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In Japan, parents still must single-handedly shoulder all responsibility for raising children. Our country’s philosophy and basic approach toward child rearing are wrong.

15 Comments

Yukio Edano, leader of the main opposition Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan, pledging to double the child care budget and extend financial support to families by three years until their children graduate from high school, if his party takes power in the Oct 31 election.

© Asahi Shimbun

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It is free to hard-sell a dream making empty promise. He should always be more specific. How come he refers to increasing direct financial supports( Bara-maki) to the parents when he claims to put more weights onto the schools for child rearing. Is he afraid of having his party's idea stolen by LDP or what?

He can be more specific like telling how CDPJ seeks to change the curriculum of, say, public schools for the country able to offer what parents currently could not offer to their kids.

Do not keep hiding if you really do have an idea, just say it before it gets too late for the election

-1 ( +0 / -1 )

Abe234Today  05:29 pm JST

Rubbish.

teachers look after our kids, ensure they have healthy lunches; have clubs and help take care of kids after school.

Apart from supervising clubs which should be strictly optional, teachers shouldn't be doing any of that.

4 ( +5 / -1 )

Parents should be primarily responsible for their children, IMO, but making it easier for parents to fulfill that by income tax exemptions for those would children would keep parents in control of how their money is spent.

1 ( +2 / -1 )

forgot to add the money each child gets up until they are 15 years old.

-3 ( +0 / -3 )

Rubbish.

teachers look after our kids, ensure they have healthy lunches; have clubs and help take care of kids after school.

kids also get free health care, vaccinations, clean water, an education and parks to play in.

There are no guns to worry about,

No school shootings.

-4 ( +1 / -5 )

Want more children? Want social services for families? Want decent schools with smaller classes and real vacations? Kick the LDP out of power.

2 ( +4 / -2 )

Japan spends among the lowest amount on education among OECD countries, sometimes ranking last. Teachers are overworked and underpaid in this country. And class sizes are too big at most levels. Japan could do a lot better as Edano points out to support the eduction of students in the country, not just in school but regarding the affiliated costs like food and after school programs. Will never happen under the LDP as they hate teachers and always underfund education. Bridges and tollways yes, education no.

1 ( +4 / -3 )

Get one of the rare news stories about the opposition policies and guess what it makes sense. Would like to see more of their ideas.

3 ( +5 / -2 )

totally agree! instead of to spend trilions in military matters, help families and change this system!

3 ( +5 / -2 )

I applaud Edano for his comment and hope that he is able to do this. The LDP always talks about not enough children, and we have to increase the birthrate, but they do nothing about it. He wants to increase many things to help out parents, with education, and childcare so they can both have children but continue their careers. I say good for him.

6 ( +8 / -2 )

And he should demand that fathers get home by 6pm so they can be with their kids.

13 ( +14 / -1 )

There are a few more layers to this.

According to The Asahi Shimbun, and their story, Edano vows to expand child support, make school meals free, from 4 October, the paper added to this quote:

The main opposition Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan pledged to double the child care budget and extend financial support to families by three years until their children graduate from high school.Yukio Edano, leader of the CDP, announced the policy on Oct. 3 when he visited this city. He blasted the Liberal Democratic Party-led administration’s budget for child support as “too small.”

*“In advanced countries, child rearing has been shared by entire societies,” Edano said. “But in Japan, parents still must single-handedly shoulder all responsibility for raising children. Our country’s philosophy and basic approach toward child rearing are wrong.”*

He also vowed to create budgets to cover maternity expenses and provide free school meals during the compulsory education period through junior high school.

In addition, the party promised to reduce junior high school classroom sizes to 35 children or fewer, as well as to make high school tuition free for all students regardless of their families’ income level.

Edano also suggested that a government organization overseeing children-related policies should be upgraded to a ministry, rather than an agency as proposed by the LDP.

https://www.asahi.com/ajw/articles/14453602

7 ( +8 / -1 )

What rubbish. Elementary school teachers do so much heavy lifting. And nursery school teachers for that matter. A lot of the elementary school teachers I know tell me that parents expect them to teach their children everything! And a lot of parents I know are lazy enough to leave the teaching about life aspects to teachers.

5 ( +11 / -6 )

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