Tag - children

 
 

CHILDREN

Chief Cabinet Secretary Minoru Kihara (center) and other ministers prior to a Cabinet meeting at the Prime Minister’s Office on Friday
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Oct 31, 2025
Japan to introduce joint child custody system in April 2026
A system of statutory child support will also be introduced on the same date.
According to the education ministry, an increase in nonattendance at elementary and junior high schools may have reflected, in part, widespread views on the need for children to take time off.
JAPAN
Oct 29, 2025
Elementary and junior high schools see record nonattendance figure
The figure of 353,970, in an education ministry survey, marked the 12th straight year of increase.
The Children and Families Agency plans to launch a system in December 2026 that would allow employers to verify whether job seekers who will work with children have a sexual offense record.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Oct 27, 2025
Japan faces gaps in new system to track teachers with sex offense records
The new system excludes offenses such as stalking, as well as cases that end without indictment because the crime is deemed minor or a settlement is reached with the victim.
Serial child sexual abuse cases in Australian day care centers have spurred a rush to close security gaps that let predators through the door.
WORLD / Crime & Legal
Oct 26, 2025
Predators 'slip through the cracks' in Australian child care
Analysts say regulations have failed to keep up with the expansion of the sector.
The health ministry's Suicide White Paper for 2024 has found that numbers for both men and women peak at age 21, with “concerns over future career paths” being identified as the most likely cause.
JAPAN / Society
Oct 24, 2025
Number of suicide cases among students in Japan hits record high in 2024
The figure for those in their 20s also remained high, underscoring the need to beef up care for the younger generation.
The cost to raise a child totaled ¥16.32 million through junior high school graduation and ¥21.72 million through high school, according to a survey on mothers nationwide.
JAPAN / Society
Oct 24, 2025
Child-rearing costs in Japan soar when a child reaches junior high school
The total cost to raise a child was ¥16.32 million through junior high school graduation and ¥21.72 million through high school, according to the survey.
Global birth rates are declining, raising concerns about the impact on society, particularly women, as it exacerbates isolation while creating a need for structural and cultural changes to support motherhood.
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 20, 2025
Can the world handle having fewer moms?
Fewer women are having children. Those who do are having smaller families than previous generations. This trend transcends the norms of any one culture or place.
Takuya Matsui, head of a library run by the town of Shari in Hokkaido, stands in July in front of the library's bulletin board filled with answers to students' questions, holding a book made by compiling the answers.
JAPAN / Society
Oct 15, 2025
Book offering life tips from Hokkaido library's bulletin board becomes nationwide hit
The library's director said a question box was set up in 2023 to expose teens to diverse ways of thinking "in today’s social media-centric world."
Instagram has tightened content filtering for teen accounts to be in tune with the U.S.' PG-13 rating standard used for films.
BUSINESS
Oct 14, 2025
Instagram accounts for teens to be in tune with U.S. PG-13 rating standard
The move comes as Meta and other social media platforms face pressure to show they aren't putting profit and engagement over the well-being of users, especially children.
Amina (L), a household helper, sits beside her mother as she speaks during an interview in Karachi on July 31.
ASIA PACIFIC / Society
Oct 14, 2025
'I know it's immoral': Child workers still common in Pakistan
One in four households in a country of 255 million people employs a child as a domestic worker, mostly girls aged 10 to 14.
A teacher hands out a "defend your rights" flyer to a parent outside Nash Elementary School, amid U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement's increased presence in the Chicago area on Sept. 4.
WORLD
Oct 11, 2025
Chicago ICE raids and national guard troops prompt new school leaflets: ‘Know your rights’
U.S. President Donald Trump's deportation drive has induced fear in immigrant communities and protectiveness from educators.
Over half of financially struggling pregnant women and new mothers in Japan have no savings, a survey by Save the Children Japan found.
JAPAN
Oct 10, 2025
Over half of needy pregnant women in Japan have no savings
An official from Save the Children Japan urged the central and local governments to strengthen their support measures.
Palestinian children receive food from a charity kitchen in Deir Al-Balah, in the central Gaza Strip, on Wednesday.
WORLD / Society
Oct 9, 2025
Nearly one in six children in Gaza acutely malnourished, study shows
Researchers estimate around 55,000 children in Gaza are affected.
Haitian children walk past piles of garbage at the School Argentine Bellegarde, converted into a shelter for displaced people, in downtown Port-au-Prince on Oct. 3. More than 16,000 people have been killed in armed violence in Haiti since the start of 2022, the United Nations said on October 3, warning that "the worst may be yet to come."
WORLD / Society
Oct 9, 2025
'Daily struggle for survival' for Haiti children, U.N. report says
An estimated 680,000 children have been displaced by gang violence in crisis-wracked Haiti, nearly double the number from a year ago.
Children play with the AED-themed Toy Cocoro.
BUSINESS / Companies
Oct 7, 2025
Hokkaido company president develops defibrillator toy to promote awareness
The toy sold out soon after going on sale last autumn, but it will be available for purchase again next March.
Boxes of single-use e-cigarettes are displayed for sale on shelves in a shop in Gardanne, France
WORLD / Science & Health
Oct 7, 2025
Surging numbers of children using e-cigarettes, WHO says
In countries that have the data, children are on average nine times more likely than adults to vape, the organization said.
Relatives of missing students mourn on Thursday as they wait for rescuers to search for survivors at the Al Khoziny Islamic boarding school in Sidoarjo, East Java province, Indonesia, which collapsed on Monday.
ASIA PACIFIC
Oct 3, 2025
Hopes dim for parents after Indonesia school collapse
About 60 people, mostly students, remain trapped under the remains of the Al Khoziny Islamic boarding school in East Java that collapsed on Monday.
Fatimata Madou shows a photo of Mohamat, her 9-month-old child who died of malaria.
WORLD / Science & Health
Oct 3, 2025
Babies' deaths in Cameroon show how U.S. aid cuts curtail malaria fight
Upon taking office in January, U.S. President Donald Trump paused all foreign aid, including the President's Malaria Initiative, launched in 2005 by George W. Bush.
The total number of foreign children registered in Japan as residents eligible for education at elementary or junior high schools stood at 163,358, up by 12,663.
JAPAN
Oct 2, 2025
8,432 foreign children in Japan seen not attending school
The total number of foreign children registered in Japan as residents eligible for education at elementary or junior high schools stood at 163,358, up by 12,663.
"My children cried all night from hunger. I boiled grass and gave it to them just to keep them quiet," said Ajib Bahar, 38, from a refugee camp in Bangladesh's Cox's Bazar.
ASIA PACIFIC / Society
Oct 2, 2025
Myanmar's war-torn Rakhine state grappling with hunger crisis, aid groups say
More than 100,000 children are suffering from acute malnutrition, with less than 2% able to access treatment, according to data provided by aid workers.

Longform

Once smoky, male-dominated spaces, today's net cafes, like Kaikatsu Club, are working to make their operations more attractive to women customers.
The second life of Japan's net cafes