May 5th is known in Jpaan as a
holiday of Children’s Day. National Holiday Act determines Children’s Day to be
respecting personality of children, promoting happiness of children and
thanking mothers. However, a number of children suffer from missing opportunity
of education, domestic violence of parents or forced labor. Policy of Japanese
government is far from an ideal of no child left behind.
According to the survey of Ministry of
Interior and Communications, the number of 14-year-old children or younger has
been declining for consecutive 35 years. At the time of April 1st,
those children including foreigners were 16 million, 150 thousand less than
last year. The ratio of those children in whole population was 12.6%, marking
consecutive decline for 42 years. It is obvious that children have been getting
minority much more.
Deteriorated situation of Japanese children
was proved in a research of international organization. According to a report
of United Nations Children’s Emergency Fund, rate of child poverty in Japan is
as bad as being ranked 34th out of 41 developed countries. One out
of six children are in poverty with income of a half or less of the average.
Even though Japan is known as economically moderate, gap between rich and
poverty is greater than most developed countries.
Mainichi Shimbun raised an example in its
editorial. A student in mid-school was often absent in the classroom. After his
or her mother divorced a year ago, the financial situation of the family became
deteriorated. Because supply of water and gas stopped, the student could not
take bath for a long time and was using public restroom in station or park.
Poor situation of children can also be brought by parents addictive to alcohol,
domestic violence of stepfather or mother in depression.
Japanese government legislated a law for
measures against children’s poverty in 2013. The law requires government and
the people to generate environment, in which children in poverty will be raised
with good health. To achieve its goal, the law promised to support education,
daily life, job application and economic basis. However, the situation of
children’s poverty is deteriorating.
Top priority must be put on education.
Poverty makes children unable to go to school. But, school is asylum for those children,
who have no place to be. The government needs to review its policy for children’s
poverty, which has been focused on parents’ responsibility for raising kids, since
there are many parents who cannot manage their financial situation.
No comments:
Post a Comment