I had a meeting with Ms. Yukiko Kada, a member of the House of Councillors, to exchange views on joint custody.

Four executives and others from NPO Oyako no Kizuna for JAPAN visited the Diet office of Dr. Yukiko Kada and exchanged opinions on issues that we, adults, should address "now" in light of the vote on the joint parental authority bill.

With the consent of Dr. Yukiko Kada, a portion of the day's proceedings is posted below. We hope you will find it useful.

Opinion Exchange｜Focusing on the Future of the Joint Custody Bill

Introduction: Please tell us about Dr. Kada's upbringing and his episodes of "parent-child bonding.

I was born into a sericultural family in Saitama Prefecture in the postwar 1945s. My family, which had been a landowner before the war, rapidly fell into poverty under the influence of the postwar policy of farmland liberation, and everyone was engaged in hard agricultural labor to survive tomorrow.
However, in those days, the family system was based on a male-dominated society. My grandfather shouted at my mother, who was sick in bed, "Go out to the fields! The scene is still fresh in my mind, and I have witnessed from an early age the harsh life women were forced to lead under the family system.
However, even in such a harsh environment, my mother gave me all the love she could. Eggs and white rice were very precious in those days, but my mother secretly roasted eggs early in the morning, cooked white rice, and fed them to us young children. I grew up working in the fields with my mother and did not go to kindergarten or nursery school.
I have faced many hardships and pains since then, but in every situation, "my mother loves me" has always existed deep in my heart, and thanks to this, I have been able to overcome various difficulties until today.
My mother passed away in 1996, but I still truly believe that at this very moment. And that is my "bond between parent and child.

Was this the background that led you to pursue a career in family sociology and agronomy?

Yes.
Under my grandfather's insistence that "women do not need education," I went into hiding and studied, and decided to take charge of my own life as a woman, and studied family sociology and cultural anthropology, where I learned about women's lives and family systems in Africa, America, and other parts of the world, which led to my desire to improve the whole society as well. This led to a desire to improve society as a whole. This was the root of my challenge to become governor of Shiga Prefecture in 2006, aiming for social change that academics could not achieve.
While working in the fields, my mother also said, "There is no grass without a name," and my interest in the natural world around me led me to study agronomy and environmental studies.

I understand that you had your child at a time when you were working hard on your studies, and it must have been difficult at the time.

It was while I was studying in the US with my husband. It was still the 1970s.
At that time, women were not fully entering the workforce in the U.S., and I was deeply troubled about whether I should choose between research and child rearing. But when I discussed this with my professor of social psychology in the U.S. with a serious look on my face, she said to me, "You are a taxpayer, a social worker, and a child-rearer. She said, "You can be a proactive taxpayer through your work and research, and use the money to have your children raised in society.
In other words, he taught me that "work and child-rearing" are not an "either/or" relationship, but a relationship that can be compatible, and that it is our role to create the "social foundation" for this relationship. This was to form the foundation for my subsequent career as a researcher and politician.

I have seen a report that says, "Countries with more women in society have higher fertility rates," and perhaps that is exactly what my advisor was teaching.

I think you are right. However, actually doing so in the field at that time was a series of hardships.
At that time, many kindergartens and nursery schools refused to take care of children of graduate students, saying that they could not take care of them, and I was about to fall apart both mentally and physically, but Otsu City at that time decided to take care of my children at nursery schools in Otsu City, and thanks to this decision, I was able to finish my doctoral program at the university. The political and social situation in Otsu City at that time nurtured me and my children, and now my six grandchildren, in Otsu and Shiga Prefecture.
That is why I also want to improve society.

What do you think of the debate in the Diet on this amendment to the Civil Code centered on joint parental authority?

Although the Civil Code amendment is intended to shift from "absolute sole custody" to "selective joint custody," I looked back on it as a formality in which challenges remain strong because I believed that "principled joint custody" beyond this was essential.
There are many ways to think about it, but "selective joint custody" includes an aspect that allows one of the parents to choose to abandon the child, and if I were in the child's shoes myself, I would wonder, "What are we going to do, father and mother?
As a society and as parents, we should avoid creating situations in which children are made to feel that they have been abandoned. I have repeatedly questioned this point in the Diet, but unfortunately, it does not appear that sufficient discussion has taken place. In addition, there are Japanese researchers who say that there are cases of joint custody overseas, or more specifically, that there are countries that have shifted from sole custody to joint custody and are "trying to return to sole custody," but when we contact the embassies of those countries, they reply that this information is not true. However, when we contact the embassies of those countries, they reply that this information is not true. In the midst of this situation, Japan has introduced a new law called "Optional Joint Custody," and the contents of this new law are full of loopholes, which has resulted in a spirited debate between the pros and cons.
The drafters of the bill have a lot of responsibility. That is why we have included a review clause at the end of the bill, saying that it needs to be reviewed at the earliest possible stage.

In the press, things are reported from a variety of perspectives, and some tend to talk about "custody" and "domestic violence/abuse" as a set.

I see it as a separate issue because the nature of parents cannot be DV or abuse.
In some countries, while resolutely applying punishment for domestic violence, they view it as a "medical issue related to the psychological care of the parents" and have programs in place to help those parents recover and reunite with their children.
In other words, the "separation" between parents and children is a "last resort" and never the "optimal means".
In addition, although the media reports show a bias that men are the perpetrators and women are the victims, a past survey conducted in Shiga Prefecture found that 70% of abuse was committed by biological mothers, half of which were single-parent families after divorce.
In other words, there was no male/female bias in domestic violence and abuse, and the truth emerged that the "disconnected culture" of the sole custody system is what is driving children to become victims of abuse.

You have repeatedly mentioned this in the Diet.

Yes.
When I was a child, many mothers who were evicted from their homes under the family system were unable to visit their children, and many parents and children shed tears. In the Taisho era (1912-1926), the poet Misuzu Kaneko committed suicide because her children were taken away from her. However, since this is simply a case of a man and a woman switching genders, the fundamental problem of the "culture of disconnection between parents and children" will remain.
We need to build a society for the sake of our children that will not allow the "parent-child bond" to be severed even if the couple's relationship is severed. For this purpose, the activities of the basic local governments of the 1,741 cities, wards, towns, and villages in Japan and private organizations such as yours, which are now in direct contact with each and every family, will become extremely important. Those of you who have been active in the field of local government to date, such as in the care of children who have suffered from poverty and mental distress in single-parent families, actually know firsthand the seriousness of the problem of sole custody.
From now on, it will be a very important phase for local governments and organizations like yours to take the initiative in creating "effective contents of the law," such as joint child support plans at the time of divorce, "courses for parents" and "courses for children" during divorce, and the use of ADR (Alternative Dispute Resolution) procedures.
I would also like to continue my efforts to work toward a "culture of de-friendliness" and "culture of matchmaking" by actively organizing and participating in lectures and study groups in various parts of Japan to protect "parent-child bonds" throughout Japan.

It was a thought-provoking and meaningful exchange of ideas.
Once again, we would like to express our sincere gratitude.

From NPO Oyako no Kizuna for JAPAN