The table for calculating child support that a divorced parent pays to the other parent living with their children has been updated by the Supreme Court's Legal Training and Research Institute for the first time in 16 years. The move was prompted by criticism that the amount of child support paid on the basis of the table used in divorce trials is too low — a factor that leaves many single-parent households mired in poverty.
The update to increase child support will indeed help improve the financial conditions of single-parent families — though not significantly. However, a larger problem is the fact that many single mothers do not receive from their former husbands the designated amount of support promised in the divorce arrangements. A study by Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry found that only less than a quarter of single-mother households receive such payments from divorced spouses.
Unlike many countries in Europe and North America, Japan does not have a system in which the government compensates for unpaid child support or collects the money from the party who is supposed to make the payment, for instance by deducting the amount from his or her salary or seizing their bank account. To protect the interests of the children in these families, the government needs to consider steps to make sure such households are paid the child support to which they are entitled.