Tag - children

 
 

CHILDREN

Students receive school lunch at Senju Aoba Junior High School in Tokyo in June 2022.
JAPAN / Science & Health
Jun 17, 2024
Obesity increased among children in Japan during pandemic
The study analyzed the health checkup data of about 186,000 people who graduated from junior high school between fiscal 2020 and fiscal 2022.
While the government aims to supply all public elementary school pupils with an electronic device for learning in school, communication between parents and teachers is still largely paper-based.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Jun 17, 2024
Parents need digital tools to cope with 'first-grade barrier'
More flexibility and efficiency would lighten the load put on the families of public elementary school children, where paper-based communication is still too prevalent.
Father's Day is said to have come to Japan around 1950, shortly after the establishment of Mother's Day.
JAPAN / Society / Longform
Jun 15, 2024
The evolving nature of fatherhood in Japan
Meiji Era fathers were stern, those from Showa had to be productive for the nation. Heisei dads were told to get involved at home. What will the "Reiwa Dad" look like?
However non-Japanese fathers in Japan manage the vagaries of life abroad, many share a preference for forging ahead for the benefit of their children.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives
Jun 14, 2024
There’s no one-size-fits-all fatherhood for foreign-born dads in Japan
From Hokkaido to Okinawa, fathers in Japan talk getting married, raising kids and taking life as it comes.
People offer prayers in September 2022 at a parking lot in Makinohara, Shizuoka Prefecture, where a 3-year-old girl died of heatstroke after being left in a school bus.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Jun 14, 2024
30 months sought for ex-nursery head over girl's heatstroke death
Meanwhile, a prison term of one year was sought for a former teacher at the facility in Shizuoka Prefecture.
People wade through a flooded road in Balagtas, Bulacan province, Philippines, on July 29, 2023.
ENVIRONMENT / Climate change
Jun 12, 2024
Hell or high water: Filipino schools lashed by climate extremes
The state weather bureau has said the country is likely to experience more tropical cyclones in 2024 due to the potential return of the La Nina weather phenomenon.
Women and babies at a displacement camp in North Darfur, Sudan, in January
WORLD
Jun 12, 2024
Violence against children hit 'extreme levels' in 2023: U.N. report
A senior U.N. official said they had never verified so many violations against children before.
A boy whose neck was slashed with a knife-like object sustained serious injuries that will take at least a month to heal.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Jun 10, 2024
Kagoshima nursery teacher arrested on suspicion of slashing boy’s neck
The attack, which is being treated as an attempted murder, is believed to have occurred near the entrance of the nursery school.
The government is set to start discussing the idea of extending public health insurance coverage to include childbirth from fiscal 2026.
JAPAN
Jun 9, 2024
Japan to discuss public insurance coverage of childbirth
The average of childbirth costs across Japan stood at some ¥482,000 in fiscal 2022.
Palestinians inspect the site of an Israeli strike on a U.N. school sheltering displaced people in Nuseirat refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip on Thursday.
WORLD
Jun 7, 2024
Israeli strike on U.N. school kills dozens in Gaza
The attack, which killed 40 people according to a Hamas official, took place at a sensitive moment in mediated talks on a cease-fire.
The Kabukicho area in Tokyo's Shinjuku Ward, where Toyoko, the area next to Toho Cinemas cinema complex where lonely young people flock, is located.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Jun 6, 2024
'Ex-King of Toyoko' held for alleged indecent acts with 11-year-old
The 21-year-old university student has remained silent on the allegations against him, according to police.
An amended law on government assistance for young people providing daily care for family members passes the parliament on Wednesday.
JAPAN
Jun 6, 2024
Law amended to stipulate central government support for young caregivers
The previous law did not specify that central government would assist young caregivers, with some local governments providing support under ordinances.
Doctors and staff from UNICEF treat a malnourished child in Port Sudan, Sudan, on April 17.
WORLD / Society
Jun 6, 2024
Over 1 in 4 children under age 5 live in 'severe' food poverty, UNICEF says
Malnutrition due to limited access to a variety of foods can lead to emaciation, a state of being abnormally thin that can be fatal.
To qualify for the advance payment offered by the city of Saitama, the single parent must reside in the city and fulfill several other criteria.
JAPAN / Society
Jun 6, 2024
Saitama aids single parents with advance child support payments
The city will offer a maximum amount of ¥50,000 per month per child to the affected parent for up to three months, and seek reimbursement from the former spouse.
Japan’s birth rate has been in decline for decades as more women choose to get married and start a family later in life.
JAPAN / Society
Jun 5, 2024
Japan’s birth rate hit new low in 2023
The latest figure of 1.20 is 0.06 point down from the previous year in 2022 and the lowest since the government started keeping records in 1947.
Legislation on measures to support child-rearing passes during the Upper House plenary session on Wednesday.
JAPAN / Society
Jun 5, 2024
Japan enacts bill to expand measures for tackling low birth rate
To pay for the changes, extra fees will be added to public medical insurance premiums.
Hyappu Ishikawa (left) attends to children at the "Karafuru" Japanese language school in Nishio, Aichi Prefecture, in April.
JAPAN
Jun 3, 2024
How one Japanese city supports foreign students through community education
In the city of Nishio, public and private sectors collaborate with schools to support foreign students in Japanese language education and raise their school enrollment rates.
The Supreme Court in Tokyo's Chiyoda Ward. This case will mark the first time for the Supreme Court to rule on a parent-child relationship in a case in which the biological father has a child after transitioning to a woman.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
May 31, 2024
Top court to rule on recognizing post-transition woman as parent
The Tokyo Family Court rejected the woman's petition in 2022, stating that she did not fit the definitions of a father or a birth-giving mother under the Civil Code.
Schoolchildren cross a wooden bridge in Zabul province, Afghanistan on Tuesday.
WORLD
May 29, 2024
Mines and unexploded ordnance a daily menace for Afghanistan's children
Nearly 900 people were killed or wounded by leftover munitions from January 2023 to April this year alone, most of them children, according to UN figures.
Language support groups in Fukushima Prefecture are calling for the creation of a better environment for foreign children to learn Japanese.
JAPAN / Society / Regional Voices: Fukushima
May 27, 2024
With more foreign children, Fukushima struggles with language support
A number of children attending schools in the prefecture in fiscal 2023 were unable to fully understand Japanese.

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