Photo/Illutration Seigo Miyazaki looks after his mother at their Tokyo home in 2020. (Atsuko Hatayama)

One in 15 sixth-graders at elementary school and one in 16 university juniors take care of a family member at home in place of their parents, a health ministry study found.

Of the younger helpers, 71.0 percent said they looked after a sibling and 19.8 percent said their mother was the object of their care.

One-third of the sixth-graders who said they looked after their parents had no idea what their health problems were, according to the study results released on April 7.

The study covered only sixth-graders and third-year students in university. Around 9,700 people in each age group responded.

The ministry’s previous study, released in April 2021, covered junior and senior high school students who cared for family members.

In the latest study, 6.5 percent of the sixth-graders said they looked after a family member, exceeding the 6.2 percent for university students.

An additional 4.0 percent of university juniors said they had cared for a family member in the past.

Kosuke Kawahara, 27, of Nagasaki city said he looked after his mother from when he was around 10 years old until he graduated from university.

His mother began developing psychological problems when he was 10. Since they were the only ones in the household, Kawahara had to take care of her.

Once when she collapsed after taking too much medication, Kawahara went to a neighbor’s home to ask that an ambulance be called.

“I was scared, but I had to always keep an eye on my mother to make sure she didn’t do anything to hurt herself,” Kawahara said. “I never thought that what I was doing consisted of caring for an older relative or helping out.”

The ministry’s study also found that the education of sixth-graders was adversely affected the longer they looked after a family member.

Of those who spent more than seven hours a day looking after family members, 28.9 percent said they occasionally were absent from school. The figure was 21.5 percent for those who provided care between three and less than seven hours a day.

Among the university students, 26.7 percent said they experienced financial concerns because they had to look after a family member, while 21.6 percent said they could not adequately prepare for university entrance exams.

Some 13.1 percent of them said they chose an educational institution that they could commute to from home.

Kawahara said he had to take out loans to pay for senior high school, vocational school and university. He still is repaying those loans.

He worked at various part-time jobs to cover living expenses after he left home upon entering university.

Although his mother lives by herself at home, rescue workers have occasionally asked Kawahara to return to the home because of a problem with his mother.

He first read about other young people caring for family members last year.

“There is a need for more people to know about this social issue so that children can say to those around them that they can no longer continue caring for the family member,” Kawahara said.

Seigo Miyazaki, 32, heads an organization that provides job-hunting advice to young people who must care for family members.

Miyazaki looked after his mother, who suffered from a rare disorder, from junior high school until her death in 2021.

He said there was a need for a forum where students could talk about their problems even before they seek jobs after graduating from university.

(This article was written by Ryuichi Hisanaga and Atsuko Hatayama.)

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