Children’s Responsibility as Caregivers in Japan

by Eri

  Nowadays, taking care of ill elderly people has been one of the most severe problems in the world. Many elders passed away alone without being noticed because no one looks after them. Many countries have been facing this problem and conferring about solutions. So, who should take care of the aging parents? In Japan, people believe that taking care of parents is the responsibility of their children because people have an idea of a symbiotic relationship between parents and children, and paid leave is distributed only to the family members.

     First, Japanese people tend to believe in a symbiotic relationship. According to an article, “Millennials Struggling to Care for Aging Baby Boomer Parents call for Better Paid Leave”, many American people believe that children have the responsibility of the caregiver. The author, Abigail Abrams (2018), states, “86% of adults ages 18 to 29 told the Pew Research Center they view it as their responsibility to financially help aging parents” (para. 4) in the US. A lot of American millennials naturally consider that helping their parents is their own role. In Japan, also, many people think that the care of parents is a children’s task. For instance, since I was a child, my mother has often told me, “If I have Alzheimer disease, don’t forget that I love you, and don’t abandon me.” It means that she raised me with love, so I should give love in return when she needs help. This thought was derived from one of the Japanese cultures. In the past, there was a tradition that one of the children, especially the first child, had to live with parents and take care of them. Although this cultural tradition mostly disappeared, it is still affecting people’s mind. Furthermore, many parents want to be taken care of by their children, not by people who they don’t know. Therefore, Japanese people tend to think of the relationship between parents and children as symbiotic, and it has naturally raised children’s responsibility of the eldercare. 

    

     Second, the Japanese government offers paid leave only to family members of the ill elderly people. Abrams (2018) reports that every developed country, except the U.S., has a national policy which provides paid family leave. While there is no policy on the paid leave in the US, the Japanese government have a policy which allows giving paid family leave to people who need it to take care of other people. However, getting the leave is not easy because there are some requirements in order to obtain it. One of them is that the person who can acquire the leave must be a husband, a wife, a parent, or a child of a person who needs someone’s help. It means that even though you are a partner of someone who can’t live without any caregiving, you won’t be permitted to get paid leave unless you have a valid relationship. Considering the financial support, the family member should take care of the people better than any other people. Moreover, many young people have more physical strength than old people. For these reasons, the best people who have energy and be able to get financial support for taking care of people who need help are their children. Thus, children should have the responsibility because they are the best people who can take paid leave to take care of their parents.

     The same as the most Japanese people, I think that the person who should take care of my parents is me or my sister. This is because we have communicated with my parents about our futures many times, and my sister and I perceive what my parents want to do for the rest of their life. My parents hope that my sister or I will take care of them, and I want to do it because they raised me with a lot of love. In addition, I have relied on my parents for my whole life so far, so whenever they need me, I want to assist them. However, some parents think that they don’t need their children’s support because they don’t want to spend their children’s time and bother the children. Even though children don’t take care of their parents completely by themselves, devising plans with their parents and as necessary, taking parents to care services are also children’s responsibility. That is why children should take care of their parents. Nevertheless, there is a crucial issue in Japan that many children have been getting exhausted from helping their parents. This is because the increasing number of aging people has been having an impact on young people. To solve the problem, the government has to make a scheme to reduce their burden.

     In conclusion, because of the thought of symbiotic relationship and the system of the policy about paid family leave, Japanese people tend to think that children should have the responsibility of helping their aging parents. To solve some problems clarified by the increasing number of aging people, the Japanese government has to introduce new appropriate policy.