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Childcare support and the use of informationThis paper examines the relation between the reality and the role of the use of the Internet, online communities, and material space based on a fact-finding survey targeting households with young children. Especially, it focuses on the importance of childcare information networks and the availability of information tools for accessing them, which have become more critical than ever.Since modernization, reliable parenting support has undergone many changes. The development of nuclear families, decrease in the number of children, and changes in the housing environment and local communities have resulted in the concentration of parenting responsibilities on nuclear families (Coontz 1997). Most significantly, mothers, who are considered to be mainly responsible for childcare in their homes, are isolated from local childcare networks and stressed due to childcare without being able to obtain sufficient support (Matsuda 2008 etc.). Concerning the isolation of mothers, the effectiveness of the Internet as an information source has been drawing attention. New information tools such as cell phones and Internet bulletin boards play an important role in providing local information and networking between mothers. The solidarity offered on the Internet connects geographically isolated women with one another and complements or provides alternatives to local communities in the actual society (Drentea and Moren-Cross, 2005 ; Miyata, 2008).Moreover, the recent social changes in Japan have affected childcare support as well as parenting information and the methods used to acquire it. After World War II, public daycare centers authorized by the state and local governments played a central role in supplying childcare services in Japan. However, the deregulation of childcare services was implemented due to a lack of public childcare services. This led to the problem of long waiting lists for admission of children to a daycare center. After the mid-1990s, childcare provided by a diverse range of organizations, including the private sector, became available. Examples of deregulation include the elimination of restrictions on the bodies that set up authorized daycare centers and a subsidy system for unlicensed daycare centers in municipalities where the problem of children’s waiting lists became serious. The diversification of childcare services like these was necessary to satisfy welfare needs that could not be fulfilled by the public sector alone and to ensure a flexible supply of services. However, when part or all of the welfare service supply is marketized, users cannot fully assess the content and quality of the services. Accordingly, the sense of anxiety about “information asymmetry” between the supply side and the user side leads to “market failures,” such as the reluctance of use and a rapid rise in fees (Esping-Andersen, 2009). The need to proactively obtain information on various childcare services is increasing. This is especially true in households with young children in metropolitan areas, including redevelopment areas in inner-areas, where alternative sources of support are necessary due to a shortage of childcare provided by the public sector.This paper clarifies ways in which the Internet is being used to obtain childcare information and access parenting networks by households with young children in metropolitan areas in Japan, based on the concept of geocyberspace (Bakis, 2007). Furthermore, it examines the role of new information tools and online communities in the context of the problem described above. The online community has deep relationships and interaction with material space in the Japanese childcare context. Of course, the online community is not just virtual space but has becoming more important part of our society and life, sharing a common space for action (Beaude, 2012). In this paper, I pick up a case of parenting network and clarify the relationships of online community and the use of the internet by parents with small children.Acquisition of childcare information and use of the Internet to join a networkThis section examines Internet use by households with young children (mainly by full-time housewives) in Tokyo metropolitan area (Tokyo M.A.) and compares the results obtained with those of a survey conducted in Nara Prefecture. The online questionnaire survey was conducted in August 2012. A sample of 206 mothers with preschool children living in Tokyo M.A. (Tokyo, Chiba, Saitama, and Kanagawa prefectures) were randomly selected as the survey respondents of an online research company (hereinafter referred to as “the Tokyo survey”). The average age of the respondents was 34.2 years. Most of them were from nuclear family households (199 households), and the so-called households with full-time housewives constituted 70 % of the total sample. In the following analysis, the results of the questionnaire survey conducted in Nara Prefecture (hereinafter referred to as the Nara survey) will be referred to as appropriate for comparison with the Tokyo survey. The Nara survey was conducted in February 2013. It used the same survey methods and question items as the Tokyo survey. The respondent households numbered 206, with an average age of 35.2 years. Many of them were nuclear families with full-time housewives.Parenting information and communication toolsSupport for mothers during child rearing is broadly classified into two types : “instrumental support” represented by daycare, nursery, picking up from and taking to daycare centers, and general domestic chores as well as “emotional support” offered by advice and empathy through consultation and chatting. In general, instrumental support is provided by relatives and institutionalized and specialized support by daycare centers and kindergartens, whereas emotional support is often provided by relatives and friends (Matsuda, 2008).First, I would like to investigate about the providers of emotional support and the communication tools during these interactions. When questioned about whom respondents talked to when they wanted someone to listen to their complaints and concerns about childcare, mom friends (female friends with young children) (66.5 %) and the wife’s parents (62.6 %) constituted a majority of the responses. The majority replied that they have conversations and exchange emails more than once a week. Furthermore, 26.2 % also selected friends other than mom friends (the closest friends in the workplace and from school days) as someone who would listen to their anxieties and complaints. This number exceeded when compared with the frequency of interactions for “experts such as public health nurses” and “other relatives.” With regard to the communication tools used during interactions with mom friends and their own mother, “direct face-to-face contact” constituted 79.1 % and 71.8 % of responses, respectively. However, in the case of friends other than mom friends, 67.0 % answered “by cellphone emails.” This was more than the 53.9 % who answered “by a face-to-face contact.” This may be because their time schedules differed due to different lifestyles, such as number of children, their age, their employment, and marital status. These differences make it difficult to have a place or opportunity for a direct meeting.Next, what methods were used to obtain information about instrumental support, such as daycare and nursery facilities ? Figure 1 depicts the results of the Tokyo survey and the Nara survey. First, the Tokyo area results indicate that the Internet plays an important role as an information source after a face-to-face contact with a friend. Meanwhile, the most popular means for gathering information to choose a nursery or a kindergarten were “…talking and asking questions in a direct meeting with mom friends” (44.8 %). This was followed by the information sources on the Internet such as “…referring to the Internet bulletin boards and blogs or the word-of-mouth information on social network systems (SNS)” (31.0 %) and “…viewing a website created by childcare facilities” (29.1 %). These websites and message boards (hereinafter referred to as “BBS” ; bulletin board systems), blogs, and SNSs offer more up-to-date relevant information than local government publications or the information brochures issued by the private sector. Furthermore, they were valued for providing feedback from users, which may be difficult to find in printed booklets and informal information such as word-of-mouth communication.Figure 1. The information sources on local daycare centers and kindergartens (multiple answers allowed)Note : The “word-of-mouth information and question sites on the Internet” is my brief description of “Internet bulletin boards, blogs, and the word-of-mouth information on SNSs” and “I consulted and asked questions on Internet bulletin boards, etc.” ; the “the facilities websites” is my brief description of “I viewed the official website of the childcare facilities” ; “parenting circles and childcare support facilities” is my brief description of “I visited parenting circles and childcare support facilities to collect information” ; “private sector childcare information magazines” is my brief description of “I consulted with parenting circles and childcare information magazines published by the private sector and NPOs” Source : Questionnaire survey.In contrast, in the Nara survey, information gathering through word-of-mouth communication and websites on the Internet was less popular compared with that in the Tokyo survey. Apart from the response “through parenting circles and childcare support facilities” (20.3 %), which was somewhat more popular than the others, the notable ones included “I don’t gather information in the first place” (25.2 %). One of the factors that caused these discrepancies was the difference in the share of available private daycare centers’ facilities. For example, during the fiscal year 2013, there were 1,482 unlicensed daycare centers in Tokyo. This was 13.5 times the number of childcare facilities in Nara, with 110 places (of which 55 are located in Nara City). The number of daycare centers in Tokyo was also high compared to the size of the population, with the population of Tokyo being 9.5 times that of Nara Prefecture. As mentioned above, unlicensed daycare centers offer varied quality and costs so that the users are required to gather information using various tools to make informed choices, including using the Internet. Furthermore, the proportion of private kindergartens in Tokyo is higher. According to the School Basic Survey, there were 2,958 kindergartens in Tokyo in 2012, of which 2,512 were privately run kindergartens constituting 84.9 % of the total. Among the 202 kindergartens in Nara Prefecture, only 45 kindergartens (22.3 %) were privately run. Compared with public kindergartens, private kindergartens offer a greater diversity in terms of the age of admission, cost, teaching philosophy, and management policy, while some of them impose an entrance exam. We can assume that the supply of childcare in the Tokyo area, characterized by an abundance of private facilities, leads to parents’ proactive behavior when gathering the information required.The use of SNSNext, I focus on the actual situation of the use of SNSs. Interactions between users on the Internet began early in the BBS, but we do not know the profiles of individual users and their other interests in the BBS. SNSs provide a user with a self-introduction section, a diary function, and a mutual authentication function. Accordingly, users can exchange information and interact with others who have similar interests and attributes. Some SNSs have a communication function (“community”) based on a specific topic, like Mixi, which will be explained below. This section discusses Mixi, which launched their service in 2004 in Japan and used to be popular in the late 2000s, as well as “Twitter” and “Facebook,” whose users have rapidly increased in number in the recent years. Mixi was the first SNS in Japan during the early 2010’s before it was outperformed by Line, Facebook and Twitter. This section discovers the actual situations of users from households with young children in the early 2010s.Approximately, half of the respondents in both the Tokyo survey and the Nara survey used an SNS. Further, 53.4 % in the Tokyo survey and 49.0 % in the Nara survey used one of the SNSs more than once a week. In the Tokyo survey, the most frequently used SNS was Mixi (34.5 %). This was followed by Facebook (28.6 %), Twitter (16.5 %), and others (4.4 %). In the Nara survey, Facebook was most frequently used (28.2 %). This was followed by Mixi (20.9 %), Twitter (12.6 %), and others (4.9 %). Moreover, the most popular reasons for not using an SNS were as follows : “I am not interested” (47.9 % in Tokyo, 53.3 % in Nara), “Human relationships on the net are bothersome” (40.6 % in Tokyo, 35.2 %), “I don’t have time for it” (26.0 % in Tokyo, 17.1 % in Nara), and “I have used it before, but no longer” (20.8 % in Tokyo and 23.8 % in Nara).Why did people use these SNSs ? Figure 2 indicates the reasons for using each SNS. The most popular reason for using Mixi was “the interaction with mom friends.” It tended to be used for building and maintaining a parenting network. This tendency was possibly due to Mixi’s unique “community” function. In Mixi, a community search can be conducted using keywords that combine place names and interests, by responding to demands such as finding mom friends near one’s home, and finding information about the reputation of municipal facilities used for childcare support. There were 1,772 communities for childcare in 2012. It was possible to search them online using place names such as the nearest station or school district. In addition, community people could join with an administrator’s approval, which provides users with a sense of security. They feel more comfortable communicating about childcare in moderated forums because their privacy is protected to some extent (Kukimoto 2010).Facebook tends to be used for “interaction with friends other than mom friends” to the same extent as “interaction with mom friends.” A higher percentage of the users use Twitter for “topics other than parenting (I want to know about the news and hot topics in society).” Past research on anxiety and stress of parenting has demonstrated that interactions with mom friends provides a source of support and can become a cause of stress (Miyaki 2004). Joining a network with diverse features can reduce the anxiety of parenting (Matsuda 2008). These SNSs function as tools to satisfy the users’ desires to be in touch with news and networks other than those about childcare, even when they have young children to look after.Figure 2. The purpose of Internet use by type of service (multiple answers)Source : Questionnaire survey.“Daycare center searching” and the online communityWhat role does the Internet play in choosing childcare services and networking for working mothers ? As mentioned previously, long waiting lists for daycare centers are a serious problem in the metropolitan areas in Japan. According to the Japan’s Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare, as of April 1, 2018, there were 19,895 children on waiting lists nationwide, of which 46.3 % (9,222 children) were in the Tokyo metropolitan area. The authorized daycare centers’ capacity was 2.8 million in 2018, which was increased 97 thousand over the previous year, but that could not catch up with the rapid increase of childcare needs. Private services (non-licensed daycare centers), which provided an alternative to public sector childcare, were increased in large numbers. For example, the number of non-licensed daycare facilities in Tokyo was 2,656 in 2018, which was largely increased from 1,396 facilities in 2014. In addition, the non-licensed facilities run by childcare business tend to be located mainly in central Tokyo (Kukimoto &#38; Koizumi, 2013).In these circumstances, “nursery searching” to gain a place in authorized daycare centers has become a highly discussed topic. Parental activities such as searching for areas where their children are likely to be admitted to a daycare center to get a holiday from parenting and using private services such as non-registered daycare centers to raise nursery admission scores are widely called “nursery searching.” While searching, parents must obtain knowledge about the relevant systems, such as admission requirements for authorized daycare centers. In addition, parents search for childcare information such as whether there is a childcare service available in nearby areas where they live or work, the cost and opening hours, details of the childcare offered, and the number of staff to acquire the childcare service they need for a specific period of time.However, mothers often do not have sufficient information when they decide to leave their children in a nursery care, such as the information about the quality and admission methods of daycare centers as well as their capacities and availability. According to a survey on households with young children in Tokyo conducted by Tokyo Metropolitan Social Welfare Council (2011), information is often absent on the “reputation of the nursery.” In authorized daycare centers, the admission procedure was the second most frequently selected item of information. This may be due to the complexity of the entry selection method of authorized daycare centers. The admission is decided on the basis of admission scores calculated from conditions such as household income, employment status, family structure, and the order of priority. However, the way to calculate the scores that form the basis of the decision is complicated, and parents need to be familiar with these admission criteria and procedures. The success or failure of an application is often decided on a small difference in scores and priority, especially when there is a high demand for admission from households with similar conditions. Furthermore, the third most popular inquiry was about “capacity/availability.” This demonstrated the difficulty in obtaining information on the availability of a facility of their choice, even if parents want their children to be admitted as soon as possible.Under such circumstances, many households utilize the Internet to acquire childcare information. Many blogs and websites are set up by individuals and civilian groups. These collect and exchange informal information, including the reputation of nursery facilities and “tricks” to beat the selection system. This paper analyzes one of those websites—“NHK : The Page for the Working Moms of Nippon”1 to determine the actual situation surrounding exchanges of information there.The NHK is a personal website created in 2001. Since October 2012, it has accumulated more than 560,000 page views. It provides information by comparing the local government services of 23 wards of Tokyo, including information on cross-border entries into elementary schools, information on application ratios for authorized daycare centers in Koto Ward, a ward in Tokyo, and information on the BBS, mainly for each ward. The creator (hereinafter referred to as “Ms. A”) was born in 1967 in Minato Ward of Tokyo. She is the mother of three children and works for an IT company. Ms. A noticed big differences in the services and the availability of daycare centers between the local government wards while raising her first child. She set up the NHK to provide information to other households with young children. Later, when Ms. A moved to Koto Ward where she lives now, she added content such as the BBS “Hinatabokko,” which is mainly for the citizens of the ward. The NHK has been created due to the philosophy that “the user of the system (provided by the authorities) needs to become wiser instead of simply accepting its benefit” (quoted from the original text ; the bracket is by the author). It aims to “help working mothers obtain useful information” because “for busy working mothers, it is hard to do research from the beginning while going through a large amount of information”2.I analyzed the volume of responses (posts) to the content of information exchanges and each topic from the threads and the number of responses in the BBS “Hinatabokko” (Figure 3). The targets of the analysis were 2007, 2009, and 2011, which covers the period of increase of families with small children in redevelopment areas in Koto ward, and I extracted 297 threads saved in the past log of the respective years (as of July 2012). I classified the topics, the information, the names of the places, and locations from the posts to the threads and collected the number of responses to individual threads (the total number of the responses is 1,849).Figure 3. Exchanges of information detailed by thread region and topicNote : The following three separate years include 2007, 2009, 2011. The target regions of the threads are classified by the thread style and the post location. “The whole of Koto Ward” does not overlap “by area in the ward.”Source : Created from the previous log lists of the “Koto-Hinatabokko Board”.The results indicated an overwhelming number of responses concerning exchanges of information about the admission to authorized daycare centers. This constituted 36.2 % of the total responses or 57.8 % if the result is specifically applied to topics covering the whole Koto Ward. Many discussions were about how to calculate the entry scores of authorized daycare centers and how the extra points were added. The results of the admission evaluations of authorized daycare centers for each fiscal year had been posted. The evaluation results were recorded to show the age and location of a child, the score, and the reason for additional points.Among these, there was information disseminated as “tricks” to raise the entry score. For example, one of the typical methods was to obtain additional points by using private childcare services before parental leave ends. On one of the threads, one response to a post says, “It is unpleasant to read the post that their child was admitted to an authorized daycare center with additional points by using expensive private childcare services, even though the mother has not returned to work.” There were replies such as “I bought the points with money, too (...) It was before returning to work and I was staying at home (...) but I included it in the non-authorized private nursery. It was rather costly (...) I think it is the question of how to fight in the frontline with information on how to get advantages under the current system” (posted by Reko). Many users posted that they had secured an admission to an authorized daycare center based on information from this BBS3, which had an influence on other users’ information gathering when selecting childcare services.Furthermore, word-of-mouth information about daycare centers and their reputations was frequently exchanged on this BBS. The second most popular topic was the “information/reviews of non-authorized daycare centers” (24.1 %), and the “information/reviews of authorized daycare centers” (13.2 %) ranked fourth. These were exchanges of informal and immediate information that was difficult to obtain through the public media, such as information on the opening of new daycare centers and the availability of places, the number of daycare centers teachers, and the atmosphere of the facilities. There were many posts with the names of places, such as the nearest train station from their home or workplace, the name of their town attached to the word-to-mouth information, and information on daycare centers. The composition ratio by area within the ward for both authorized daycare centers (18.1 %) and non-authorized daycare centers (34.3 %) revealed high ratios, which was used for nursery searching in micro geographical areas near parents’ homes. Furthermore, the information/reviews of non-authorized daycare centers constituted 39.8 % in a survey by area classification outside of the ward or general area. Unlike authorized daycare centers, unauthorized daycare centers are not limited to parents with homes or work places in local government ward areas. Therefore, there was a high demand for information on areas beyond the administrative district, including other districts, and we can see that the BBS hosted these exchanges. Moreover, exchanges of information on the Toyosu waterfront district constituted 33.2 % of the survey responses by “area in the ward.” This indicated large inflows of new residents to the condominiums constructed by the redevelopment of the Toyosu waterfront district ; however, the development of infrastructure including daycare centers did not keep pace with rapid urbanization.Apart from hosting online exchanges, “Hinatabokko” regularly holds an “offline meeting” where the users actually meet one another. Since 2004 when the NHK was established, they have continued to hold offline meetings for “the exchange of information on daycare centers” or “making mom friends between working moms.” Since 2009, they have started to hold offline meetings exclusively for the Bay area. Those who want to attend the meetings in the Bay area could apply without revealing their email addresses by filling in the event column on the Mixi community thanks to their collaboration with the NHK. Since these communities have a closed system where only the members who have been authorized by the management can view the content, the privacy of the messages posted by participants and their event participation history is protected to some extent. The subjects of the offline meetings reflected the characteristics of these communities and their regions, where the shortage of daycare centers is acute, including “How can I have my child admitted to a daycare center in the highly competitive Bay area ?” and so on.Conclusion : online communities as childcare resourcesSo far, I have explained the actual situation that has led to the use of the Internet to obtain childcare information in households with young children, mainly in the Tokyo area. Online communities using SNSs and BBSs provide both emotional and instrumental parenting support as well as access to this support. The Internet appears to be important for obtaining information on childcare in the Tokyo area thanks to the excellent childcare services provided by the private sector.Figure 4 is a graphical representation of the relation between these online communities and material space based on the findings of this study. Apart from connecting people via parenting, another function of SNSs is to be a source of emotional support, which includes diverse information sharing and friendships not related to parenting. Considering that it is difficult for parents to go out with their children or interact with childless friends when their children are small, SNS use to maintain relationships has a certain significance. Personal websites and BBSs on parenting and childcare services function as a place for the exchange of informal information for working mothers. In the BBS mentioned in this research, information that was not always publicly available was exchanged, such as word-of-mouth information on authorized daycare centers and other childcare services as well as the “tricks” to have their children admitted to authorized daycare center. This information helped to provide access to instrumental support, such as daycare centers and childcare services, and contributed to alleviating anxieties caused by a lack of information. Moreover, in this case, offline user meetings were also held regularly, expanding online interactions into real society. This provided a place for working mothers to make friends and a place for a face-to-face communication about the so-called “nursery searching know-how.” In this case, the community function of an SNS was linked with the BBS when offline meetings were held, serving as an intermediary between the online communities in BBSs with high anonymity and real society.Figure 4. The relation between obtaining childcare information in material space and virtual spaceAs seen above, households with young children in the Tokyo metropolitan area utilized information tools and online communities to remedy difficult situations, such as a lack of information about local childcare facilities, the problem of children on a daycare center waiting list, a lack of information on the competitiveness of the daycare center entry, and the absence of people they could turn to in the neighborhood for parenting support. In particular, there has been fierce competition for daycare center places in redevelopment areas where the shortage of daycare centers is acute. Therefore, gaining informal information may influence the outcome of an entry application. This also suggests that households may be disadvantaged if they cannot access the information on the Internet well enough to obtain information on the unofficial “tricks.” To alleviate these risks, it is necessary to develop a system that can provide detailed information on the quality of various childcare services more widely and efficiently to improve the current situation where parents have to rely almost solely on informal information sources.We cannot overlook the potential of BBSs and SNSs as a place to promote changes and empower those who are involved. For example, SNSs such as Twitter and Mixi were used to collect signatures and invite participants for an administrative appeal and a protest march held in 2013 by parents whose children could not find a place in authorized daycare centers4. Such a movement is similar to the “movement for creating daycare centers,” which arose in urban areas in the 1970s. The Internet has now made it possible to forge new types of solidarity that reaches beyond groups and organizations. The issues to be resolved in future research include the empowering function and its influence on material spaces and social relationships.