The Issues Related to Care-Giving Conducted By Male in Japan

The issues related to care-giving conducted by male.

-Through the example of a husband and the son caregiver participating

in the self-help group-

MATSUI� Yuka

Recently, the number of men caring for their wives or their parents has gradually been increasing in Japan.

In this study, I will first summarize current status and difficulties of male Japanese caregivers. Then, I pay attention to a meaning of the care experience of the male caregiver and survey care in Japan and a relationship of the gender.

Traditionally, family care has been thought of as a female role, so the existence of male caregiver has been largely overlooked.  However, according to the latest investigation, one of three people of the family caregiver is a male.

Therefore this study interviewed it for a male caregiver and investigated it and investigated a meaning of their care experience.

As a result, I understood that a male caretaker faced various problems.

Their problem is difficulties with continuing work and doing housework, and the reduction of local relations, enclosure of the care, difficulty of talk of the problem.

So they had a risk of the abuse for the family.

And they got possible to arrest a self objectively by participating in the self-help group and evaded a risk of the abuse.

This study showed that a support function for them that a self-help group was apt to stand alone. This study explained that their problem is affected by a gender model.

And they experienced an identity crisis as the man through taking care of their family. However, there was the man who got new identity as the caregiver after having experienced an identity crisis in them.

The existence of such a male caregiver may reorganize care and relations of the gender.