Learn from the past, act for the future: Lessons from our last 20 years and plans toward a caring society for abused children and abusive parents in Japan

Half a century has passed since H. Kempe coined the term “battered child syndrome” in 1961. Since then Western countries have made nationwide efforts to understand what this syndrome is, how it develops, and how to treat... [ view full abstract ]

Half a century has passed since H. Kempe coined the term “battered child syndrome” in 1961. Since then Western countries have made nationwide efforts to understand what this syndrome is, how it develops, and how to treat it.
The Japanese, on the other hand, assumed that their childcare environment was too wholesome and well designed to allow battered child syndrome to occur. This assumption held back Japan’s efforts against child abuse and neglect by three decades. A system to address the challenges finally began to develop in 1990, when cases of child abuse were clearly identified through private telephone counseling services. Healthcare providers, welfare personnel, and legal experts were driven to create the Japanese Society for Prevention of Child Abuse and Neglect (JaSPCAN) in 1994. Later, in 2000, Japan enacted the Child Abuse Prevention Act. As a result of the nationwide commitment in the 2000s, the number of cases reported to Child Consultation Centers—the core of the system—grew at an exponential rate and ultimately surpassed the capacity of institutional accommodations for abused children. Yet today, more than a decade after the legislation, the number of reported cases continues to rise. No signs of decline have been noted in even the fatality statistics linked to child abuse. The thirty-year lag behind the West in social protections for children does not seem to be narrowing.
Japan needs a strategy for a next step to decrease the incidence of child abuse and death and to break the generational chain of abuse. So far, Japan has tried to address the challenge solely through legal intervention, looking to the models from the West from around 2000. This goal can only be achieved with a deeper understanding of child abuse, an effective, evidence-based strategy, and a society that provides down-to-earth support to children and their parents.