In today's society, families are having fewer children, fathers are working more and mothers are clinging to their children with greater intensity, hampering children's growth, according to psychologist Yoshiomi Takahashi.
The shrinking nuclear family is giving rise to what Takahashi calls the "mother-child capsule" phenomenon, in which mothers become all accepting of their children and tend to be overprotective or intervene too much in their lives.
"Struggles with parents are part of a child's growing up, but in that kind of situation, mothers are stealing that opportunity from them," he said.