Gendered Pandemic in Japan: Childcare, Parents’ Employment, and Housework during Covid-19 through Survey in Yokohama

In this conference presentation, Naoko Soma explores the gendered impacts of Covid-19 on employment, housework, and responsibility for childcare for families. Naoko Soma was a visiting professor at University of Toronto, Centre for Global Social Policy, Department of Sociology in 2022. She is a professor at International Graduate School of Social Sciences, Yokohama National University, Japan.

The COVID-19 pandemic has had gendered impacts on employment, housework, and responsibility for childcare for families. This article uses 2020 survey data of parents using childcare facilities in Yokohama, Japan to understand the relationship between childcare and COVID-19, as well as the crisis responses made by families and society during the “voluntary restraint period” when parents were encouraged to stop using daycare facilities. Findings indicate that women experienced burdens related to work, childcare, and housework during this time. Additionally, extra strains were placed upon socioeconomically vulnerable households, as evidenced through high withdrawal rates from small-scale daycare facilities that supported this population. It is necessary that new daycare policy and action is informed by these findings to understand the integral role of childcare in society and to better respond flexibly to families’ needs and the needs of those from different sectors of society during crisis and disaster times.

Naoka Soma