1)Home education

It is often pointed out that home education tends to be entrusted to the mother and the presence of the father tends to be barely felt. Since FY 1994, the Government has been holding a "Home Education Forum" twice a year, as an opportunity for parents and people concerned with home education to realize the importance of conducting home education with cooperation between father and mother.

"Series for Future of Home Education", materials for home education have been produced since 1995, and the Third Issue of the Series adopted the theme "Thoughts on the Father" in which the proposal was made to not only work but to actively participate in the family and in the regional community.

Moreover, since FY 1997, local governments in each of the prefectures have been holding study sessions to discuss the importance of the father's existence in a family, assembling people in business and others, and forums under the theme of "Father". Municipal authorities have organized a "Visit to Father's Workplace" in which children see their fathers at work, and have been rendering support with a project to set up lectures at the workplace to educate fathers on the importance of home education.

Also, measures are actively promoted to support the compatibility of work and family so that both men and women employees can harmonize Working Life with Family Life, and at the same time fulfill their roles as members of the family in child care and family care (See Article 11, 2).

2) Counseling for child care

While functional deterioration in child rearing at home and in local communities is becoming noticeable, there are problems such as the growing anxiety concerning child rearing and isolated child rearing. In order to deal with this situation, Regional Child Rearing Support Center operates to give counseling widely on child rearing to the families with children in the local community using the child care knowledge and experience of day-care centers. Furthermore, day-care centers are making efforts to extend advisory services to local residents on infant child care with the revision of the Child Welfare Law in 1997.