There have been two radical changes in the history of children's play in the past half-century in Japan. The first change began in the 1960s: the period of Japanese rapid economic growth. During this period, children began to lose the three essential factors of play: time, space, and company. Gradually, fewer and fewer children were seen playing outdoors, such as running around with their friends. Many kinds of children's play that had accumulated over time as historical constructs began to be lost. This fundamental change continued, with the second radical change occurring in the late 1980s. At that time, technological development of electronic devices and expressive media produced massive amounts of expressive cultural goods for children such as game software, video software, and picture books. These artificial, fantastical, and imaginative products created a big market targeted at children. Consequently, children's interactive play with the real world, especially nature, changed into play with expressive electronic cultural products. This tendency changed children's play radically from interactive, physical, and creative play to more passive activities. Today, children are likely to play alone indoors without physical activities. It is feared that these changes will have harmful effects on children's mental and physical development.

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The purpose of this paper is to explore the possibility of children's active participation in their life environment. The method of this study is analyzing many various episodes of mine using Bernstein's concepts: 1) the right of participation, the right of inclusion, and the right of enhancement, 2) classification and framing, and 3) the principle of 'blurring the borderline'. The result indicates that children participate more in their life environment in the following cases: 1) protecting the right of participation with the rights of inclusion and enhancement, 2) weakening classification and framing, and 3) blurring the borderline.

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There are two ways to research children's time and space in daily fife. One is the way from the objective point of view, for example, searching the distribution or flow of daily time of children, and discussing the problems of those distributions or flow of children's daily life. Another one is from the subjective point of view. Using this latter way, we discuss the subjective sense grasped by children of the time or space existing in front of them. Until now most research uses the objective approach to study children's time and space in daily life. This article argues for the importance of the latter method for analysis of children's time and space in daily life because if we adopt only the former method, we are apt to apply adult views in spite of the children's own thoughts or views of their time and space in daily life. For this investigation, we need the concept of inner consciousness of time or space or subjective sense apart from objective meaning. It is important to use these concepts to analyze children's time and space in daily life.

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In recent years, it has been pointed out that a rapid change in the society is causing health problems among children who are dependent on adults. This paper first summarizes the relationship between exercise, nutritional status, and the physical change of Japanese people, and then introduces proposals for dietary education based on literary sources which are mainly related to infancy. Thereafter the paper discusses current problems and "healthy physical development and preferred childcare practices", which would be the basis for enriching children's lives. The result suggests that it is necessary to recognize the importance of a healthy life style, to convey the comfort resulting from "moving well, eating well, and sleeping well" to children in daily childcare practices, and to create a healthy rhythm of children's life in cooperation with parents or guardians.

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This study examined some developmental issues of nursing, focusing on elementary school children's after-school life style, to explore how pre-school and post-school caregivers cooperate. The result of previous practice of after-school care for children showed some problems within the environmental system surrounding younger children. This study would provide a clue to solve the problems. The author analyzed the result of a questionnaire survey among staff of After School Care for children program in Sendai City. Generally, it is necessary for children to be socially adaptable to a new environment as part of the process of their development, or transition, from the early childhood to the elementary school childhood. The result suggests that urgent improvement is needed in both physical and human environments so that children can spend active after-school hours together with their peers and keep their own places to feel safe. It is necessary to establish strong social ideals of after-school care for children by setting and enforcing appropriate administrative standards.

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This paper describes the backgrounds of child-nurturing support services in communities, reviews the history of child day care services in Japan after the postwar period and discusses who and what should be the targets of the services. Child-nurturing support service is commonly thought to be the most promising way for the advancement of an aging society with fewer children. Child-nurturing support services in communities appear to have four targets; (1) to support children's development, (2) to reinforce each parent's way of living as an individual, (3) to encourage the promotion of an interactive parent-child relationship, and (4) to assist each parent and child as members of their community. Considering these targets, we must examine now each of these services might be provided as well as the correlating roles of principal organizations such as nursery centers, kindergartens, nintei kodomoen (approved facilities for children), community councils, and non-profit organizations.

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The purpose of this study is to examine the process of creating childcare that engenders a zest for life and its historical meaning, focusing on a history of multi-age childcare in a public nursery school. The author analyzed practical records of the multi-age childcare and also conducted interviews of the people most involved. In the beginning, the public nursery school emphasized intentional childcare and it caused unnatural relationships among children. After reflection on this problem, the nursery workers tried to create a childcare situation in which each child could naturally express what he/she wished. With the change of society and family life, a new type of difficult children to care began to appear. Understanding what those children really wished and needed, the nursery workers transformed their intentional childcare into childcare which aimed at increasing children's satisfaction with their lives.

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This study aims to provide a working knowledge in early childhood care and education based on a macroscopic approach of newspaper interviews and retrospectives of various incidents. The resulting data indicates the following three factors as formulae for a working knowledge leading to a better understanding of child care and education. 1) Adherence to nature, which is "pathos experience" different from "logos experience," as a means of establishing a driving force for living fully. 2) Experience of "timelessness," which is not limited by real time, in order to produce profuse images and sensory experiences that contribute to formation of children's self. 3) Importance of coming into contact with values, cultures, and human relationships in a "field" of children's daily life, which affects profoundly their growth. It is concluded that ensuring these three factors for children leads to a better childhood care and education.

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