Opinion Juvenile Crime and Absentee Fathers By CHRISTINE CUNANAN-NOMURA	フレームで見る  英文をプリントする  脚注をプリントする
未成年の犯罪と、不在の父親 神戸市須磨区で起きた事件以来、未成年による犯罪が続いている。日本の父親たちが働くことに熱心で、家庭には週末しかおらず、子供たちの手本になってやれないことが問題なのでは、と筆者は考える。

Juvenile crime has increased greatly and has become more violent in the past two years. In 1997 there were 431 such cases. The most serious crime was the murder of two children in Kobe by a 14-year-old fellow student. 1998 has only just begun, and already many cases have surfaced.

A worried government has set up a committee just to investigate the matter. The Central Council for Education recently released its findings, which blamed adults for failing to impart moral values to children and for being hedonistic, materialistic and lacking responsibility.

I've thought about this matter for years. As a university exchange student, I often participated in homestay programs, which enabled me to spend weekends with ordinary families all over Japan. In most cases the father was a typical salaryman who was only home on Sundays, while the wife reared the children by herself.

I was very surprised by the attitudes of the young sons in these families. Oftentimes, the sons — regardless of age — were spoiled brats who did not help with any housework and who thought nothing of talking back to and hitting their mothers or sisters. Many of them had no idea about responsibility, respect for elders, generosity or compassion.

Of course there are many such boys all over the world. But I had always assumed that such children were usually products of broken homes, hardship or a bad environment. It was hard to imagine so many coming from ordinary, educated families living comfortable lives in peaceful environments.

I believe that the absence of a father figure in a boy's life is one reason that he may become a problematic teenager. Sons, in particular, need a father who they can relate to and look up to, and who will guide them into adulthood.

However, most salarymen are fathers only on paper, although I know that many would like to spend more time with their children if Japan's corporate environment would allow it.

Consequently, many boys all over Japan are growing up without role models who can teach them about being a man and a gentleman, and about social responsibilities. Instead they get a hodgepodge of unsavory ideas from television shows, magazines or their peers. While mothers are also instrumental in guiding their sons, there can be no replacement, in a growing boy's life, for having a good male role model. Without such a model, boys will be directionless and susceptible to any kind of bad influence with which they may come in contact.

Japan must change its corporate culture so that salarymen will not be forced to devote 100 percent of their lives to the company to succeed or to gain group acceptance. These men are entitled to lead balanced lives that successfully combine career and family, and their children are entitled to the joyful experience of having a real father and not just a half-father on Sundays.

It's time Japanese companies give workers back to their families so fathers can fulfill a more important task : rearing their children into responsible and mature adults.

Shukan ST: Feb. 27, 1998

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