In a first, Japanese mothers spend more time on kids than chores

Oct 18, 2017 | News On Japan

Oct 18, 2017 (Nikkei) - Mothers with young children in Japan are now spending more time on child care than household chores, thanks in part to their increasing use of time-saving appliances.

Women with children under age 6 devoted three hours and 45 minutes a day, on average, looking after them, according to a 2016 survey by the Ministry of Internal Affairs. The number marked the first study when mothers spent more time on their offspring than on household responsibilities, which took three hours and 7 minutes, since such data was first collected in 1996. The findings were part of a broader survey covering 88,000 households nationwide.

The survey, conducted every five years, also found that mothers spent 23 minutes longer on parenting than in 2011 and 62 minutes more than 20 years earlier. The time spent on domestic chores decreased by 28 minutes from the previous survey and by 61 minutes from 1996.

Women are spending less time on household tasks as the growing use of dishwashers, robotic vacuums and other time-saving appliances has lifted their burden dramatically, the ministry concluded. "With more mothers remaining in the workforce, people are less resistant to tap the help of gadgets," said Shingo Kukimoto, associate research fellow at the Institute for Research on Household Economics.

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