Effect of Children’s Infection and Isolation on Guardians’ Employment

・Infections among children increased rapidly during the sixth wave.
・The number of infected children at daycare centers, etc., increased by about 40,000 over the past month (only licensed daycare centers, etc.).
・About 90,000 children (estimate) are unable to attend daycare due to closures of daycare centers, etc. -> equivalent to 3% of children at daycare centers, etc.
・We considered the impacts on the work of guardians due to the infection and isolation of children (closures of daycare centers, etc.) based on data.

・Possibility that the burdens on mothers increased in particular
・Impact on production: Work of mothers of the child-rearing generation (sector, occupation)
・We analyzed the work characteristics of mothers based on individual census data.
・There are many women in the medical care and welfare sectors, and the proportion of mothers of the child-rearing generation is also high.
・In medical care and welfare, the proportion of mothers of the child-rearing generation is high in service and professional or technical occupations.(Doctors, nurses, nurse assistants, care workers, etc.)
・Supposing that 90,000 working mothers faced obstacles going to work, 0.5% of workers in the medical care and welfare sectors would be impacted (0.1% impact on the sector in the case of 90,000 fathers).

・39,000 children at daycare centers, etc., were newly infected in one month at licensed daycare centers, etc.
・More than 700 licensed daycare centers, etc., were closed completely through February.

Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare, state of closures at daycare centers, etc., due to COVID-19
https://www.mhlw.go.jp/content/11920000/000903525.pdf

・Number of completely closed licensed daycare centers, etc.*1
・Consideration of non-licensed daycare centers, etc.*2, 3
・It is assumed closures would occur on the same scale as licensed daycare centers, etc.
・Consideration of partial closures
・It is assumed partial closures would occur on the same scale as complete closures.*4
・The number of pupils impacted by partial closures was calculated on the assumption that each class consists of about 10 to 25 children.*5

*1 Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare, State of closures at daycare centers, etc., due to COVID-19
https://www.mhlw.go.jp/content/11920000/000903525.pdf
*2 Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare, Summary of the situation in relation to daycare centers, etc. (April 1, 2021)
https://www.mhlw.go.jp/content/11922000/000821949.pdf
*3 Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare, 2019 Summary of the current situation of non-licensed daycare facilities
https://www.mhlw.go.jp/content/11907000/000816821.pdf
*4 Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology, Results of a survey on temporary school closures due to the impact of COVID-19
https://www.mext.go.jp/content/20220218-mxt_kenshoku-000006590_1.pdf
*5 Study on the appropriate number of children at kindergartens and daycare centers, etc.
https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/147574904.pdf

・About 90,000 children (70,000-140,000 children) were unable to attend childcare centers, etc., due to partial or complete closure over the past month.
→Equivalent to 3% (2-5%) of the 2.99 million children at daycare centers, etc.

・Taking of child nursing leave: Leave to nurse a child granted to a worker raising a preschool child.
・Both the proportions of leave takers and the number of days taken are higher for mothers than for fathers.
→Mothers are often the ones who take leave if it suddenly becomes necessary for a parent to take care of a child.

・We analyzed the industries and sector distributions of (child-rearing generation) mothers and fathers with preschool-age children based on individual data from the 2015 census.
・Samples that met the following requirements were deemed mothers and fathers of the child-rearing generation.
・Age: 20-49 years old
・Work: Mainly employed
・Type of household: Nuclear family
・Relationship: Head of household or spouse

・In reality, it is not possible to extract the parents of the child-rearing generation accurately with the above-mentioned method because there are cases where children are raised in three-generation households and cases outside of the subject age range.
・Among households with preschool-age children, 87% were nuclear families (reference materials).

・Many women work in medical care and welfare.

・There are many women in service and administrative occupations.

・Service occupation x medical care/welfare
・Nursing care employees (facility, visit)
・Nursing assistants, dental assistants, etc.
・Service occupation x education support
・Dormitory supervisor, dormitory caretaker, dormitory instructor (special needs schools), etc.
・After-school care instructor (after-school daycare centers)

・Essential workers find it difficult to work remotely.
→Work is easily impacted if care for children becomes necessary.The impact on social activities is large.

2017 Children and families in Tokyo
https://www.fukushihoken.metro.tokyo.lg.jp/kiban/chosa_tokei/zenbun/heisei29/index.html