National Apr 22, 2020
None of the eight children were showing major symptoms such as fever, but they have been hospitalized.
National / Social Issues Mar 1, 2020
Japan needs foster care rather than institutions, say U.K. experts
by William Hollingworth
With Japan placing around 85 percent of children and babies who need care in institutions, the nation needs to increase provisions for foster care, according to British-based experts on the welfare and rights of vulnerable children. Japan's rate is one of the highest among developed ...
National / Social Issues May 28, 2019
The kids aren't all right: Japan struggles to protect its most vulnerable children at group homes
by Chang-ran Kim
Miwa Moriya was 6 when social workers told her she was going to a Christmas party but instead moved her into a group home for about 60 children in a small city in western Japan. The "party" turned into more than eight years of living ...
National / Crime & Legal Feb 25, 2019
In revenge killing, man stabs to death head of Tokyo foster home where he used to live, police say
The suspect admitted to the murder, telling investigators he resented the time he spent at the foster home and wanted to attack anyone working there.
National Sep 5, 2018
Japan sees rise in child abuse cases at orphanages and foster homes
The number of child abuse cases reported in orphanages and foster homes has increased in recent years, according to government data, with some of the victims having been placed in such care due to similar mistreatment suffered at home. In fiscal 2016, 128 children in ...
National | CHUBU CONNECTION Jan 29, 2018
Nagoya group home helps troubled youths build a better path to self-reliance
A nonprofit organization in Nagoya is running a self-reliance assistance home for young delinquents with no place to return to after they leave juvenile correctional facilities. Operated by the Saihikouboushi Support Center Aichi (juvenile recidivism prevention support center Aichi), the facility, 4S Home, provides support ...
National / Social Issues Jun 29, 2016
Child welfare law revised but tens of thousands remain institutionalized in Japan
by Chang-ran Kim
A baby lies in a metal-bar cot drinking from a bottle perched on his pillow in a Tokyo orphanage. There's no one to hold and feed him or offer words of comfort. The director of the institution, nurses scurrying busily around him, says he would ...
National Nov 18, 2015
Panel mulls allowing children to stay in foster care until 20
A government panel on Wednesday began discussing measures to allow orphaned and neglected children to stay in foster care until they are 20 years old, the legal age of adulthood in Japan, instead of the current 18 years old. The aim is to better help ...
Lifestyle Sep 13, 2014
Kodomo no Ie: home away from home
by Masami Ito
The sound of giggling fills a room at Kodomo no Ie, a children's institution in northern Tokyo, as a group of half a dozen girls work on their homework while waiting for dinner to be served. It's the same situation that is typically played ...
Editorials May 10, 2014
Japan's tendency to place orphans and abused children into institutions instead of finding them foster homes too often leaves them open to mistreatment and socially scarred.