Tag - children

 
 

CHILDREN

Shoya Narita, a physical education teacher at Obu Minami Junior High School, gives a lecture about water safety in a classroom.
JAPAN / Regional voices: Chubu
Jul 22, 2025
Swimming lessons disappearing from Japan's public junior high schools
Aging pool facilities are prompting teachers to switch to giving classroom lectures on water safety.
Temporary shelters for abused or at-risk children in Japan's major cities are overwhelmed, as staff shortages and prolonged stays strain the child welfare system.
JAPAN
Jul 21, 2025
Temporary child protection facilities in major cities hit capacity as staff shortages deepen
Extended stays by children who have nowhere else to go also compound the problem.
Daria Slavytska takes shelter inside a metro station with her 2-year-old son Emil during a Russian missile and drone strike in Kyiv, Ukraine, on July 9.
WORLD / Science & Health
Jul 19, 2025
Sleepless in Kyiv: How Ukraine's capital copes with Russia's nighttime attacks
Russia's offensive is straining Kyiv's air defenses and has its 3.7 million residents exhausted and on edge.
A woman holding a child listens to a stump speech in Tokyo's Chiyoda Ward on June 25.
JAPAN / Politics
Jul 18, 2025
Parties vow measures to tackle falling birth rate
Last year, Japan recorded fewer than 700,000 births for the first time.
One out of every 5,000 births is affected by mitochondrial diseases, which cannot be treated, and include symptoms such as impaired vision, diabetes and muscle wasting.
WORLD / Science & Health
Jul 17, 2025
World-first IVF trial reduces risk of babies inheriting diseases
The results raise hopes that women with mutations in their mitochondrial DNA could one day have children without passing debilitating or deadly diseases on to the children.
A recent case involving teachers sharing voyeuristic images of schoolgirls has sparked national outrage.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal / FOCUS
Jul 16, 2025
Teachers sharing illicit student images raises question of systemic failure
Japan’s sluggish policy response and deep-rooted cultural resistance to the concept of consent sets it apart from other countries.
A survey by Tokyo-based nonprofit Good Neighbors Japan showed that the number of respondents saying that their children eat two meals or fewer a day during holidays was about 2.5 times higher than during the school term, at 32.2%.
JAPAN
Jul 16, 2025
More kids going hungry during school holidays as food costs soar, survey finds
Rising food and utility prices are placing additional pressures on families already struggling to make ends meet.
Palestinian children stand in line for food distributed by a charity kitchen at the Nuseirat refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip on Tuesday.
WORLD
Jul 16, 2025
One in 10 children in its clinics are malnourished, U.N. Palestinian refugee agency says
More than 5,800 children have been diagnosed with malnutrition in Gaza, including more than 1,000 children with severe, acute malnutrition.
A high school student uses social media applications in November 2024.
WORLD / Society
Jul 15, 2025
EU states to test age-check app to limit children's access to online services
The European Commission has unveiled a prototype of the app that Denmark, France, Greece, Italy and Spain will customize and launch within several months.
Brothers Andrii Tupkalenko, 8, and Maksym Tupkalenko, 6, two of the last children left in their front-line village, pose for a photo with toy guns, their favorite toys, in Kalynove, Kharkiv region, Ukraine.
WORLD / Society
Jul 12, 2025
Childhood shaped by war for two Ukrainian brothers
The war in Ukraine is reshaping the fabric of ravaged frontier communities and leaving unseen as well as visible injuries on their youngest.
The growing prevalence of AI-generated child abuse material has alarmed law enforcement worldwide.
BUSINESS / Tech
Jul 11, 2025
AI-generated child abuse webpages surge 400%, alarming watchdog
Some content is so realistic it has to be treated under U.K. law as if it were actual footage, the Internet Watch Foundation has said.
Smoke billows during an Israeli strike on Gaza on Thursday. U.S.-based Project HOPE said the strike had hit right outside its Altayara health clinic.
WORLD
Jul 11, 2025
Israeli strike kills children near Gaza clinic, with no immediate truce in sight
Repeated attacks by Israeli forces in recent weeks have put an enormous strain on Gaza's few remaining hospitals.
Emperor Naruhito (left) visits a special education school in Iruma, Saitama Prefecture, in May and looks at a student attending to a customer at a cafe inside the school.
JAPAN / Society
Jul 9, 2025
Boosting support for parents of children with disabilities in Japan
Businesses and local governments are taking steps to support parents after care programs for their disabled children are discontinued at a certain age.
Yoshiomi Tamai
JAPAN / Society
Jul 7, 2025
Philanthropist Yoshiomi Tamai dies at 90
Tamai was the founder and longtime president of the Ashinaga Foundation, which has supported over 110,000 orphaned students.
A teacher at the Honkawa day care center in the city of Hiroshima puts away disposable diapers delivered by a subscription service provider.
JAPAN / Regional Voices: Hiroshima
Jul 7, 2025
Use of diaper subscription expands at Hiroshima public day care centers
The service saves parents from having to put their child's name on each diaper and bring them to the day care center.
The share of households with children in Japan slid 1.5 points from the year before to a record low of 16.6%.
JAPAN / Society
Jul 5, 2025
Record 80% of Japanese mothers are employed
The latest survey also found that 58.9% of households felt they were struggling to make ends meet, almost unchanged from the year before.
Yumiko Watanabe (left), head of nonprofit group Kidsdoor, announces in Tokyo last month the results of a survey conducted on struggling families.
JAPAN / Society
Jul 4, 2025
80% of lower-income families in Japan say financial situation getting worse
Many respondents cited the price of rice as a key factor, with some saying they are struggling to put enough food on the table.
Children look at smoldering debris at Mustafa Hafez school, which sheltered Palestinians displaced by the war, following an overnight Israeli strike in Gaza City, on Thursday.
WORLD
Jul 4, 2025
Gazans reel from Israeli strike on school-turned-shelter
Many Gazans have sought shelter in school buildings, but these have repeatedly come under Israeli attacks that the military says target Hamas militants hiding among civilians.
The Japanese version of the U.K.’s Disclosure and Barring Service aims to ensure a safe learning environment for children by facilitating checks for records of sexual offenses for those working in jobs involving contact with children such as education or child care.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Jul 1, 2025
Japan expands scope of background checks amid child safety concerns
The expanded guidelines will apply not only to schools and kindergartens, but also to community spaces such as children’s cafeterias and talent agencies.
The International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons hopes the online memorial will "spur action for the total abolition of nuclear weapons."
JAPAN
Jul 1, 2025
Anti-nuclear group creates online memorial for children who died in atomic bombings
The online memorial features more than 400 profiles with details of the children's lives.

Longform

In 2020, 38% of all households were single-person. That figure is projected to rise to 44.3% by 2050.
The rise of AI companionship in a lonely Japan