Citizens outraged over politician’s criticism of mothers calling for more day care

Posted on March 1, 2013 by Ida Torres in National with 9 Comments
Citizens outraged over politician’s criticism of mothers calling for more day care

Yutaro Tanaka, a member of the local Liberal Democratic Party chapter in Tokyo, criticized a group of mothers who were protesting the lack of day care centers outside the Tokyo earlier in February in his blog, drawing hundreds of angry comments from outraged citizens. The assemblyman wrote that mothers should remember that the responsibility of raising children lies first with each household before making “shameless” demands for more nursery schools.

The entry was made on Feb. 21 in his blog, and this drew the ire of online citizens. Tanaka, 37, said in his post that while “woman power” is necessary to revitalize the economy, he thought that the mothers “had no touch of reserve nor shame.” “What I am saying is don’t force your child-rearing on society from the start. . . . (The mothers) should have the manners enough to say ‘Please help us raise our children,’ ” Tanaka added on his blog, adding that he was not married and had no kids.

A multitude of angry comments flooded the blog, with people expressing sentiments like not wanting to raise their children in a district with a representative like Tanaka and that it is because of people like him that Japan has a low birthrate. Tanaka was not available for comment.

Japan’s health ministry data shows that 24,825 kids nationwide were denied day care in 2012. Tokyo led all areas by far with 7,257 such cases. The ministry has set up a special fund, currently at ¥550 billion, to ease the problem. A few days after the mothers protested over the 1,505 rejections last week, Suginami Mayor Ryo Tanaka announced emergency measures to help the children who were denied day care. These measures included raising the capacity in some nurseries and increasing and expanding the number of public and non-certified facilities. “I think the mothers were placed in a situation where they felt they had no choice but to raise their voices to be heard,” a Suginami official said. “We must earnestly listen to the urgent concern raised by these mothers, who need to go back to work and also raise children.”

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  • Booyah24

    I don’t know. I tend to agree with Tanaka. I live in Tokyo. I am paying for private daycare (which costs a lot) because we didn’t win the public daycare lottery. I am not understanding why I need to pay for these women’s kids as well. I understand providing for the poor, but the protesters are not poor. Rather than provide free daycare, I think the city should incentivize people leaving Tokyo. There are tons of daycare openings outside of Tokyo. It doesn’t make sense for Japan to have all its “eggs in one basket” anyhow. Getting people away from the density and high costs of housing will also stimulate the birth rate.

    • Whirled Peas

      I understand what you are saying. You don’t want to have your taxes go toward supporting daycare for others who may be no worse off than you. I wonder if the lottery should invite to apply only those families whose joint incomes do not exceed a certain cap; and also take into consideration single parent status (but make sure there is really no spouse!). Of course, first the gov’t should evaluate the cost-benefit of hiring more workers to process and analyze complicated financial forms. It might make more sense to expand the number of openings! One thing for sure though. If Japan is hoping to attract more women and mothers into the workforce and train them for higher positions, Japan needs to come up with more quality daycare, whether private or public.

    • bobail

      I understand why you want to say, but I cant agree with this. The money they put in daycare system, will come back. The child will become adult, then they will pay for your pension. Providing such service is essential since birthrate is really low in japan. It will help birthrate to grow.
      Even if you dont see the need right now, in 30 years you will complain that you wont have a pension when you retire. It is a small investment for bigger advantage later on.

      • Whirled Peas

        @bobail. I have been curious about this: why do you think the birthrate is so low in Japan right now? What is going on. Best, WP

        • bobail

          Birthrate is low reason (in order of importance)
          * It cost a lot of money. The country does not give money to help you raise your child. The education is not free, even for public school (For example, France have a free educational system, you can see that they have a big birthrate).

          * The actual system does not allow a mother to work since it lack place as written in the article. It make the decision to have a child even more difficult (cf: see the first reason). Even if you find a place, It cost a lot of money for such service. (cf: see original @Booyah24 post) for what you can earn at you work. (I dont know the exact cost, but it big enough to make you think twice…)

          * More and more women want to work and build a carrier unlike 10 or 20 years ago. It push women to wait for having a child, or decide to not have children at all.

          I can go on like that for a long time, but the main reason is written here. And the cause of the first two main reason, is that the governement did nothing about it. (Create service for daycare create job, and allows parent to work at the same time). Even though Japanese gouvernement KNOW it is going to be a probleme in 20/30 years they still decide to do nothing.

          • Whirled Peas

            Thank you so much for your thoughts on this matter. I appreciate it. I wonder if the government could eventually arrange a partnership with the corporations to share the cost of daycare and to set up more centers. If the goal is to increase the birthrate and also encourage women to remain and advance in the workforce, then it seems all sectors in society should be persuaded to cooperate toward that goal. WP

          • Guest

            1. Germany has a free educational system. Birth rates are the lowest Europe wide (not counting the Vatican).
            2. Speaking of Western societies, many women actually have the option to give their children to daycare, have the state raise them. They often prefer to raise them themselves instead.
            3. Building a carreer was an argument many feminists raised. However, after realizing that men more often than not have a really shitty life at work, and the so-called carreer isn’t all that glamurous, in most Western countries the trend has been reversed. Women for the largest part prfer stay at home mom’s role or part time jobs – if they can afford it.

          • Whirled Peas

            Interesting about Germany. Yes, “if they can afford it.” some western women might indeed love to stay at home with the children, at least when they are young. It all depends on individual aspirations, circumstances and means. If you are an ambitious young woman just hired as an assistant professor in the field of biochemistry, staying out of work too long means you’ll be at a competitive disadvantage with other scientific teams and with your tenure clock. Your research will be “scooped.” And I’d say in the US, (a) If an upper middle class American couple decided to have the mother stay home they could probably squeak by financially with one earner. Even so, it’s not that easy. (b) Most middle income couples have to have two incomes if they hope to be able to buy a house, save for retirement, and save for kids college education. Some are lucky enough to have grandparents nearby to help out, or liberal policies at work so they can have flex-time or part-time, but most depend desperately on dependable quality daycare. For those women it’s not a matter of going to work to be free from “household drudgery” as the women’s mov’t used to put it. These women have to work. (c) The long-time working class women say this daycare problem is nothing new to them since the women in their families going back generations had to work to make ends meet and had to create inter-generational support systems to take care of the children. But these days with so much mobility, family is not always available to help with childcare.

            Whatever class and aspiration women have, I do think quality daycare is a condition for women to be able to work if they need or want to.

          • Whirled Peas

            Guest, I just caught the “not counting the Vatican.” LOL