The number of elementary, junior high and high school children who refused to go to school in Japan hit a record high of 415,252 in fiscal 2023.

In my family, not going to school was not an option...

. The number reflected a loss of motivation among children to go to school due to the COVID-19 pandemic 

Covid already gone years ago, still using covid as an excuse?

And the funny thing, is that unlike other countries, Japan didn't close their schools for long periods of time, it was much shorter with far fewer online lessons. So why they aren't motivated is not purely because of the pandemic.

TaiwanIsNotChina, I agree with you, the parents just let the kids stay home? Are there no rules or discipline in these houses?

Covid already gone years ago, still using covid as an excuse?

The alternative is to recognize that the real problem is that schools have become a source of excessive stress and anxiety to children thanks to negative social interactions or plain bullying, so students refuse to participate more an more. This alternative is unacceptable for government officials because it would mean that actual reforms and effective measures that are too co$tly would be necessary, so a scapegoat is necessary to justify doing nothing.

Its well below a million births a year now, but if you call this nine school years times a million kids in each year, that's 415,000 out of 9 million, close one in twenty. Or if you prefer, one kid in each class.

The number won't include kids who go to school, possibly due to parental pressure, but don't attend class and sit in the hokenshitshu (nurse's room) all day ("hokenshitsu toukou"). Such kids are treated as attending school.

Most of this will be mental issues. My opinion will be rather than blaming parents for this, you should thank the Lord that it wasn't your kids who are having mental issues. Given the choice, everyone wants to raise happy kids. Just because your kid is content and does what he/she is told doesn't mean every other kid on the planet does the same. Its the same as the "pull yourself together" BS people tell others with depression.

@kohakuebisu

Well said.

@kohakuebisu

Totally agree!!!!!!

Times have changed obviously. In my generation, this wasn't even a thinkable option. Everyone had to attend the school, and in person, not remote or online or refusing to go to school at all. In the rare cases of not appearing at school, the home room teacher or after that police made home visits, finally kids were taken into special schools and penalties for the parents were applied, with consequences up to job loss or career ended. Also, something else was different, something nowadays could probably help a lot. The kids in problems or trouble remained in class and became lucky, motivated and skilled students, because in every case the bullies and other few troublemakers had to leave or were taken out of class, not the victims even more pushed into victim roles or disadvantages in future tests and exams due to missing school attendance times.

kohakuebisuToday 09:57 am JST

Most of this will be mental issues. My opinion will be rather than blaming parents for this, you should thank the Lord that it wasn't your kids who are having mental issues. Given the choice, everyone wants to raise happy kids. Just because your kid is content and does what he/she is told doesn't mean every other kid on the planet does the same. Its the same as the "pull yourself together" BS people tell others with depression.

1 out of 20 kids like this sounds like a crisis, though.

I wonder whether this ties into the lack of willingness to prescribe mental health meds. The antidepressants are effective, and if you need it to function you need it to function.

Most of this will be mental issues. My opinion will be rather than blaming parents for this, you should thank the Lord that it wasn't your kids who are having mental issues. Given the choice, everyone wants to raise happy kids. Just because your kid is content and does what he/she is told doesn't mean every other kid on the planet does the same. Its the same as the "pull yourself together" BS people tell others with depression.

Most of this are not mental issues but a failure of parenting.

Most of these children are the victims of coddling parents - usually the mothers - who have failed them by not setting parameters. No discipline, which children need and crave.

If they have never heard the word "no", they will never truly grow up and be ready to face adulthood.

Most of this are not mental issues but a failure of parenting.

This is a claim that is falsifiable, so from which source do you base it? without a source this is just a baseless claim without merit.

Most of these children are the victims of coddling parents - usually the mothers - who have failed them by not setting parameters. No discipline, which children need and crave.

Again, this is something that without evidence can be safely ignored as a personal opinion without any basis on reality, a person can come and claim that the wrong idea about discipline, badly enforced and based on the idea that children have to obey adults no matter what is the actual problem.

So, which source is the one that allows you to both eliminate mental health issues and blame something as nebulous and badly defined as "no having discipline"? if this was an actual explanation it would be terribly simple to find a source, yet I can't find anything that even points out to this being real.

This is a claim that is falsifiable, so from which source do you base it? without a source this is just a baseless claim without merit.

You are seriously unaware of the phenomena known as "helicopter parenting"?

Really?

I wonder whether this ties into the lack of willingness to prescribe mental health meds. The antidepressants are effective, and if you need it to function you need it to function.

I can't stress enough how misguided and disastrous meds are to the problem.

Astoundingly horrible solution with tragic consequences