Reflections on the Human Condition - Api-fellowships.org

338 SESSION V
The new Child Welfare Law was made in order to respond
to changes in the living environment of children the
last 50 years; since the end of the Second World War.
Economic growth, health development and changes
in social life in Japan pushed fertility rate from 4.54
in 1947 to 1.33 in 2001. (Maternal and Child Health
Statistic of Japan: 2002, 21) The predominant pattern
where both husbands and wives work to maintain the
family income; the trend toward nuclear families with
no more than two generations per household; and the
decrease in the number of children were prevalent. The
constant decrease of fertility rate was noted from 1982
to 2001. This condition will put Japan’s government in
a difficult position in maintaining the commitment of a
welfare state. This phenomenon pushed the government
to establish the Angel Plan.
The Angel Plan
The Angel Plan, established in 1994, deals with the
falling birth rate and the increasing participation of
women in public affairs. The Angel Plan was devised by
the government incorporating the basic policy direction
and essential measures for supporting child rearing. The
Angel Plan is based on the idea that child rearing at
the family level must be supported by the society as
a whole so as to create an environment where anyone
wanting to have a child may give birth and raise a
child without anxiety, assuming that the best interests
of the child should be of primary consideration in the
promotion of measures for achieving that goal (http://
www.mofa.go.jp/policy/human/child/initialreport/
measures.html). Essential targets set under the Angel
Plan include:
• coordination of the working environment to balance
work and child-rearing;
• consolidation of various nursery care services;
• reinforcement of the maternal and child health care
system, making child bearing and rearing smoother
and less worrisome;
• improvement of housing and living environments;
• promotion of “relaxed school education”, non-school
activities and home education;
• mitigation of financial burdens involved in child
rearing; and
• establishment of infrastructure to support child
rearing.
The Ministry of Education is working to relieve the financial
burden accompanying child rearing and education, to
consolidate home education, and to realize “relaxed
school education” by alleviating competition in entrance
examinations. Specifically, the Ministry promotes
measures for: 1) mitigating the financial burden
Ref lections on the Human Condition: Change, Conflict and Modernity
The Work of the 2004/2005 API Fellows
accruing from child rearing, 2) consolidating home
education by facilitating the counselling framework
to deal with worries concerning child rearing, 3)
improving the quality of non-school activities by
affording opportunities for children to engage in
dynamic activities, and 4) encouraging “relaxed school
education”. These were developed to create better
condition for children and to support parents to have
more children so as to help the welfare system, which
needs a productive age population.
The Sukoyaka Family 21
Sukoyaka—meaning happy and healthy in Japanese—
Family 21 is the vision to clarify both pending and new
issues, and to present major initiatives to be taken in
the 21 st century concerning the issue of maternal and
child health. Sukoyaka Family 21 acts as a measure to
address the declining birth rate and to form the basis
for an environment giving birth to children that is free
of anxiety and in which parents can raise their children
in good health. In addition to this, Sukoyaka Family 21
will play a part in National Health Care Campaign i.e.
the Health Japan 21 (Kenko Nippon 21). This campaign
aims to create a society in which people can live happily
and stay in good health.
The four major agenda related to the maternal and child
health issues are:
1.stepping up health care measures and promoting
health care education for adolescents;
2.assuring safety and comfort during pregnancy and
childbirth, and supporting infertility;
3.maintaining and improving the standards of child
health care and medical services; and
4.promoting trouble-free mental development of
children and alleviating anxiety about child rearing
(http://www.mhlw.go.jp/english/wp/other/councils/
sukoyaka21 /index.html).
The Sukoyaka Family 21 is one of the important
policies in improving the child health and child welfare
condition in Japan. Besides the new Child Welfare
Law and the Angel Plan, and the Sukoyaka Family 21,
a dominant policy related to the child welfare and child
education is the Rainbow Plan. This plan is one of the
major policies; also known as the education reforms
plan for the 21 st century.
The Rainbow Plan
The Rainbow Plan, which focus on revitalizing schools, family
and communities, has seven basic strategies as follows:
(http://www.mext.go.jp/ english/topics/21plan/010301.htm)