In February, New York Mayor Bill de Blasio was castigated by local media for keeping public schools open during a snowstorm. One of his reasons for not closing schools was that many parents relied on them not only to look after their kids during the day, but also to feed them. The U.S. Department of Agriculture says that 21 million American children receive free or reduced-price school meals every day, sometimes twice a day if they eat breakfast at school. "It's a big deal to some parents," de Blasio told reporters. This explanation didn't satisfy critics, who said the weather made it too dangerous to commute, and anyway school is for education, not "meals on wheels," as one person tweeted.

Another mayor recently made a decision that also affected poorer schoolchildren, though the media paid much less attention. Except for NHK, almost no one covered Toru Hashimoto's decision to end Osaka's Kodomo no Ie (Children's House) project this spring. Desperate to cut the municipal budget, Hashimoto says the program, which for the past 30 years has provided free after-school centers for any child regardless of age or financial situation, is not necessary since there are publicly run gakudō hoiku (schoolchildren care) facilities that do the same thing. Supporters of the Kodomo no Ie system counter that gakudo hoiku only accepts elementary school students, and older children also benefit from Kodomo no Ie. And while kids from households on welfare can go to gakudo hoiku facilities for free, everyone else has to pay. As the manager of Sanno Kodomo Center in Osaka's poorest neighborhood told NHK, the program is a pioneer in the field of social welfare because "it treats all children equally, and they feel that."

NHK implied it's natural to assume that the children who utilize the Sanno center are bullied at school simply because they're poor, so it's not only a safe place to hang out until their parents get home from work, but a refuge where everyone, regardless of home environment, gets along since no one is forced to be there. It is not a juku (cram school), though many kids do homework there. Mostly they play and talk. Ten years ago, the center started a cooking activity so that kids could learn how to prepare meals, since many eat dinner on their own. The children also participate in a neighborhood watch program, patrolling the surrounding streets, talking to homeless men whom they help and feed.