Tag - parenthood

 
 

PARENTHOOD

Tokyo Gov. Yuriko Koike (center) answers questions at the Tokyo Metropolitan Assembly plenary session on Tuesday.
JAPAN
Dec 12, 2024
Tokyo to make day care free to boost birth rate
The move will expand a policy of free day care for second-born and subsequent children to first-borns as well.
According to a recent survey by Child Fund Japan, a nonprofit, one in eight minors in Japan have experienced online requests from strangers to meet or for sexual photos. Despite the potential harms of social media, strong regulations are lacking.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Nov 28, 2024
Japan doesn't need a social media ban, but it must protect children
Short of stopping minors from using social media, Japan needs to beef up its response to an evermore perilous online environment. One that adults often struggle to grasp.
Blogger and marketer Alina Rzhanova, 33, adjusts clothes of her 8-month-old son, Igor, during an interview in their apartment in the city of Yaroslavl, Russia, on Oct. 3.
WORLD / Society
Nov 13, 2024
Russia bans 'child-free propaganda' to try to boost birth rate
Official data released in September in Russia put the birth rate at its lowest in a quarter of a century while mortality rates are up as Moscow's war in Ukraine rages on.
A parent pushes a baby stroller in Shanghai on April 2, 2023.
ASIA PACIFIC / Society
Nov 6, 2024
China's latest cry for more babies may fall on deaf ears
Events aimed at encouraging couples to marry and have babies were criticized for being regressive, disparaging toward women, and reinforcing gender roles.
Ai Kamishige, who lives in Yokohama’s Kohoku Ward, allegedly strangled her 11-year-old son and drowned her 5-year-old daughter in a bathtub.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Oct 31, 2024
Yokohama woman arrested over daughter's drowning and attempted murder of son
The woman allegedly strangled her 11-year-old son and drowned her 5-year-old daughter in a bathtub.
Feminist Women's Health Center employees Sincere Porter, Naomi Desta-Bell, Habeebah Yasin and Kwajelyn Jackson following a vigil and rally for abortion rights and in response to the deaths of Amber Nicole Thurman and Candi Miller, who died of complications during pregnancy, in Atlanta on Sept. 28.
WORLD / Society
Oct 20, 2024
Advocates hope U.S. election will mark turning point for Black maternal health
Such concerns go beyond abortion rights, an issue that has galvanized women since the U.S. Supreme Court overturned the constitutional right to an abortion in 2022.
Giving schoolchildren a tablet with personalized, adaptive software to use for one hour a day in school can significantly boost learning, as a widespread program in Malawi has shown.
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 18, 2024
Tablets in schools can dramatically improve learning
Much richer countries can also learn from an innovative program in Malawi in which children use a tablet for one hour a day in class, boosting their education.
A child plays with sand near a couple taking part in a pre-wedding photoshoot on a beach in Qingdao, Shandong province, China, in April.
ASIA PACIFIC / Society
Oct 18, 2024
China launches survey to understand 'fear of having children'
Beijing is trying to encourage young couples to have children after China posted a second consecutive year of population decline in 2023.
Interest has grown worldwide in the genetic testing of embryos for couples trying to conceive through IVF.
JAPAN / Science & Health
Oct 17, 2024
Testing for desirable embryos inconsistent and unreliable, new study says
In recent years, interest has grown worldwide in the genetic testing of embryos among couples trying to conceive through IVF.
A woman holds a banner during a demonstration in support of surrogate motherhood in Rome on April 5. The banner reads: "We are families not crimes."
WORLD / Society
Oct 17, 2024
Italy extends ban on surrogacy to couples who seek arrangements abroad
The highly divisive bill makes Italians who seek surrogacy in other countries liable for prosecution on their return home.
Japan has been trying to boost its fertility rate for 30 years and now the rest of the rich world is, too.
WORLD / Society
Oct 14, 2024
Can the government get people to have more babies?
The number of babies born in Japan last year fell to the lowest level since the government started collecting statistics in 1899.
Helping your child through their first experience with a school bully can be a difficult situation to navigate — doubly so if you're trying to do so as a non-Japanese resident in Japan.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives
Sep 30, 2024
What’s a mother to do when your non-Japanese child is bullied in school?
The school experience in conformist Japan can be difficult for students who don't share things like skin color and language in common with their fellow classmates.
A woman walks in front of the Kremlin's Spasskaya tower (left) and St. Basil's cathedral in downtown Moscow on Monday.
WORLD / Society
Sep 25, 2024
Russia takes aim at those without children — while sending young men to war
Proposals to ban "the ideology of childlessness" resemble legislation passed more than a decade ago that banned "propaganda" about LGBTQ relationships.
Chen Hualiang (right), his wife Mao Li (left), and children posing at their home in Shanghai. Chen takes on household tasks many Chinese fathers tend to leave to their wives, bucking a deep-rooted patriarchal tradition and even inspiring a hit TV show.
ASIA PACIFIC / Society
Sep 19, 2024
China's 'full-time dads' challenge patriarchal norms
Social norms in China have for centuries dictated that men are the breadwinners, while women take care of the household and children.
A child consultation center in Fukuoka Prefecture. Households frequently relocating within short periods experienced a lack of proper handovers of child abuse cases between local governments.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Sep 12, 2024
Over 40% of fatal child abuse victims under age of 1, survey shows
Excluding cases of murder-suicide, the number of children in Japan who died from abuse stood at 56.
By 2018, the number of children registered for adoption had dropped to around 15,000, down from about 44,000 in 2009, according to official statistics.
ASIA PACIFIC / Society
Sep 6, 2024
China stops foreign adoptions, ending a complicated chapter
The ban raises questions for many of the hundreds of families in the United States who were in the process of adopting children from China.
If the number of births falls at a similar pace in the second half of 2024, the annual total could fall below 700,000 for the first time.
JAPAN / Society
Aug 31, 2024
Births in Japan hit record low for January to June period
If the number of births falls at a similar pace in the second half of 2024, the annual total could fall below 700,000 for the first time.
A lack of affordable child care is cited as one of the top concerns among working parents in South Korea.
ASIA PACIFIC / Society
Aug 30, 2024
World’s lowest birth rate spurs South Korea to hire foreign nannies
South Korea plans to bring in about 1,200 foreign nannies by the first half of 2025.
The number of children on nursery waiting lists as of April dropped 4.2% from a year before, marking the lowest level since records began in 1994.
JAPAN / Society
Aug 30, 2024
Number of children on nursery waiting lists in Japan hits new low
The figure apparently reflects a decrease in the number of preschool children, stemming from the country's low birth rate.
People shop at a flea market hosted by Bunjang, an e-commerce platform for secondhand sales, in Seoul on Aug. 3.
ASIA PACIFIC / Society
Aug 28, 2024
South Korea's birth rate drive struggles to sway 'YOLO' generation
Asia's fourth-largest economy plans to launch a new government ministry dedicated to demographic challenges.

Longform

Yasuyuki Yoshida stirs a brew in a fermentation tank at his brewery in Hakusan.
The quake that shook Noto's sake brewing tradition