title: Experiences of Japanese men during the transition to fatherhood.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  The purpose of this study was to understand the meaning of the lived experience of Japanese men during the transition to fatherhood.
  
  
  METHODS
  Hermeneutic phenomenology was used. Participants were 12 Japanese men who had a first-time healthy child younger than 1 year of age, who were sought by using a purposeful sampling technique.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The following six themes were identified: (1) feeling like a father; (2) realizing oneself as a husband; (3) finding the wife's pregnancy and delivery for the first time to be an impressive experience; (4) sharing time and space with one's child; (5) being aware of a change and trying to adjust to a new life; and (6) being aware of the difference between oneself and one's wife. These six themes created essence of the phenomenon of "becoming a father."
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  This study revealed Japanese men's own voice on becoming first-time fathers of infants.
authors: Graduate School of Nursing, Chiba University, Chiba, Japan.
authors: Hiroko
authors: H
authors: Iwata
mesh_terms: D000223:Adaptation, Psychological; D000328:Adult; D005219:Father-Child Relations / Q000208:ethnology; D005220:Fathers / Q000523:psychology*; D006801:Humans; D007407:Interviews as Topic; D007564:Japan; D008016:Life Change Events; D008297:Male; D008393:Marriage / Q000523:psychology; D008875:Middle Aged
keywords: Japanese; fatherhood; lived experience; phenomenology