Bearing the brunt
The new year began with mounting anxiety for parents of young children in Japan. The number of savage assaults on youngsters has increased in recent years, and there have been a few nationally publicised cases in the past few months.
In November, a seven-year-old girl was found dead in a cardboard box in Hiroshima, and police arrested a Peruvian with a long record of sexual assaults. In the same month, another seven-year-old girl was left for dead, bleeding from assault wounds, in a forest in Tochigi prefecture, central Japan. She had vanished on the way home from school. In December, a young cram-school teacher stabbed a 12-year-old girl student to death.
Such crimes have shocked parents and teachers into the realisation that their once-safe country is now far more dangerous for children. Along with community leaders, they are trying to organise systems of protection, such as guardians to take children to and from school. Police have begun visiting schools to teach children how to avoid danger and to defend themselves. Community 'safety maps' are being drawn, showing the safest routes - those that are most in the public eye.
But these efforts have not reassured all women. Many working mothers are now leaving their jobs rather than leave their young, school-age children unattended for even a few hours a day. And many more are pondering such a move.
'What if anything happened to my child while I was out working on a petty job for minimal pay?' said one mother of a 10-year-old girl in Suginami Ward, a Tokyo suburb. Since the autumn, warnings have been circulated about a dubious stranger seen hanging around in her community. She recently quit a clerical job at an architect's office, after only five months. Now she picks up her daughter from school, escorts her to piano and other lessons, and has no plan to return to work in the foreseeable future. 'In the end, only parents can protect children,' she said.
In a survey of mothers of primary school children last month, 16 per cent of the more than 800 respondents said they had cut down their working hours for the same reason. One-quarter have readjusted their working hours or are considering that option. Media reports cite many mothers giving up promising careers.
The new trend gives me mixed feelings. As a mother myself, I understand the widespread anxiety and the urge to protect children. But isn't there some answer other than mothers sacrificing their jobs? It is hard to accept that the responsibility for children is still heaped disproportionately on mothers in this society. Is it any wonder that fewer women want children, and that the population is shrinking?
