Suchergebnisse

In order to foster interactive discussions with other countries, this paper offers an overview of residential care for children in Japan and its ongoing development. Japan still relies especially heavily on the residential care system; this is due to the past process of development more than to traditional Japanese culture. The period from the post World War II era to the present is briefly described, including the rapid growth in the number of institutions before 1960, the rather stable period before 1990, the revision of the Child Welfare Act in 1997 permitting the privatization of institutions, and the movement towards problematizing child abuse in the mid 1990s, after which residential institutions were designated as the last resort for maltreated young people. In the present situation, smaller institutions and a foster care system are strongly promoted in accordance with international guidelines for alternative care and the recent governmental guideline based on the Child Rearing Vision of 2010 and the Child Welfare Act of 2016. The task of present Japanese residential care institutions is to realize a family-like environment and a better placement strategy, collaborate more with specialists to improve the standard of care, function in the community as centers for the care of children in need, and expand their care work for young adults and care leavers. The paper concludes by stressing the need for more international exchange among individuals and groups working in Japanese residential care.

In order to foster interactive discussions with other countries, this paper offers an overview of residential care for children in Japan and its ongoing development. Japan still relies especially heavily on the residential care system; this is due to the past process of development more than to traditional Japanese culture. The period from the post World War II era to the present is briefly described, including the rapid growth in the number of institutions before 1960, the rather stable period before 1990, the revision of the Child Welfare Act in 1997 permitting the privatization of institutions, and the movement towards problematizing child abuse in the mid 1990s, after which residential institutions were designated as the last resort for maltreated young people. In the present situation, smaller institutions and a foster care system are strongly promoted in accordance with international guidelines for alternative care and the recent governmental guideline based on the Child Rearing Vision of 2010 and the Child Welfare Act of 2016. The task of present Japanese residential care institutions is to realize a family-like environment and a better placement strategy, collaborate more with specialists to improve the standard of care, function in the community as centers for the care of children in need, and expand their care work for young adults and care leavers. The paper concludes by stressing the need for more international exchange among individuals and groups working in Japanese residential care.

The performance of household chores by children in Japanese residential care institutions has been widely accepted as a practice that fosters children's independence and self-sufficiency. However, children coming from neglectful or dysfunctional families often require sensitive, individualized care, which they did not receive from their family of origin. While a shift away from large-scale institutions has begun, with smaller units or group homes now accounting for 40% of all care institutions, it is not clear that family-like, individualized care has been achieved in these smaller group homes. This study involved 61 participants aged 10 to 15 years and their care workers from six residential care institutions in the greater Tokyo area. It explored what aspects of care quality were related to the presence of certain characteristics of traditional management-oriented care: fixed rules for household chores and lack of choice in daily living. Care workers were asked whether children washed their own dishes, did their own laundry, chose their own clothes when shopping, and had mandatory events to attend in the residential care institutions. Care quality was assessed using the Early Adolescent HOME (Home Observation for Measurement of Environment) developed for Japanese residential care institutions (EA-HOME-JP). The findings suggest that care workers should re-examine their intentions in setting and applying household chore rules while exploring which aspects of child care, including regulatory activities and modeling, should be emphasized in order to actualize family-like and individualized care in institutions.