| Abstract |
Despite a relative paucity of English language literature on Asian fatherhood in general and Japanese fathers in particular, there has yet to be a comprehensive analysis of one of the seminal works of... the Japanese Ikumen movement, collected in book form as Ikukyū Tōsan No Seichō Nisshi (Growth Diaries of Dads Who Traded Work for Child Care). Through a dynamically equivalent translation and itemization of the book’s contents, this study examined the autobiographical accounts of six Japanese fathers who took officially-sanctioned child care leave from work in order to identify their motives, shared experiences, and outcomes. Primary reasons for doing so arose from concern for their spouses and from a quest for fulfillment and an alternative identity. Common obstacles included anxiety about how their absences would affect coworkers and clients, perceptions of intolerance and shock from society at large, and a perceived lack of infrastructure for male child caregivers. Noted rewards were a renewed appreciation for the brevity of the child rearing years, novel experiences rare to most salarymen, and feelings of self-actualization as fathers. Finally, all the accounts reflected a higher level of involvement post-leave.show more
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