Japanese Child Caring Men (Ikumen) and Achieving Work-Life Balance

Abstract

Seeing sararīman (salaried men) in business suits with their babies in the front sling, carrying a briefcase in one hand and a diaper bag in the other is no longer an uncommon morning scene in recent Japan. This is because younger Japanese fathers today are participating in child care much more frequently compared to their own fathers’ generations. These younger fathers have been called ikumen (child caring men) in Japan since the mid-2000s (Ishii-Kuntz 2013). The word ikumen phonetically resembles another word, ikemen, which means “handsome men.”