Childcare Expansion in East Asia: Changing Shape of the Institutional Configurations in Japan and South Korea

The provision of childcare in Korea and Japan has traditionally been intensively conducted within the family. Recent social and demographic transformations have been profound and these have resulted in significant policy changes in both countries. This study examines the institutional configurations of the provisions of childcare among the state, market, and family and how they have changed in Korea and Japan over time. The institutional configurations were quantitatively evaluated based on an estimation of care time. Our findings suggest that care time provided in market and state facilities has become much larger in Japan than in Korea. In both countries, the care time provided by market facilities is much larger than in state facilities. Over the years, both market and state provisions of care have increased in Korea whereas state care provisions have decreased and market provisions have increased in Japan. However, this does not mean that the centralization of the family in the provision of childcare has shifted. In fact, the care time within the family has increased in both countries, suggesting that Korea and Japan have become more caring welfare states.