Japan's adoption rules changed to allow older kids' ties to biological parents to be severed
The program is aimed at providing a stable environment for children who cannot be raised by their biological parents because of economic difficulties or abuse.
Justice Ministry panel looks to enforce custody transfers in absence of uncooperative parents
Tokyo considers making it easier for children to be handed over to parents who have secured custody even if the former spouse defies a court order to let them go.
Children of poor, jobless single moms have become an underclass in Japan
The beating of a 4-year-old boy last Christmas Eve went on through the night. Covered with bruises and having suffered catastrophic internal bleeding, he was pronounced dead at an Osaka hospital. Soon after, his mother and her two boyfriends were arrested. While the news of ...
For a Tokyo man, being told by friends and neighbors that he looked nothing like his parents was a source of pain growing up, and his own suspicions that he might not be his parents' biological son proved to be true many years later. The ...
Mothers voice support for vice minister using official car to transport son to nursery
A vice minister has given up using a chauffeured official car to take her child to day care after drawing political flak, but some working mothers have expressed sympathy for the 39-year-old lawmaker. The Shukan Shincho weekly magazine accused Megumi Kaneko of "mixing up official ...
Nagoya assembly creates day care room for nursing mom among ranks
The Nagoya Municipal Assembly has created a private day care room for one of its members with a 1-year-old son, the first such facility among governments in the Tokai region and a rarity in other parts of Japan as well. "It has become easier for ...
Shiga city offers Spanish, Portuguese classes for children of migrant families
A public-private program has been underway in a Shiga Prefecture city to teach Spanish or Portuguese to children of migrants from Latin America working at local manufacturing plants. The program in Konan, launched in 2013, started after local officials found many children of Latin American ...
A nonprofit organization in Osaka recently launched what it touts as an easy-matching adoption website, triggering criticism from experts that adoptions should be made more carefully. The group posts the age, job, place of domicile, annual income and assets of prospective parents on the website ...
In a nation struggling to increase its population, and amid strong demand for day care centers operated in conjunction with children's clinics, such facilities are fighting for their own financial health. Hug Room, a facility in Setagaya Ward, Tokyo, is operated by a pediatric clinic ...
The government is taking only small steps to combat the pernicious problem of child poverty.
Masaki Matsunaga: 'We should enjoy all the emotions we feel'
Japanese entreprenuer on dialects, parents and using balloons to make people float
Two leaders in the U.S. House of Representatives said on Tuesday all children should be vaccinated, joining a debate that has become a national political flashpoint, as a measles outbreak rekindles a discussion on safety and the right of parents to forgo inoculation of ...
