Despite the understaffing and overcrowding, the atmosphere at the Kibo no Ie (House of Hope) residential home for children lives up to its name: It is a place of optimism, a place of warmth.
Caregivers at this aging building in eastern Tokyo smile cheerfully as they usher a visitor inside. Meanwhile, laughing children scurry back and forth, revealing not a hint of the pain that has defined their entire lives.
Their laughter must not come easily. Nowadays, some 60 percent of the 40-odd children living here have experienced abuse, an increase of more than six times over the past decade, said the director, Kazuo Fukushima. The situation, he points out wearily, is much the same for the more than 30,000 other kids living in the 558 children's homes nationwide.