Japan has a long history of fathers being full-time businessmen. This means they work from before dawn to after dark, and rarely spend quality time with their children. In recent years, many fathers have decided there are multiple ways to be a good dad, and are working together to change societal expectations so they can support their families in ways outside of just providing income.
Japan is a country where the population has slowly been declining, which means many companies are desperate for willing workers. To fight this issue, many women have entered the workforce in order to support themselves as well as being able to pursue their passions. While this is great for women, it changes the whole dynamic of household responsibilities and childcare. The idea of men staying home to raise children was almost unheard of until almost 30 years ago. Until the 1990s, Japan had no support for fathers who took time off work to raise children! Without anyone to raise the children, many Japanese citizens are now forgoing families in order to continue working.
Since financial support for stay-at-home fathers was not first introduced to Japan until the 1990s, the opportunity for fathers to raise their children was rare, even if they wanted to. This is sometimes hard for Americans to understand since in the U.S.
