Every year the national Parent-Teacher Association conducts a survey to find out which television shows people either want or don't want their children to watch. Two programs always make it to the top of the disapproval list: "London Hearts," a variety show hosted by the coarse comedy duo London Boots, and "Crayon Shinchan," a cartoon about the world's most salacious preschooler.
This year there was a surprise. Wedged between these two perennial nonfavorites was the autumn 2006 Nihon TV drama series "14-sai no Haha (14-Year-Old Mother)," about a pregnant teenage girl. You might assume that parents would find it objectionable on the grounds that it romanticized premarital sex, but that wasn't the reason given by most respondents, according to the Asahi Shimbun. What made them uncomfortable was the drama's position, which said that a pregnant girl, even one who is 14 years old, should by all means bear and raise her baby.
This position appears to be a moral one. However, the parents who answered the survey seemed to look upon the matter in a more practical light. Was such a young girl emotionally equipped to handle motherhood? The show's tone was sentimental, the plot rigged to evoke approval for the young girl's decision. Also rigged was her boyfriend's relationship with his single mother, who was too busy with her career to pay attention to his problems.