This study examines the constraints that children face in intrafamily bargaining over care. Discussions on young carers, including previous research, have obscured how children who are inevitably dependent on others accept care arrangements and the intrafamily constraints they face when negotiating care. Therefore, A. Sen’s concept of cooperative conflicts was used as an analytical lens. A survey interview was conducted with seven individuals who cared for other family members under the age of 18 years. Results revealed the following two constraints. First, when children who are inevitably dependent on others perceive the dire consequences of ceasing to provide care and a weakened bargaining position, they will accept that they must provide care because of disadvantageous bargaining. Second, if children place the needs of other family members above their own, it becomes difficult for them to stop providing care. Based on the preceding result, this study discusses the reasons why children must continue to provide care and suggests the possibility of removing the constraints that children face.

This longitudinal study aimed to examine the functional enhancement of foster homes and the limitation of the length of stay in care following the “New vision for alternative care and role of society in child well-being” based on the reality of the admitted children. All subjects were children admitted to five foster homes in prefecture A in the Kanto-Koshinetsu region (164 children at the initial investigation and 154 children at the three-year follow-up). Using the Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL), this study assessed emotional and behavioral states of 76 children. Moreover, the relationship between the changes in their state and several factors (care group scale and form, child’s age at admission, length of stay, and caregiver continuity) were examined. The full CBCL scale scores did not show statistically significant differences between the surveys, and 60% of the children with severe problems did not recover. Only the relationship between caregiver continuity and changes in children was significant. Thus, we consider that the continuity of caregiving is effective for the functional improvement of foster homes and that the length of stay for children with special care needs cannot be immediately limited.

The victims whose houses were totally destroyed experienced “home and hometown loss,” in which they lost both their places of residence and their memories. From there, they face the “absurdity” of “unstable relationships with others” under the “burden of the victims’ deaths” and the “pursuit of death from a sense of remorse.” These manifested as the loss of existence’s meaning due to a lack of interpretability, perceptibility, and relationship, that is, the experience of spiritual pain. The following three processes became clear: (1) the meaning of life brought about by the presence of the deceased, (2) the hope for life provided by altruistic bonds, and (3) the overlap between oneself and the local community. The discussion revealed issues for social work practice in disaster situations that consider 1) the presence of victims, 2) existential awareness that encourages self-development, 3) the special meaning and image of the locality, and 4) unspoken feelings.

The number of local governments employing professional social workers, even in small municipalities, has recently increased. This study aims to clarify the actual situation of professional social workers as local government employees in terms of recruitment, assignment, job roles, and human resource development. A multiple-choice questionnaire was mailed to 33 local governments in Kanagawa Prefecture to collect data for case analysis. Twenty-five municipalities completed the questionnaire (75.8% response rate). Recruitment and assignment of professional social workers was confirmed in 16 locations. The results show that it is becoming more common to recruit and deploy professional social workers as local government employees; their job roles are particularly recognized in the field of public assistance. The results of this discussion also suggest that it takes a considerable amount of time for local governments to gain a deeper understanding of the mezzo- and macro-level features of social work practice, and the improvement of the organizational understanding of expertise is an issue.

To elucidate the current status of educational support for foreign workers in elderly care, this study conducted semi-structured interviews with education manager at 12 elderly care service establishments (facilities) in the Osaka Prefecture. In the interview survey, we focused on the individual care education (including on-the-job training) provided to foreign workers in the elderly care business. We clarified the implementation and problem status in accordance with the transition of step-by-step support from the time of entry, and extracted the educational concerns for future organizations. The current situation calls for deepening cross-cultural understanding through team care, establishing human relationships that promote mutual empowerment, and creating an organizational base. Additionally, team care and educational programs that reduce the burden of consideration based on Japanese language proficiency are necessary. In this study, we clarified the issues and need for additional research to strengthen the organizational human resource education functions for human resources with diverse competencies, including foreign workers.