With Japanese society increasingly aware of the child poverty problem in its midst, a growing number of businesses and nonprofit organizations in the country are taking steps to help single mothers raising children alone.

Help offered ranges from free consultations about legal matters like custody and alimony to assistance in searching for jobs and places to live.


(Mama United)

In late April in Tokyo, a support group named "Mama United" held an inauguration event for its operation aiming at providing single mothers with free legal advice and other useful information. Some 30 people, including women with small children, took part in the event.

The group was set up by Satoshi Fujishiro, president of Mama Square, a company running a namesake chain of working spaces in Tokyo and other areas of Japan. Each of the Mama Square facilities has an office area attached to a day care and cafeteria so women can leave their children while working.

The entrepreneur, who inaugurated the group to support working mothers, said it was partly inspired by an employee who worked seven days a week, including at a different job, to afford educating her two university student children.

Single mothers are said to face difficulties in seeking legal advice, partly because they fear the fees may be too high, obtaining a job to become financially independent and securing a place to live. Apartment owners sometimes shun single mothers as tenants, assuming they are financially unstable.

In addition to free legal advice, the group plans to provide information about companies willing to employ women with children and apartments ready to accommodate single mothers.

It also plans to allow single mothers to ask for advice from senior mothers online.

The woman in charge of the operation of the service, who is also a single mother, said, "I want to help people with my own experience."

She hopes to offer information including how to block domestic violence offenders from accessing victims' resident registry data kept at municipal offices.


(Mama United)

Hiroyuki Tateyama, a lawyer cooperating with the support group, said, "Single mothers should not be distressed on their own. I hope they will seek experts' help."

He said some law firms provide free advice and the Japan Legal Support Center provides information on the legal system, bar associations and relevant organizations.

Tateyama, who was also raised by a single mother, said a government survey shows many single mothers do not receive alimony.

"Receiving financial support is children's right." He said there are ways for single mothers to negotiate while avoiding meeting their former partners.

Child poverty has become a prominent social issue in Japan. Many children affected are from single-parent households, and a large proportion of them are households of single mothers.

A survey of the Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry shows the annual income of single mothers' households averaged 2.91 million yen ($26,000) in 2010, less than half of that of Japan's average for households with children at 6.58 million yen.

Share homes exclusively for single mothers and their children have opened in Kanagawa Prefecture near Tokyo.

The first "Parenting Home" was launched in 2012 and currently there are four in the prefecture and the capital, accommodating 12 people in six households.

The homes are typically an apartment consisting of private rooms and shared living-dining and other common spaces. Single mothers can keep living expenses low by sharing the space and utilities.

At those homes, the mothers can also share expenses to hire baby sitters and housekeepers to help them work or study.

"I wanted to help single mothers to become financially independent and both work and raise kids," said Satoshi Akiyama, an architect who planned the share homes.

He said residents have people around to speak with, while their children can grow up together with friends at the shared homes.