Basic Research on the Burden of Dropping off and Picking up Children: Differences by Employment Type and Gender in the Tokyo Metropolitan Area

Abstract

There is a need to reduce the burden of child drop-off and pick-up for child-rearing generations, but most studies on the actual situation in Japan are based on survey results. In this study, we analyzed differences in child drop-off and pick-up by employment type and gender, utilizing the “Metropolitan Area Person Trip Survey,” which is a statistical data set. The study targeted households in which both spouses were between 30 and 49 years old, had children under the age of 6, and included the following three groups. 1) Dual-income Group 1 (both spouses employed/on contract/temporary); 2) Dual-income Group 2 (husband employed/on contract/temporary, wife part-time); 3) Full-time housewife group (husband employed, wife unemployed). The analysis revealed that a) wives are almost always responsible for dropping off and picking up their children; b) husbands drop off and pick up their children less frequently in dual-income households; and c) households with children raising within 10 to 30 km of Tokyo Station have longer commuting times and need to reduce the burden of dropping off and picking up their children.