The debate over whether institutional care or foster care achieves better outcomes for children seemed to have reached a conclusion over two decades ago. These conclusions drew on an influential body of work that studied how early institutionalisation could impact many developmental domains and outcomes. As a result, many countries have been through a process of “deinstitutionalisation”, moving away from this form of care. However, this hasn’t been the case in Japan with over 45,677 children (aged from the early months of their life to 18 years old) reported to be living in out-of-home care in 2015. This amounts to approximately two in every thousand Japanese children and adolescents living in state care. Moreover, the majority of these children and young people are placed in large-scale institutions, where up to 20 children and young people share a ward. The heavy reliance on institutional care stands in stark contrast to very low rates of foster care placements (85% vs. 15%) as well as to other high-income countries, placing Japan under criticism from domestic and international scholars, activists and non-governmental organisations.

            In response to these criticisms, the Japanese government has recently carried out its first policy reform of the Child Act since the 1980s with a view to breaking up large-ward institutions into smaller, ‘family-like’ units. It therefore seems that Japan has finally moved in the direction that everyone has been hoping for. However, before policies are changed and implemented, questions remain over whether institutional care is actually harmful to Japan’s looked after children, beyond any existing adversity that these children have already suffered. More importantly, it is not yet clear that the ‘gold-standard’ foster care packages used in most western countries truly are more beneficial than larger-scale institutional care. There is, in general, very little empirical data systematically addressing these questions in Japan. Yet, acquiring such data are non-trivial before policies are implemented.