Recently much media attention has been paid to the rise in depression and suicide among middle-aged men threatened by layoffs. The Yomiuri Weekly, however, reports that stress-related illness is actually more prevalent among housewives (Nov. 24).

One expert sees multiple causes of such stress: lack of recognition for housework and child-rearing, increased pressure to be a perfect mother in an age of fewer children, and husbands under pressure at work and emotionally less available to their wives. Another even predicts a wave of suicides among women in their 40s, especially among working women who feel their biological clocks ticking and find themselves running into a glass ceiling at the office. However, the story ends on an upbeat note, pointing out how the strength and resiliency of several women enabled them to balance child-rearing, work and their own identity.

There was, tragically, no happy outcome for Mitsuko Yamada, a young mother who strangled a 2-year-old in the notorious ojuken (entrance exam) murder case of 1999. In a recent book, "Otowa 'Ojuken' Satsujin" ("The Otowa Nursery School 'Ojuken' Murder") (Shinchosha), the nonfiction writer Yukiko Utashiro examines how Yamada came to kill Haruna Wakayama, the younger sister of her son's classmate in nursery school.