<p>This article explores how parents in Japan navigate the entangled terrain of caregiving and coercion in the context of involuntary psychiatric hospitalization. Drawing on qualitative interviews with parents whose children were hospitalized without consent, this study foregrounds the complex moral and emotional labor that caregiving entails under conditions of limited institutional support and deep-rooted familial responsibility. The analysis identified two recurring patterns in post-hospitalization relationships: one in which caregiving bonds are sustained but increasingly strained and the other in which hospitalization catalyzes shifts in family dynamics, enabling new forms of distance or reconfiguration. These trajectories were shaped not only by the child’s condition but also by the presence or absence of external support, including care quality, and by parents’ internal struggles with guilt, obligation, and ambivalence. By situating these narratives within Japan’s long-standing reliance on the family as the primary site of psychiatric care, this article contributes to the debate on care, agency, and coercion in psychiatric contexts. It calls for closer attention to how families navigate moral uncertainty and negotiate caregiving roles within a system where family involvement is not only common but often prioritized in the admission process, particularly in cases of hospitalization for medical care and protection.</p>