I agree that there are a lot of other cultural issues as well. However, I'm happy to say that these cultural attitudes are slowly changing in the US, and (at l

I agree that there are a lot of other cultural issues as well. However, I'm happy to say that these cultural attitudes are slowly changing in the US, and (at least in large cities) it is becoming 'ok' to be a working mother. That said, the payments in Japan are afaik a few thousand $ per year, whereas childcare in California (I assume it's at least comparable in urban Japan!) is ~20k per year. So to have a meaningful discussion about subsidies, the payments need to be on the same order of magnitude of the cost of childcare.