Intra-cultural variation in child care practices in Japan

ABSTRACT

This study, comprising three sub-studies, aims to examine how child-rearing practices vary according to different social circumstances in Japan. By comparing teacher–child interaction at mealtimes in day care centres both on an isolated small island located in Okinawa prefecture, Tarama, and in a large industrialised city, Tokyo, the following was shown. In Tarama, teachers, children, and their families were familiar with each other before the children's enrolment, while in Tokyo, it was typical that they first met when the children entered the centre. Such differences in social relationships were reflected in teacher–child interactions at mealtimes. First, in Tarama, ownership distinctions at the table were not so rigorous compared to those in Tokyo, implying that the teacher–child lunchtime in Tarama was similar to a home-like private situation. Second, in both Tarama and Tokyo, teachers encouraged children's eating by giving various kinds of assistance, but their approaches were different. Teachers in Tokyo paid much attention to improve children's eating skills, while in Tarama, teachers placed more weight on ensuring primary functions of mealtimes. The results indicated that child care practices were deeply rooted in social communities.

KEYWORDS:

• Child care
• mealtime
• scaffolding

Acknowledgement

The author is grateful to the children and teachers at Tarama, Hachikokuyama, Uenoharasakura, Kamiya, O-ji, and TOC day care centres for the participation in this study. She thanks Sueko Toguchi for her able assistance with data collection. Also, she thanks Koichi Negayama and Tarama Research Team for helpful comments on previous drafts of this paper. This article is the product of Moriane Research Project, headed by Koichi Negayama.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes on contributor

Noriko Toyama is a professor at Waseda University in Japan. Her research interests include children's knowledge acquisition in the domain of biology, development of eating behaviors, and adult-child interaction at mealtimes.

Additional information

Funding

This research was supported by a Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (Nos. 26380905, 23653192, 25285186), grant from the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science.