Children across Japan are returning to school this week for the new semester, but elsewhere in the world as many as 263 million children won't be so lucky. Of these out-of-school children, 27 million live in conflict zones.
Japan is already doing a lot to help these children receive an education. Japan is the fifth-largest donor country to education in the world, contributing $691 million in official development assistance in 2015, the latest year for which full data is available. Since 2000, Japan has constructed more than 5,500 primary and secondary schools in 46 countries. But many of these schools are at risk when armed forces and armed groups target them for attack or military occupation.
Among the thousands of schools constructed with Japanese funds are more than 800 in Afghanistan alone. But schools aren't always used for teaching children in Afghanistan. In some cases, the armed forces or armed groups convert the schools into military bases or barracks.