Every year as cherry blossoms bloom, mothers across Japan toil until late at night to sew fabric bags that nursery and elementary schools require their children to have when starting class in April.
Even though many women nowadays continue working after becoming mothers, and sewing machines are no longer a must-have item in households, there remains social pressure for them to make a variety of items for their children, based on a strong belief that loving mothers do things by hand. Fathers, meanwhile, are generally not expected to do needlework.
"I did needlework many nights. I found myself truly driven into (a) corner," a 40-year-old working mother in Unzen, Nagasaki Prefecture, said, recalling how she had to make six items a year ago just so her son could enter elementary school.