Standards of perfection in preschool institutions

Teachers in Japanese preschool institutions play a significant role in putting pressure on Japanese mothers. These teachers “advise” parents in educating their children, but in practice this “advice” is more a form of critique directed towards mothers. This is also the case with the bento. Teachers in preschool institutions place high value on the ingredients in bento, because nutrition in children’s meals is highly stressed by the Ministry of Education [Shishido 2015]. Therefore, teachers provide guidelines for mothers to make the “perfect” bento and even discuss these by holding special ‘bento meetings’ with mothers [Peak 1991]. Even with the value of nutrition in mind, in reality children’s tastes and food preferences are not as nutritious as adults have in mind, which makes it even harder for Japanese mothers to create the “perfect” bento [Rath & Assmann 2010].

Preparing bento for children every single morning is very demanding, which results in complaints of Japanese women about stress and pressure when making bento [Funabashi 2016].

Recent decades have seen an increase in job opportunities for women. However, traditional gender norms with regards to household chores and childcare are still very much in place, making marriage and parenting more undesirable for a growing number of women. This is one of the reasons why Japan currently has one of the lowest fertility rates in the world.[[Cf]] (https://www.un.org/en/development/desa/population/events/pdf/expert/24/Policy_Briefs/PB_Japan.pdf)