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The contents here are partially modified from a newspaper article issued in March 2002. |
It must be possible to have a point of contact with children through corporate activity.
Ogi: |
The Japanese school systems will undergo significant changes this April. In particular, a five-day week will be introduced in the public schools, including primary, middle, and high schools, so that children will have time to communicate with their family and in the community.
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Yamada: |
I think it is more important for grown-ups to have a point of contact with children on weekdays than on weekends. A father, who is also living as a company man, should be advised that he has a point of contact with his children through corporate activity, in order to preserve his humanity. I want to take the initiative in creating a system where parents can have greater latitude with fewer working hours and children are allowed to visit the company in which their parent works.
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Ogi: |
So, you believe that wage earner parents should have greater latitude in order for children to be involved in corporate activity?
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Yamada: |
Yes. Our economic society is prone to give priority to business efficiency. The focus is always on productivity as well as labor effectiveness, while considering everything else superfluous and, therefore, expendable. Nonetheless, I think that with some things we simply regard as superfluous we can have significant educative effects.
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Ogi: |
When looking back at post-war history, it is said that the year 1975 was a turning point. Since 1975, the work force in tertiary industry has constituted more than 51 percent, or a majority, of the total work force in Japan. In other words, until then, most fathers had been engaged in agriculture or self-owned businesses, and every family activity had been conducted as one, including parents' working, raising children, and the life of all the family members. Children were able to feel that they were actually supporting their family by participating in the family business or domestic labor. Thus, a basic social structure was well maintained, accounting for the sound growth of the children. Parents didn't have to worry about thinking that "something must be done," as long as they put all their energy into their work. But, when fathers became salaried employees who had to show up at the office, they lost their hold on their children no matter how hard they might work to, for example, 10 p.m. at the office. Nonetheless, as you said, if children are allowed in to company environments, we would be able to, in one sense or another, restore the merits of traditional family labor.
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