Men’s Anti-DV Support in Japan – Growing Awareness of Male Parties

Abstract

Domestic violence (DV) is prevalent as a serious public wellbeing problem worldwide, and it brings negative and harmful influence on physical, mental and social growth of people. Therefore, it is significant and necessary to offer support for those who are suffering from DV, regardless of gender. In Japan, there are larger numbers of DV prevention institutions and programs for female victims, but support for male parties is extremely limited. Holding the idea that DV prevention should be a cooperative process of both sexes, qualitative approaches of semi-structured interviews were carried out with people involved with anti-DV programs: counselors from men’s supporting centers, facilitators of men’s group therapy treatment and scholars in the field of Men’s Study. The research aims to search for more information on men’s anti-DV support in Japan, letting the public get to understand the situation of those struggling male parties and those active men’s supporters. Furthermore, this study also uncovers some problems existing in the present prevention of DV, such as incomplete female support, deficient father-child visitation system and lack of understanding of men’s counseling. Lastly, three advocated therapy treatments are introduced, such as men’s counseling, men’s group therapy treatment and especially mixed group therapy treatment. The research suggests DV prevention is neither a women-only nor men-only issue, but a serious one for all humans. Both sexes should be involved in and cooperate with each other to ease the domestic violence problem.