Tag - children

 
 

CHILDREN

Bouquets lay against a gate leading to the nursery where one of the Thailand's worst-ever mass killings occurred in October 2022.
ASIA PACIFIC / Society
Oct 3, 2023
Bereaved families endure memory of Thai nursery massacre
On Oct. 6, 2022, an ex-police officer forced his way into a nursery in Thailand, killing 12 adults and 24 children.
Prime Minister Fumio Kishida speaks at a government panel meeting on measures to tackle Japan's declining birthrate on Monday.
JAPAN / Politics
Oct 3, 2023
Debate begins on funds to tackle Japan's low birthrate
The prime minister has instructed relevant ministers to draw up a road map for securing necessary funds by reducing social security spending.
A Yotsuya Otsuka cram school in Tokyo
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Oct 2, 2023
Second ex-Tokyo cram school teacher arrested for upskirt video
Narumi Nakamura allegedly asked his colleague to take a video of a 7-year-old student's underwear.
By prefecture, Gunma has had the highest number of bicycle accidents involving high school students on their way to school for nine consecutive years.
JAPAN
Oct 1, 2023
Bicycle accidents involving high schoolers highest in Gunma in 2022
The rate for junior high school students was also highest in Gunma Prefecture with 32.03, followed by Kagawa with 16.30.
In some cases in Japan, parents are asked by hospitals to attend to their children's daily requirements, and are sometimes asked to take on jobs that are normally reserved for hospital staff, a recent survey has shown.
JAPAN / Science & Health
Oct 1, 2023
Hospitals criticized for failing parents of young patients
While facilities in other countries incorporate parents and their needs into children's treatments, some hospitals in Japan use them as extra workers.
A type of adenovirus that causes pool fever
JAPAN
Sep 27, 2023
'Pool fever' cases reach highest level in a decade in Japan
Local governments are calling for infection prevention measures such as washing hands and gargling.
A group of lawmakers from the Liberal Democratic Party discuss plans to establish a new system to block convicted sex offenders from jobs involving children on Sept. 7.
JAPAN / Society
Sep 24, 2023
Japan to delay bill blocking sex offenders from working with children
The decision to postpone comes after criticism from within the LDP that that more professions should be subject to the system.
A 91-year-old driver was referred to prosecutors Friday for allegedly being involved in a hit-and-run accident that killed a small dog in Nagoya in July.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Sep 23, 2023
91-year-old referred to prosecutors over hit-and-run of dog in Japan
It is unusual for a case to be filed for an accident involving a pet, though the man could have also potentially hit a 6-year-old girl walking the dog.
On average, women spend more time on housework than men.
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 18, 2023
It’s time for women to quit housework (again)
Women of the world unite in dedicating more time to yourselves and less to housework. Men might learn something along the way, too.
Mia Lee Sorensen with her Danish mother, Lilian Hansen, 72, and father, Bent Hansen, 74, on the coast of Korsor, Denmark, on July 13. South Korean adoptees have been returning to the country to hold the government accountable for what they call a corrupt and predatory adoption system.
ASIA PACIFIC / Society
Sep 18, 2023
World’s largest ‘baby exporter’ confronts its painful past
South Korean adoptees have been returning to the country to hold the government accountable for what they call a corrupt adoption system.
Masanobu Ogura (center left), then-minister in charge of policies related to children, receives a petition from Hiroki Komazaki (center right), founder of nonprofit organization Florence, in Tokyo on Sept. 1.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal / FOCUS
Sep 18, 2023
Debate grows in Japan over proposed background checks for teachers
The Children and Families Agency is proposing to make screening for criminal convictions mandatory for people looking to work in schools or nurseries.
An image of a fetus on the screen of a portable ultrasound system.
WORLD / Science & Health
Sep 15, 2023
The world’s first artificial womb is on the way
The artificial placentas are intended to help struggling prematurely born infants develop much like they would in the prenatal environment.
Masanobu Ogura, minister in charge of policies related to children, speaks at a government meeting on measures to prevent suicides among children, in April.
JAPAN / Society
Sep 12, 2023
Japan steps up efforts to prevent suicides among children
The number of suicides among elementary, junior high and senior high school students has been on the rise, reaching 514 in 2022.
Officers of Chiba Prefectural Police department and child consultation center workers use a model house to conduct joint training in the city of Kimitsu in Chiba Prefecture last November.
JAPAN
Sep 7, 2023
Record 219,000 cases of child abuse logged in Japan in fiscal '22
Over half of the total cases were reported to child consultation centers by police.
Masanobu Ogura (right), minister in charge of policies for children, speaks during a meeting of an experts' panel held Tuesday in Tokyo to discuss a planned system to require people seeking jobs related to children to submit certificates proving that they have no record of sex crimes.
JAPAN
Sep 6, 2023
Planned sex-offense barring system drafted for child-related jobs
The Children and Families Agency plans to submit a bill to establish the system during this autumn's extraordinary Diet session.
Students at Wakaura Elementary School in the city of Wakayama eat lunch in 2019. Wakayama Prefecture's school lunch program began in April 2017.
JAPAN / Society
Sep 3, 2023
Why a movement for free school lunches is spreading across Japan
By the end of this year, most of Tokyo’s wards will have policies to make lunch free in some form.
The trend of people getting married later could be causing a vicious cycle of fewer children begetting fewer children, says Takuya Hoshino, senior economist at Dai-ichi Life Research Institute.
JAPAN / Society
Aug 30, 2023
Third of Japan's 18-year-old women may never have children: study
Prime Minister Fumio Kishida has promised to tackle the country's population crisis with "unprecedented" measures.
Members of the family law subcommittee of the Justice Ministry's Legislative Council discuss joint parental custody after divorce at the Justice Ministry on Tuesday.
JAPAN / Society
Aug 30, 2023
Ministry panel proposes introducing joint custody after divorce
The proposal comes amid increased attention on bitter custodial battles between divorced parents.
Women hold portable fans in front of a baby amid summer heat in Tokyo's Ginza area in August 2020.
JAPAN / Science & Health
Aug 30, 2023
Aging Japan's births fall 3.6% to 370,000 in January to June
The number of births in the six-month period suggests that the annual total in the country this year is likely to stay around the record low in 2022.
Spectators gather in the gallery of the House Chamber during a special session on public safety to discuss gun violence in the wake of the Covenant School shooting, at the Tennessee State Capitol, in Nashville, Tennessee, last Tuesday.
WORLD / Society
Aug 28, 2023
Record number of U.S. children killed by guns in '21, study shows
Gun violence has been the number one cause of death for children in the United States since 2020.

Longform

Traditional folk rituals like Mizudome-no-mai (dance to stop the rain) provide a sense of agency to a population that feels largely powerless in the face of the climate crisis.
As climate extremes intensify, Japan embraces ancient weather rituals