Tag - children

 
 

CHILDREN

Political parties are highlighting measures to reform the health care system for the elderly and the public pension system as the population ages.
JAPAN
Oct 17, 2024
Parties highlight measures for working generation
The country's health care and public pension systems are being discussed ahead of the upcoming general election.
Japan has been trying to boost its fertility rate for 30 years and now the rest of the rich world is, too.
WORLD / Society
Oct 14, 2024
Can the government get people to have more babies?
The number of babies born in Japan last year fell to the lowest level since the government started collecting statistics in 1899.
Palestinians sit next to the rubble of houses destroyed in Israel's military offensive in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip on Oct. 7
JAPAN
Oct 12, 2024
Nobel laureate Nihon Hidankyo co-chair worries about children in Israel and Gaza
While the group's co-chair said the prize would give a boost to efforts to show that it was possible to abolish nuclear weapons, he expressed sorrow over ongoing wars.
A destroyed part of a building stands at Shifa Hospital after Israeli forces withdrew from the hospital and the area around it in Gaza City in April.
WORLD
Oct 11, 2024
U.N. inquiry accuses Israel of crime of 'extermination' in Gaza
Israel has not cooperated with the inquiry, which it says has an anti-Israel bias.
A United Nations flag on the back of an armored vehicle in southern Lebanon on Tuesday. The U.N. children's agency said in a new report that sexual violence against children cuts across geographical, cultural, and economic boundaries.
WORLD / Society
Oct 10, 2024
One in 8 girls and women raped or sexually assaulted before 18, UNICEF says
Among boys and men, 1 in 11 have experienced rape or sexual assault during childhood, the United Nations children's agency said on Wednesday.
Sapporo City Board of Education officials apologize on Tuesday over a case in which an elementary school boy was sexually assaulted by a junior high school boy.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Oct 8, 2024
Sapporo school boy sexually assaulted by junior high student: panel report
The offending student previously went to the same elementary school as the victim, and the two were members of the same youth sports team.
Commuters at Tokyo Station in July. In Tokyo, cases of mycoplasma pneumonia, characterized by prolonged cough and fever, rose to a record high of 2.96 per medical facility in the fourth week of September.
JAPAN / Science & Health
Oct 8, 2024
Mycoplasma pneumonia cases reach record high in late September
The disease, which commonly affects children and is usually accompanied by a fever and cough, typically surges in the transition from fall to winter.
Associate professor Fumiyuki Yamasaki checks how a helmet fits on a baby at Hiroshima University Hospital’s outpatient clinic.
JAPAN / Science & Health / Regional Voices: Hiroshima
Oct 7, 2024
Hiroshima hospital’s helmet therapy helping reshape babies' heads
Results vary greatly depending on symptoms and when treatment begins.
Aziz Ahmed talks about young language carers in Maebashi City, Gunma Prefecture, on Sept. 18.
JAPAN / Society
Oct 5, 2024
Young language carer hopes to support others facing hardships in Japan
Aziz Ahmed came to Japan from Pakistan at the age of 9 and remembers the hardships he faced interpreting for family members who do not speak Japanese.
A network camera installed at a nursery school in the city of Chiba monitors children.
BUSINESS / Companies
Oct 3, 2024
Network cameras offer better views in Japan
Cameras with built-in computing functions are gaining popularity as they allow users to easily check video feeds via the internet.
A room in a temporary shelter in Kanagawa Prefecture for young people who have run away from home due to abuse and other reasons
JAPAN / Society
Sep 30, 2024
Japan's children's agency looks to set up shelters for runaways
The agency has launched a project offering subsidies to prefectures and major cities that set up runaway shelters.
Helping your child through their first experience with a school bully can be a difficult situation to navigate — doubly so if you're trying to do so as a non-Japanese resident in Japan.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives
Sep 30, 2024
What’s a mother to do when your non-Japanese child is bullied in school?
The school experience in conformist Japan can be difficult for students who don't share things like skin color and language in common with their fellow classmates.
A climbing wall at a kindergarten in Fujiyoshida, Yamanashi Prefecture. The sport has been on the rise in Japan, mainly due to the popularity it gained from the Tokyo Olympics in 2021, and new climbing walls are popping all over the place.
MORE SPORTS / Sport climbing
Sep 24, 2024
People of all ages and sizes scale new heights amid climbing boom in Japan
The sport gained a boost from the Tokyo Olympics in 2021, and new climbing walls are popping up all over the place.
Chen Hualiang (right), his wife Mao Li (left), and children posing at their home in Shanghai. Chen takes on household tasks many Chinese fathers tend to leave to their wives, bucking a deep-rooted patriarchal tradition and even inspiring a hit TV show.
ASIA PACIFIC / Society
Sep 19, 2024
China's 'full-time dads' challenge patriarchal norms
Social norms in China have for centuries dictated that men are the breadwinners, while women take care of the household and children.
Fukuoka Prefecture Medical Association executive director Takeshi Inamitsu said schools should take the initiative in deciding the methods used and things to be checked during their students' health exams.
JAPAN / Science & Health / Regional Voices: Kyushu
Sep 16, 2024
Students' clothing at school health checkups comes into focus
Doctors worry signs of illnesses or abuse may be overlooked if examinations are performed in gym clothes or other clothing as urged by the education ministry.
Students sit under a misting system during recess at Hikarigaoka Haru no Kaze Elementary School in Nerima Ward, Tokyo, on Sept. 6.
JAPAN / Society / Boiling Point
Sep 16, 2024
Japan’s schools battle to keep kids cool, with or without AC
With extreme heat affecting both health and study, schools are racing to plug AC gaps while experimenting with creative, cheaper solutions.
Thinly sliced puffer fish sashimi. The dish is often served at high-end restaurants in Japan, where chefs must hold a license proving they can safely slice around organs that contain a lethal poison.
JAPAN
Sep 15, 2024
Japanese 10-year-old passes test for preparing deadly fugu
Fifth grader Karin Tabira passed a test this summer that certifies her to slice and gut the fish for consumption.
A child consultation center in Fukuoka Prefecture. Households frequently relocating within short periods experienced a lack of proper handovers of child abuse cases between local governments.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Sep 12, 2024
Over 40% of fatal child abuse victims under age of 1, survey shows
Excluding cases of murder-suicide, the number of children in Japan who died from abuse stood at 56.
Australia has been at the forefront of global efforts to regulate social media platforms, with its online safety watchdog bumping heads notably with Elon Musk's X.
ASIA PACIFIC / Society
Sep 10, 2024
Australia plans age limit to ban children from social media
The minimum age for children to log into sites such as Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok is expected to be between 14 and 16 years.
By 2018, the number of children registered for adoption had dropped to around 15,000, down from about 44,000 in 2009, according to official statistics.
ASIA PACIFIC / Society
Sep 6, 2024
China stops foreign adoptions, ending a complicated chapter
The ban raises questions for many of the hundreds of families in the United States who were in the process of adopting children from China.

Longform

Tetsuzo Shiraishi, speaking at The Center of the Tokyo Raids and War Damage, uses a thermos to explain how he experienced the U.S. firebombing of March 1945, when he was just 7 years old.
From ashes to high-rises: A survivor’s account of Tokyo’s postwar past