Modern Japanese Customs of Foster Parenthood

The purpose of this paper is to examine modern Japanese customs of foster parenthood which have been misunderstood by the public. Some accepted researches concluded that the stagnation of foster parents system is mainly due to foster parents’ expectation for the payment for bringing up foster children as well as the labor of those foster children. These researches referred to folklore data, which indicate that such payment has been limited to local traditions in some urban areas and so-called child labor is not by foster children but by adopted children. That is to say, these researches comprehend that foster parents take the charge of the children for profit and they have confounded moraigo, adopted children, with such foster children for labor, during course of their study. When child welfare system was rebuilt after the World War II, “foster children for labor” became the suitable clamoring model as children needing state protection and publicized exaggeratedly. The subsequent foster care researches have followed this model. Although moraigo for labor was surely observed in certain fishing villages, this aspect of child labor has been overly emphasized and other aspects of child rearing have been ignored