Summary of the project

In today's Japan, where the nuclear family has become the norm and relationships in the community are changing, it is not uncommon for the relationship between parents, children, and society to become weak. The national and regional child-rearing support systems have not yet been fully tested, and various problems and challenges still remain in child-rearing and its support.
For example, how can a third party who is not related to the parent or child be involved in the relationship, given the growing respect for the individual and the growing awareness of the need for privacy?
We would like to create a diverse child-rearing environment where not only parents but also their children can develop healthy minds and bodies by developing a system that connects child-rearing to society through the involvement of third parties, rather than attributing child-rearing issues solely to parents.
Therefore, this project aims to build a place where each parent and child can create a desirable child-rearing environment through the active involvement of others in the parent-child relationship. We are working to realize Child Care Commons, a mechanism to expand the options for child rearing in society as a whole, with appropriate involvement of third parties. In addition to the perspectives of family studies and sociology, we are building a system to socialize child rearing, in which parents, children, and third parties can build good relationships with each other and raise their children from various perspectives, such as privacy protection and digitalization of personal information.

Milestone by the end of project (year 2024)

• Our goal is to determine the essential requirements of CCC for distributing the child care load in addition to the various existing child care supports.
• Our objective is to verify the essential ICT systems that ensure the safe and secure and reliable use of CCC.
• We will investigate the necessary components of fostering social acceptance for a parenting framework that involves unrelated individual.

R&D theme progress reports

• 1. Clarification of functional requirements and social acceptability of CCC
• 2. System Design of Child Care Commons
• 3. Fostering Social Acceptance of Child Care Commons

R&D theme structure of the project

We have three research and development items with the aim of constructing a mechanism to socialize child rearing: first, background research on the diversification of child rearing and theorizing through practice (Tasks 1: A. Saito, R. Tabuchi, Sophia U and 2: K. Sakakura, Tokyo City U ); second, constructing operational conditions for CCC (Tasks 3: J. Watanabe, NTT Communication Science Laboratories and 4: C. Hosoda, Tohoku U); and third, spreading understanding of CCC in society (Task 5: K. Maruya: NTT Communication Science Laboratories).

Leader's institution

Tohoku university

R&D institutions

NTT communication science laboratory, Sophia university, Tohoku university, Tokyo city university

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• Summary of the project (145KB)
• Progress Report (Download all) (608KB)

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