Research on custody in Japan from the viewpoint of children's best

2018 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 26380732
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Section: 一般
• Research Field: Sociology
• Research Institution: Kumamoto Gakuen University
• Principal Investigator: YAMANISHI Hiromi 熊本学園大学, 社会福祉学部, 教授 (00320482)
• Project Period (FY): 2014-04-01 – 2019-03-31
• Keywords: custody / familialism / children's best / Far East countries

Outline of Final Research Achievements

The purpose of this research is to clarify the relationship between the international standards of joint custody and law philosophy with the type of Welfare States. Both Japan,Taiwan and Korea generally adopted East Asia Model type of Welfare States, so called "familialism". Through questionnaire survey and interviewing divorced parents, this research proves that Taiwan and Korea have implemented the joint-custody for more than 20 years, but divorced parents are still struggling for the gender issues derived from the social structure of the family oriented welfare system. Japan still maintains the alone-custody in civil law, however, the national enlightening activities (effected by “children’s best”) caused the divorced mothers to raise their children alone without any financial support from their ex-husbands, and to accept their ex-husbands'visit and contacting with their children. That causes them much mental agony and also causes their children very high poverty rate in Japan.

Free Research Field

家族社会学

Academic Significance and Societal Importance of the Research Achievements

日本でも離別後の共同親権導入の検討が始まったが、本研究を通じ、共同親権実施に対し社会的対応が必要な以下の課題が明らかとなった。　1）子どもと別に暮らす親からの養育費分担の確保や親としての責任が自覚できる仕組みの早期確立　2）家族主義福祉国家の性別役割分業意識が社会構造の随所に反映されていることへの対応　3）DVや児童虐待事例等、ケースを個別化して当事者の思いに耳を傾ける丁寧なケースワークが求められること　4）当事者の気持ちや立場を理解し、必要な知識や情報を提供する当事者支援の公的仕組みの整備。外国人労働者の在留資格拡大に伴い今後増加が予測される外国人親子の場合、一層これらの対応が必要である。