里親

1. Origins, structure, and basic meaning

• Structure: 里親, read さとおや, denotes a parent entrusted to care for a child outside the child’s original home.
• Basic usage: It appears in training to become a foster parent and in a child living with a foster family.

2. Common pitfalls and similar expressions

• Foster care rather than adoption
  • The focus is family-based foster care and it is not automatically the same as legal adoption.