Japan's child poverty level improves, but still long way to go

The "Kid's Door" portion of this article should be in an article on it's own. There are two very different topics being discussed here, while they may be related, they shouldn't be together.

The numbers put out by the government should not be trusted either. The government is using information from only people who actually responded to the survey, they haven't gotten boots on the ground to find out for themselves that it is more likely at the minimum plus at least 5% to maybe 10% worse than the numbers from the survey alone. Meaning it's more like 20% or close to it at least, that are living, below, at, or a little above, the poverty line.

Just because a family income is over the poverty line does not mean the children are safe from the problems associated with poverty.

They need to set up a child support payment system like they do in other countries. The article is very clear that the majority of these kids are from single parent families. They need to make the deadbeats pay.

The numbers put out by the government should not be trusted either. The government is using information from only people who actually responded to the survey, they haven't gotten boots on the ground to find out for themselves that it is more likely at the minimum plus at least 5% to maybe 10% worse than the numbers from the survey alone. Meaning it's more like 20% or close to it at least, that are living, below, at, or a little above, the poverty line.

That is an excellent point.

Just because a family income is over the poverty line does not mean the children are safe from the problems associated with poverty.

Another excellent point. Also we cannot separate the problem of lack of full time employment for adults with poverty for children. Considering that 40% of the workforce is not on full time employment, it is resonable to assume that the rate of child poverty is likely much higher than the gov claims. Also improvment of the economy will not result in child poverty reduction as trickle-down-economics has proven to be a farce. There have to be more  social security nets for these children. Corporate profits are not going to do it.

Child poverty is really heartbreaking. Shinjiro Koizumi of LDP proposed Child Insurance. Knowing that the government cannot raise consumer tax more for that purpose, they intend to collect money from all

as an insurance tax. Opposed are saying why they have to pay insurance tax while they do not have children.

They need to set up a child support payment system like they do in other countries. The article is very clear that the majority of these kids are from single parent families. They need to make the deadbeats pay.

First off please do not assume there is no program, because you would be very wrong. There is one, and when the divorce is being processed, the parent who takes the child(ren) under their care can apply for child support and have it enforced by the court. The court decides the amount, and if it is not paid, the parent can go to the court for assistance, and have the non-provider's wages garnished if necessary.

Problem is that too many times, and typically it's the mother that takes the children, although that is changing as well, the parent does not apply for or request child support. That is on them for not doing so.

There is also child raising assistance fromt the government for single parents(single father recognition is still fairly recent).

They need to set up a child support payment system like they do in other countries. The article is very clear that the majority of these kids are from single parent families. They need to make the deadbeats pay.

As others have pointed there ARE some forms of assistance.

The deadbeat comment I take is point at J-men, but please be fair as J-women can also be deadbeats in their own ways!

Current way courts do things is still quite primitive & a great many women & men here still prefer the primitive ways, although thankfully we do see hints of progress but much more needs to happen.

IMO things could be much better if the divorced could see the light of the benefit of BOTH parents participating in their kids upbringing, lots of work needed on that front though!

Being unable to attend high school because of family poverty is shocking.

Japan is one of the countries where one's birth is less of a factor in determining where one ends up in life, (compared to say the USA and UK), but not bring able to afford to attend high school in a country where almost everyone attends means a terrible start in life.

Being unable to attend high school because of family poverty is shocking.

I had five kids, and I let them decide what they would do after Jr. high school, three decided they would go to night school, one tried to get into a school way beyond her level and had no choice but to go to night school, and one went to a normal high school. Out of the five, four graduated, one quit, and of the five, one went to college after finishing night school. The one who quit makes way more money than all the others, and the one who went to college makes less than the others.

Night school is very cheap, and you get better teachers in my opinion, and less of the horse with blinders on type of education, they are more open minded. Many students who go to night school are poor, yes, and some are just bad kids who had no chance of getting into a normal high school, others choose teijisei because of the bullying at their Jr. high. Most of the bad apples almost always quit within the first year.

The people who say they are too poor to go to high school are full of it, you can work during the day and go to high school at night, 80% of the kids I know who went to a teijisei did just that and graduated, my kids did the 3 year course, so when they write down on their job applications no one knows they were teijisei students. Some teijisei students have also been known to become teachers, it is all about drive and ambition.

Now, I also know of kids who's parents did not want them to go to school so they could just work and give their earning to the parents, in that case I do feel sorry for them, but you can move out after you become of age and get that education later, many others have done it.

I also remember when the uniforms were all the craze, and some girls refused to go to a school that did not have the cool uniform, and in the end the parents had to pay a ton of cash to get the girls into a private high school, one girl I knew took five years to graduate, luckily for her, she was an only child who had parents that were loaded, I have also seen parents take out loans for the kids education, and let the kids pay it off after they graduated, most were on some type of social welfare, but they made it.

For a country that will be in dire strait when population plunges, it certainly doesn't treat it's young population right. Japanese government should stop "keeping up appearances abroad" and start offering more support domestically.