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© KYODOJapan enacts law to set up new agency to tackle children's issues
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Temyong
Children die and abused by the hands of those that are supposed to care and give them protection. I doubt if 300 staff on their desk will help at all.
William77
Another waste of money from our taxes,rather than assemble these relatively small teams which are like a drop of water in the ocean why not invest more in welfare and less in weapons?
Welfare is the core of a healthy society.
Cricky
Really doesn’t matter to the government, you might have noticed how quickly the government moves if it’s a company and how disinterested and how long it moves with issues involving people not part of a donation driven decision process.
dealordont
Maybe we'll finally get background checks for people working with children at any level. It's unbelievable that this is not a requirement here.
aaaaaiiiiiiiiiii
-"double" the budget necessary for measures to deal with the problems
Honestly I don't trust that the necessary budget will be used for the children. It will be probably be ripped off by companies/agencies that have close relationship with government like hyenas.
Mark
At some point we will have so many agencies and support groups all geared up to handle the declining birth rates and support for families with children, but based on my experiences having a child in Japan is an unbelievable BURDON and not having one is a relief. I can't list all the reasons but here are some: 1- complying with all the rule and regulations IMPOSED by the local city office and schools 2- You can't spend enough time with your kids due to events and schedules imposed by schools. 3- Your kids are no longer yours once they enter elementary schools, they become part of a system that will take over their lives and influence it for the rest of their lives.
It's almost like joining boot camp forever.
virusrex
Somehow I doubt that doubling the budget will help solving deeply ingrained social problems and decades of neglect from the goverment that are the reasons for most of children's issues.
If anything this would only let the agency to point fingers more easily, but this is no guarantee something effective will be done about it.
noriahojanen
It must be the twin pillars of the reformist programmes as the other one is the Digital Agency.
Cut red-tapes and remove excessive organisational redundancy and complexity.
For instance, we ordinary citizens don't tell or care about which ministerial office should oversee the nursery school, kindergarten, or cram school (for preschool kids) while their services look quite identical and overlapped.
Answer:
Nursery schools by Health and Labor Ministry
Kindergartens by Education Ministry
Cram schools by Economic Ministry (METI)
... And the trio have been conflicting with each other over earmarks for kid-related programmes. Kids and parents have been left uncared and under-funded.
Tom San
Having access to the internet can make children "experts" in children's issues.
Cricky
So lm interested what happened to the last 10 years of yearly set up agencies? They are just children after all no rush? Not like they can vote or pay taxes. Nothing will change it’s just election pie in the sky talk.
Kumagaijin
I wonder if "children's issues" involves parental visits or if thats more of a "father's issue"
Chabbawanga
Start by educating young couples who might have children, then start doing thorough background checks of school teachers and perma-banning child molesters from ever working with children again.
Spitfire
@Mark,
Don't always agree with you,but,in this case,you are totally right.
Johansawada
unify policies across multiple govt ministries? it sounds like its just a merger of govt departments so i'm not expecting too much change...
Kaowaiinekochanknaw
Institutiinal child abusive problems such as restricting their breathing in PE class and gyms at schools where kids have dropped dead and died from heatstroke or in the parents case, outside of school in shopping centres, parks and playgrounds? Or the child abuse by affecting their development by eliminating their ability to read important visual and emotional facial cues? ALTs have no chance to impart their lip movements to any benefit from language aquisition.
Rodney
Maybe May, 2023. So not tomorrow. Just send a few faxes and the problem of child abuse will be solved this week.
MilesTeg
Didn't they setup an agency to deal with Child Abuse a few years ago? Another agency dealing with Child Poverty issues a while back? How many agencies are needed? Most likely they start these agencies to give the false impression they're doing something but then do absolutely nothing so they start another agency.
Cricky
Err it’s an adequate response, focusing on what is plainly a negative society problem should not embarrass existing government departments, best to create a new department to cover the failure of existing departments, it’s adequate.
dagon
The minister in charge of the agency will be given the authority to urge other government offices to take corrective measures if their policies are deemed ineffective.
'the authority to urge'
Sounds like a usual measure for LDP ineffectiveness.
shogun36
So in other words, there was NO ONE looking out for such child and family related issues before?
ummm hmmm, what year is this again?
And let me guess, of the “300+” of these officials that will make up such an agency, how many of them will be 40+ year old men who have never taken care of their child for one full day?
At least 275?