Though it has been said that blood is thicker than water….

Idioms related to ‘blood'

There are many idioms and sayings about ‘blood’ and they are mostly related to values of family, or personality that seems to resemble someone in your family.
    blood is thicker than water:family relationships are stronger than any  others
    be/run in your blood: to be a natural part of your character and of the    character of other members of your family
You could be surprised to find a behavior that you are doing that is exactly the same as your parent did, and sometimes you dislike it the most.

More seriously, there are so many people who struggle with relationships with their family members. Such people find it hard to raise their voice because too many people strongly believe in family values.

No equality and individuality in a family

Family laws of Japan basically have not been revised much about family issues of women and children over the past 128 years:family name unity is still required for marriage, and basic human rights for minors (<18 year olds) are limited contrary to stronger parental authority. Children have no right to individualize from their parents before becoming 18 years old even under any bad conditions.

Not only such out fashioned laws but also people’s unchanged thought about family caused problems. Japanese people may be restricted by the notion that family issues are untouchable and should be solved by themselves. So many people still blindly believe in family values and don’t listen to the voices of those struggling.

It has been said that recently child abuse cases are increasing but the police or other public sectors or neighbors tend to be hesitant to intervene in it. Family care cases of the elderly and the disabled also have become serious issues. Some of those cases end in tragic conclusions because they think they have to deal with it by themselves. Family values drive people into a corner and bring mental suffering.

Families are exploited by public sectors to abandon their responsibility

While we are captured by such laws and morals, the public sectors will exploit that to abandon their responsibility: administrations always try to reduce the budget of social security. Actually, the Kishida administration will raise a contribution for nursing care insurance and make conditions for using it stricter than ever. All those will be done under the slogan of ‘the elderly and the disabled should live in a community’, and the burden of caring will be on the shoulders of families.

First of all, we need to doubt morals, common sense, and laws about family. Is it true that blood is thicker than water? Yes. I think blood may be thicker, also bitter, and more poisonous than water.