One of the most significant things in My Neighbor Totoro is that the mother is absent from the home. According to Takie Sugiyama Lebra, “the [Japanese] mother is characterized as having suffered hardships” . This is true in Totoro, as Mei and Satsuki's mother is hospitalized with an unnamed illness. The mother's absence is significant because “at home, the husband depends upon the wife for domestic care. The husband is helpless in housekeeping tasks, such as doing the laundry, cooking, cleaning, and child rearing” (52). In the absence of her mother, it is then Satsuki's job to take over household tasks with Nanny's help. This is illustrated several times throughout the movie.