Study of the role of the emerging professional "Child Welfare Worker" as social case worker in the post-war Japanese child welfare program

Abstract

This study was made to analyze the function of the "Child Welfare Worker," who is the first caseworker in the history of social work in Japan. It is traditional for our historians in this field to describe Japanese social work practice as starting to modernize itself on a systematic scientific basis about three decadee ago, particularly during the past decade with the rise of socialism. However, we have never had caseworkers using a well-recognized social work technique before. All books and articles in magazines concerning social work were concerned with social service institutions but no, or at best casual, attention was paid to the skills of the workers who were working with their clients in connection with these institutions. This new Child Welfare Program that currently is focusing upon the metrhod, skills and techniques of the case worker is something unique, unheard of and unknowm to our traditional social work practice, even more so to the people in the community. But it seems to be growing rapidly and is receiving increased attention both from the social work profession and from the community. This study is being made to examine this new setting in the perspective of its past, present and future through a conscious and critical analysis of twenty cases carried by these new case workers.