Objective
The Japanese government conducted nationwide questionnaire surveys in 2020 and 2021 to reveal the situation of young carers at schools in Japan. These surveys included children and young people at schools who care for families.
Method
We treated all children and young people who answered that they had families who needed care as " young carers at school." We analysed the data of young carers at school.
The ethical committee of Bukkyo University judged no ethical issue in this article.
Results
Young carers experience health problems and disadvantages in school, such as being absent from school, arriving late, falling asleep in class, forgetting belongings, not spending time on homework, and spending time alone. These health problems and disadvantages are worse when caring for a longer time and more frequently.
The ILO definition of child labour includes more than 21 hours per week. Approximately 30,000 children from the sixth grade of elementary school to the second grade of junior high school are engaged in family caregiving, which constitutes child labour.
Conclusions
We emphasise that the young carer support policy needs to recognise that children are involved in child labour, which violates their rights and implement policies to eliminate this situation.
We could recognise the situations in which the rights of young carers are violated through child labour. Japan is not an exception. All countries should take measures to address young carers not to become child labour.
