographical method took a transcendental approach that included both extrinsic and intrinsic perspectives. The focus was on working in a sense of wonder and self-expression in make-believe play. How a sense of wonder and self-expression influence human life was also considered.

Study results suggested that the cultural relationship between children and adults can be reassembled into another relationship, one between humans and Nature, in make-believe play. As this study explored only a part of Iwata’s philosophy, its limitations should be noted and future research steps discussed.

The purpose of this study is to reframe the process of choosing “non-use” of “one-to-one computing” by focusing on the understanding of “childhoods” directed toward students who own such devices, and through examining teachers’ narratives obtained from interview surveys. The aim is to present the necessity of treating the choice of “non-use” not as an individual teacher’s issue, but as a relational problem between teachers and students in the classroom. Furthermore, to clarify the nature of the adult gaze toward “childhoods” who own digital media, we examine teachers’ narratives using the concept of a “hybrid view of childhoods.”

The findings of this study are twofold. First, we found that teachers assign positive or strategic meanings to the choice of “non-use” and choose it according to the situation they find themselves in. The second finding clarified the following point. In the process of choosing “non-use,” teachers, considering their relationship with students understood through the “hybrid view of childhoods” that includes “competent children,” and in conjunction with the invisibility function of digital media, recognized the potential transformation of the existing “teacher-student” relationship due to students’ ownership of “one-to-one computing” and the need to avoid it, leading them to choose “non-use.”

These findings suggest the need for research that considers the realities faced by teachers engaging with both students and “one-to-one computing” devices. Furthermore, the ownership of digital media by students carries negative connotations for teachers, and through this medium, “non-use” is chosen, narrowing the educational opportunities that students could otherwise have gained. This indicates the need to first unravel the contemporary society that produces the “hybrid view of childhoods” and explore the chemical reactions that occur when this view merges with the modern educational system, the product of schools. Ultimately, it suggests the need to explore effective measures to address the issue of unequal educational experiences.

Young children utter a lot of onomatopoeias in their daily life. This paper reviewed previous studies concerning onomatopoeias in young children and discussed the direction in which future studies on this theme are expected.

As a result, it is clear that studies with regard to onomatopoeias uttered by young children have been conducted on the basis of the following kinds of investigations. First, investigations of the increase and/or decrease in onomatopoeic expressions with young children’s development. Second, surveys focused on the linguistic forms and functions of onomatopoeias. Third, investigations concerning the roles of onomatopoeias in the life and play of young children. With regard to this last, it has been shown that the roles have been investigated from a variety of perspectives, such as 1. acquisition of language, 2. facilitation of physical movement, 3. grasp and representation of objects, 4. representation in pretend plays, and 5. formation of relationships among young children.

Based on the above, this paper proposed, as a future prospect, to take up young children’s act of uttering onomatopoeias from the viewpoint of their (young children’s) interactions and to clarify the real aspects of onomatopoeias in their interactions. We expected that in proceeding such investigations it would be important to conduct contextualized researches and effective to focus on pretend plays among young children. We believe that this prospect of ours will provide some clues to understanding not only language and expression in early childhood but also formation of relationships among young children.