Is Japan More Child-Friendly?
About 53% of survey respondents in Japan said it is either somewhat or very easy to bring up children here, a five percentage point increase from the last time the poll was conducted in 2005, according to results released by the Cabinet Office on Friday.
But the good news is diminished when the results are compared with the other four countries surveyed – the U.S., France, Sweden and South Korea. Out of the five countries, Japan came in second to last, only besting neighboring South Korea. Its improved report card, in fact, is lousy compared with the other responses: there is a 20 percentage point gap between itself and third-place France, where 72% of respondents said it’s a good place to raise kids. Sweden dominated the ranking with a commanding 97%, of which 83% said it’s incredibly easy. The poll, which is part of the Japanese government’s effort to study and slow the declining birth rate, involved more than 1,000 people over a three-month period in 2010.
But the government will take credit where it can. The Cabinet Office points to the government’s family-friendly measures implemented in recent years, such as the move to scrap the cumbersome waiting lists for children to be admitted into nursery schools. But such assistance still appears to be falling short. More than 55% of respondents said the most important policy to help child-rearing is to extend daycare service hours, a critical challenge for the increasing number of dual-working-parent households and single mothers.