Govt Subsidizes Surveys to Identify ‘Young Carers’; Effort to Ensure Support Reaches Those in Need

By Tomoki Masuda / Japan News Staff Writer

14:52 JST, June 1, 2025

In a bid to help young people burdened with supporting their family, the Children and Families Agency has started offering subsidies to municipalities to help them identify these “young carers.”

Young carers are children and young people who do housework and take care of their parents, grandparents and other family members on a daily basis. They are entitled to public support by law.

The subsidy is being offered to municipalities that conduct surveys to identify young carers who are not aware of their status or do not seek help because they do not want to reveal their family circumstances.

Feeling alone

“I never thought that I would become a young carer,” said a high school boy in his late teens. He takes care of his mother, who suffers from the aftereffects of a brain hemorrhage, at their home in Edogawa Ward, Tokyo.

He has lived with his mother and younger brother since he was a child. In the autumn of 2023, his mother complained of a severe headache. She called an ambulance while crying in pain and was taken to a hospital to receive treatment. She survived the ordeal but was left in need of constant care, unable to even hold toilet paper in her left hand. The situation forced her to quit her job at a restaurant and start receiving welfare benefits.

After his mother was discharged from hospital, the boy started washing the dishes, cleaning, doing the laundry and completing other housework.

He remembers thinking at the time that he was not like everyone else and feeling alone and frustrated. To make matters worse, he felt that he could not tell the people around him what was going on for fear of the consequences to him and his family.

In the spring of 2024, he finally told a social worker at his school about the situation and was referred to a ward-commissioned support group for young carers. Now, bento meals are delivered to his home four times a week, and he has time to study in a building rented by the support group.

He dreams of becoming a nurse in the future, a job he learned about and grew to admire when his mother was hospitalized.

“I couldn’t have done anything on my own. Many adults helped me,” he said. “I am what I am today because of their help.”

Unable to ask for help

The government conducted a survey of young people in fiscal 2020 and 2021. Asked if they are taking care of their families, affirmative answers were given by 6.5% of elementary school sixth graders, 5.7% of second-year junior high students, 4.1% of second-year high school students, and 10.2% of third-year college students.

In June 2024, the Law on Promotion of Development and Support for Children and Young People was revised to support young people burdened by housework and other matters. As a result, young carers became eligible for public support. However, a senior official of the Children and Families Agency said, “It cannot be said that the support has become widespread.”

The statement reflects how some young carers are reluctant to ask for help. Some children, for example, want to hide their family members’ disabilities or illnesses, while some young people do not recognize that they are young carers, as they have naturally assumed a caretaking role for their family members since childhood.

Importance of awareness

Conducting surveys to identify young carers is essential to ensure that they are provided with support. Municipalities are best equipped for implementing community-based surveys, yet only 20% of them have done so.

To address this situation, the agency decided to provide the subsidies, paying up to ¥2.12 million to each municipality that conducts a new survey.

The government intends to have the municipalities use the subsidies to create online survey systems where young people can answer such questions as whether taking care of their families is overburdening them.

“It is important to create an environment in which adults can recognize that the young people around them may be carers,” an agency official said.

Yoshie Hamashima, a professor of social welfare at Osaka Metropolitan University, said: “To understand the individual situations [of young carers], such as lacking time to dedicate to their studies, it is essential to cooperate with schools. Children [who are young carers] need time to rest both physically and mentally. They also need to have a variety of experiences. Society as a whole must support them.”