OSAKA - As Japan’s population ages, the number of people working while caring for elderly parents is increasing, with about 100,000 people nationwide leaving their jobs each year due to caregiving responsibilities, revealing deep structural barriers to balancing work and family care.
Cases like these are becoming more common: a man who lost his job after his mother was discharged from hospital, and a woman juggling multiple jobs while caring for a mother with dementia, even as some companies begin introducing support systems to prevent employees from quitting. Behind these stories are the emotional conflicts caregivers face, gaps in public制度, and emerging efforts to create places where people can support one another.
Fumi Uchida, 64, lives in Osaka’s Higashinari Ward with her 89-year-old mother, Teruko, and has been caring for her for the past four years. After Teruko was hospitalized with COVID-19 and heart rhythm problems, doctors told the family she could not be discharged unless someone was constantly present to watch over her. Uchida, who worked at a factory at the time, asked her employer if she could adjust her hours, but when no response came, she decided to quit, believing it would be impossible to continue working while providing care. Neither she nor the company was aware of national systems such as caregiving leave, leaving her without options.
Teruko now requires a level-three level of care on Japan’s five-stage scale, making it difficult for her to walk or manage daily tasks alone. While entering a care facility was possible, she wished to remain at home, and Uchida chose to honor that request. Although Uchida later visited Hello Work to look for a new job, the lack of time made it difficult, leaving her with lingering frustration. Still, she has resolved to continue caring for her mother.
Nationwide, about 7.95 million people are currently providing family care, and every year roughly 100,000 leave their jobs because balancing work and caregiving becomes untenable.
In Hyogo Prefecture’s Kawanishi City, Ayako Kuno, 55, lives with her 78-year-old mother, who has been diagnosed with dementia. Kuno is a working caregiver who runs her own caregiving taxi and home-care services business while also taking on part-time work at a care facility and in distribution. As sales at her main business fluctuate, she has had to juggle multiple jobs to make ends meet, all while constantly watching over her mother at home, assisting her with outings, and accompanying her to monthly hospital visits.
Because Kuno is self-employed, work can come in unexpectedly, and on some days she is away from home for as long as 16 hours. After returning, she immediately begins preparing dinner, often keeping her own meals simple. On particularly demanding days, she grabs a few hours of rest before heading out for night work. Like many caregivers, she sometimes turns to AI tools as a way to organize information or reflect on her interactions, noting the guilt she feels when she realizes she speaks more harshly to her own parent than she ever would to a client.
Under Japan’s Childcare and Family Care Leave Act, employees can take up to a total of 93 days of caregiving leave per eligible family member. However, the law applies only to employees and not to the self-employed, who are assumed to have flexibility over their schedules. In reality, taking time off for caregiving often leads directly to lost income, making rest difficult to secure.
Asked what kind of support she wishes existed, Kuno said she hopes for temporary shelters or facilities where family caregivers could be protected and supported, similar to emergency accommodations available in cases of domestic violence, and for spaces where caregivers can gather and connect.
Such spaces are beginning to emerge. Last month, a café in Kobe hosted an exchange meeting for working caregivers, nurses, and other professionals, where participants shared caregiving information and spoke openly about their struggles. One woman caring at home for her husband after a cerebral hemorrhage while working four days a week said simply having someone say it was okay to ask for help made a profound difference.
Some companies are also taking action. One firm now allows employees to hold regular one-on-one consultations with certified social workers, an initiative that has reduced caregiving-related resignations to zero. Executives say replacing even one departing employee carries significant costs, especially as labor shortages make recruitment increasingly difficult.
Although the caregiving leave law was revised in April last year to require companies to inform employees about caregiving support systems, experts say awareness remains limited, particularly among small and midsize firms. With few penalties for noncompliance, specialists argue that companies must continue sending clear messages that caregiving is something anyone may face and that balancing work and care should be supported.
Uchida, who has committed to continuing her mother’s care, now paints her mother’s nails once every two weeks, hoping she can always feel like herself. By 2030, working caregivers are expected to make up about 40 percent of all caregivers in Japan. As many struggle under the sense that caring for parents is an unquestioned responsibility, expanding access to accurate information and creating reliable places of support is becoming increasingly urgent.
