Young carer

Current status

Many readers have probably heard of the term “young carers” before. Young carers is one of the most important issues that threaten the “rights of the child,” and at the same time, it is an issue that has only recently begun to gain recognition.And research into its actual status has yet to make much progress.

What is a young carer?

Many people may be familiar with the term “young carer,” but may not know much about its reality. Young carers are children who look after and take care of their parents and families who are unable to live satisfactorily at home due to illness or disability. They are forced to take the place of their parents and bear the same or greater burden as adults ( for example, cooking meals, shopping, washing clothes, taking care of their families, working part-time to make ends meet, etc.) on a day-to-day basis, and there are concerns that this will deeply affect their daily studies, examinations, job hunting, and other activities. Unfortunately, there is still a lack of awareness of the actual situation in Japan, and there is a sense that the problem is overlooked. In addition, there are many cases where the children themselves do not consult with others because they feel that they are responsible for providing for their own families, or they are unaware that they are young carers in the first place.

Children and their society are unaware that the children are young carers.

In Japan, the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare and the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology cooperated in 2019 to launch a nationwide survey of junior high and high school students on the status of young carers In 2020, 5.7% of second-year junior high school students and 4.1% of second-year high school students reported having family members who take care of them or look after them. This means that about 1 in 17.5 Japanese children fall into the former category and about 24.4 in the latter category. At the same time, however, 1.8% of second-year junior high school students and 2.3% of second-year high school students identified themselves as young carers. This may help us understand that young carers are a problem that is difficult for them to recognize.

And as for the keyword young carer, as many as 84.2% of eighth graders and 86.8% of high school second graders said they had never even heard of the word. Of course, since more than two years have already passed since the 2020 data surveyed, the current level of awareness of the word in person and in society has probably increased. However, it is still considered that the situation remains low due to the current lack of progress in solving the problem. These data clearly highlight the major problem of young carers being overlooked in Japanese society, despite the seriousness of the issue.

In the Convention on the Rights of the Child…

The Convention on the Rights of the Child does not have a provision on “young carers” as a separate article. However, it seems that there are provisions in various articles that indirectly prevent the creation of young careers as much as possible. For example, Articles 27, 28, 29, and 31 are applicable. These articles firmly stipulate the rights to “education,” “having a vacation,” “playing,” etc., which are often lost when a child is a young carer. For more information on the articles listed above, please refer to the List of Conventions on the Rights of the Child page.

Improvements

In Japan today, young carers are still not well known, and at first glance it appears that a solution to this problem is still far away. However, the following are some possible ways to improve this problem.

Public relations activities to raise awareness of the word itself

As mentioned above, the children themselves are often unaware of the problem of young carers, and the awareness of those who are not involved is also low. Therefore, we believe that developing public relations activities to increase awareness of the concept of young carers itself is the most effective way to move forward toward a solution. At present, of course, public relations activities themselves are still being conducted, but they are not yet very effective, and awareness of the concept has not increased much. It is essential to expand and develop these public relations activities. We believe that it is of utmost importance for the government, as well as private companies and organizations, to work together to raise public awareness. For example, it would be effective to gradually spread the concept throughout society, starting with small aspects such as TV commercials, TV programs, posters, and pamphlets.

In addition, we believe that teaching about young carers as part of social studies at school, a common space where both young carer children and other children attend, will form the basis for mutual understanding between the children involved and other children. We think that this will lead to the formation of a foundation for mutual understanding between the children involved and other children. Mutual understanding will help to create a situation in which young carers are not isolated in the social community.

What can be done in schools

Another effective measure would be to provide counseling and surveys at schools, and to establish a flexible system that is tailored to the actual situation. Since the problem of young carers is one that the children themselves do not often discuss with others, it is important that schools have an environment in which they can provide psychological support for these children and that they can confide in their teachers and counselors. Of course, it is also important to ensure that the teachers and counselors who are in charge of these children do not leak such information about them to the public. However, I believe that such measures will definitely help more young carer children than the current situation, which in turn will lead to an increase in the awareness of society as a whole toward these young carers.