The Japanese put a high value on the family, and children hold an esteemed place within the family structure. When babies are born, they are almost inseparable from their mothers, until they begin school at age three. In Living Japan , Donald Keene describes the Japanese attitude toward children:

Japan is a wonderful place to be a small child. The birth of every child is celebrated as a welcome event, no matter how numerous a family may already be. ... No sacrifice is too great for parents to make in order to spare their "treasures" any hardships. They are determined that the child's early years shall be happy, and all Japan joins them in this endeavor. Strangers on a crowded streetcar offer children their seats, and the audience at a theater seems completely undisturbed when a baby's howling all but drowns out a performance.

Traditionally, children were believed to be...