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eleven - Partner-care in the East Asian system: combining paid work and caring in Japan and Taiwan
- Edited by Teppo Kröger, Sue Yeandle, University College London
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- Book:
- Combining Paid Work and Family Care
- Published by:
- Bristol University Press
- Published online:
- 07 September 2022
- Print publication:
- 30 April 2013, pp 201-216
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- Chapter
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Summary
Introduction
Although partner-care is one of the main types of caring in Japan and Taiwan, it has received less research attention than other forms of caring. In both countries, a rapidly ageing population and a sharply decreasing birth rate pose challenges for care systems that have long been and remain primarily family-based. Working-age partners with dual work and caring roles often encounter real hardship. This chapter examines their current situation and the challenges they face, using case examples from qualitative research from both countries to exemplify inadequacies in the present system and the urgency of overhauling current arrangements.
Working and caring for a partner
Partner-carers in Japan
In Japan, caring is a topic receiving increasing attention, as already noted in this book. The number of people needing care has increased from 2.5 million in 2000 to 4.8 million in 2009 (MHLW, 2009) and almost half of all carers (44%) while caring for family members are also working (MIAC, 2006). Some 144,000 people left their jobs to provide care for a family member in 2006, an increase of 160% from 2002 (JIWE, 2011). Most were people in their 50s and 60s – and many were women – but an increasing number of men are leaving their jobs to care for family members too (Tsutome and Saito, 2007).
In Table 11.1, data on the relationship between the primary carer and the person receiving care are shown at three points in time: 1968, 1993 and 2007 (Kasuga, 2010). Direct comparison is not possible, as the data are from separate surveys, but some shifts in patterns of primary care by family members in Japan can be identified. In 1968, the oldest son's wife was the main carer, and 60% of older women needing care relied on their daughter-in-law. However, at the later dates, this proportion was much smaller – 37% in 1993 and 34% in 2007 – suggesting that a major change occurred in the 1970s and 1980s.
An interesting change in recent years of particular relevance to this chapter has been husbands’ increasing role as carers. In 1968, only 8% of older women needing care were cared for mainly by their husbands. In 1993, this figure was 14%, and by 2007, nearly 39%. The difference between the figures for 1993 and 2007 is exceptionally large.
five - Struggling for recognition: working carers of older people in Japan and Taiwan
- Edited by Teppo Kröger, Sue Yeandle, University College London
-
- Book:
- Combining Paid Work and Family Care
- Published by:
- Bristol University Press
- Published online:
- 07 September 2022
- Print publication:
- 30 April 2013, pp 89-104
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- Chapter
- Export citation
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Summary
Introduction
This chapter considers the situation of working carers of older parents in Taiwan and Japan. Both countries are deeply influenced by Confucian thinking, which views the care of older people as a family responsibility and frames care as an invisible, private and family issue rather than a public matter. The chapter explores similarities and differences in these countries’ changing systems of care for older people and analyses the processes involved in securing carers’ rights through a struggle between the state and the women's movement in which shifting carer subjectivities are shaped by discourses of rights and duties.
These countries’ similar demography, ageing populations, shrinking family structures and rising female employment were described in Chapter Two. In Japan, among the world's most rapidly ageing societies, traditional family-based eldercare is often no longer viable. Living apart from their extended families, many older people either live alone or rely for support on their aged spouse (Cabinet Office, 2010). Changing residential patterns and an increasing number of women working outside the home have made caring for older family members a social issue. Taiwan's demographic circumstances are very similar: its population is still younger than Japan’s, but in barely two decades, it has moved from an ageing to an aged society and in 10 years’ time, it will be a ‘super-aged’ state (CEPD, 2011). Ageing faster even than Japan, it has had very little time to establish the infrastructure needed to cope with these changes. As discussed later, Taiwan looks to Japan as a reference point for public policy on eldercare, particularly its policy on Long Term Care Insurance (LTCI).
Definitions and support for working carers of older people
In line with the Confucian values of filial piety and respect for elders, the Civil Codes of both countries define care as a family responsibility. Thus, under Taiwan's Welfare of Older People Act 2009, adult children can be penalised for abuse, neglect or leaving an elderly resident in a nursing home without paying fees, and in both countries, governments tend to view the family as the natural source of care for older people. This has the effect of rendering caring invisible and of constraining the development of carer support.