As telework spreads amid the coronavirus pandemic, children witnessing their parents up close working under sometimes intense pressure may not be getting the best impression of the world of work that awaits them as adults.

That, at least, is the concern of Tokyo-based job information website Dip Corp., which launched a program two years ago to allow elementary school children to hear directly from workers in careers that interest them in how much adults like their jobs.

Using the Zoom video teleconferencing application, Dip has enabled a total of some 450 students at five elementary schools in Aichi, Osaka, and other prefectures to speak directly with officials at about 20 companies, including in the restaurant, travel, medical care, and web media sectors.

In December, the program was held at Nagai Elementary School, run by the Yokosuka municipal government in Kanagawa Prefecture, dividing 53 sixth-graders into eight groups.

Six of them spoke with Masanari Harada, a certified weather forecaster at Weather Map Co., a meteorological forecasting company in Tokyo, firing off questions to him for about one hour.

Meteorologist Masanari Harada explains the joys of his profession to school children in an online video teleconference held in December 2021. (Photo courtesy of Weather Map Co.)(Kyodo)

"I liked aircraft so much when I was a kid that I wanted to work in a sky-related job," Harada said when asked why he had decided to become a weather forecaster. On the pleasure of his work, Harada said, "I feel delighted when my forecasts prove right."

To become a weather forecaster, "you need to learn not only science but also, to read maps and communicate your forecasts, you need social studies and Japanese-language studies," Harada said. In other words, "what you are studying now will help you in the future," he stressed.

Following the "interview," the six children said they had learned about both the pain and joy of Harada's work.

"The COVID crisis has made it impossible to conduct social studies field trips," Asumi Tawara, a teacher at the school, said. "But I think the children could broaden their image of working by directly listening to people in fields unfamiliar to them."

Students of Nagai Elementary School in Yokosuka, Kanagawa Prefecture, ask a business professional about the joys and difficulties of work in an online video teleconference held in December 2021. (Kyodo)

Dip launched the program following a 2019 survey of some 60 grade school children, with many of them answering that they thought work seemed challenging or hectic for adults.

After the coronavirus began to spread, participant companies in the program voiced concerns about parents working from home projecting a negative image of work on children.

Aidem Inc., a job search website operator in Tokyo, surveyed 1,000 fifth- and sixth-grade pupils in April 2021 to examine changes in children's perceptions of their parents' work before and after the spread of the virus.

Among the findings, 76.4 percent said they began to realize how difficult it is for their parents to earn a living to support a family, while 61.2 percent thought their parents were busier than they had expected. Experts say that the increase in parents working from home was a major factor in the change seen in children's impressions of work.

"Children may feel uneasy merely by watching how distressed their parents look working from home," Teruyuki Fujita, a University of Tsukuba professor familiar with educating children about careers, said.

"Children may take an interest in working if parents or adults close to them share the joy of working or reasons for their distress to the extent they can understand," Fujita said.

Students of Nagai Elementary School in Yokosuka, Kanagawa Prefecture, conduct an interview with a business professional about work and best service practices in an online video teleconference held in December 2021. (Kyodo)