THE CHILDHOOD IMPOVERISHMENT IN JAPAN UNDER THE NEO-LIBERAL AND NEO-NATIONALISTIC MOMENTUM Final Version Citizens and NGOs Association for the Convention on the Rights of the Child, Japan November 2017 Contents GENERAL STATEMENT ............................................................................ 14 PART I OVERVIEW ................................................................................ 17 Chapter 1. Overview of Childhood Impoverishment in Japan under the Neo-liberal and Neo-nationalistic Momentum .......................................................................................... 18 1. The central challenge for the review of the fourth and fifth periodic report of Japan ...................................................................................................................................... 18 2. Principles underlying the comprehensive reform of policies and laws on children 19 3. Neo-liberal and neo-national principles exempt the government from the responsibilities and duties under the convention ........................................................ 20 4. Neo-liberal and neo-nationalistic principles impoverish childhood by depriving children of basic social conditions for their development ............................................ 22 5. Structure of this report ............................................................................................ 24 6. Summaries of problems in general measures of implementations ......................... 24 6-1. Problems in machineries for elaborating comprehensive plans of actions and coordinating policies and laws (see Chapter 3) ........................................................ 24 6-2. New laws that emphasize the primary responsibility of parents (see Chapter 4) ............................................................................................................................... 25 6-3. Problems in collection and allocation of resources (see Chapters 5 & 7) .......... 25 7. Summaries of problems in general principles ......................................................... 26 7-1. Child poverty (see Chapter 7) ........................................................................... 26 7-2. New discrimination by the government against Korean schools (see Chapter 8) .................................................................................................................................. 26 7-3. Insufficient national minimum standards on facilities and equipment have been lowered (see Chapter 10) ................................................................................. 27 7-4. Insufficient national minimum standards on numbers and quality of staff have been lowered (see Chapter 11) .................................................................................. 27 7-5. Fukushima atomic power plants accident (see Chapter 12) ............................. 28 8. Summaries of problems in specific measures and specific rights of the child ........ 28 8-1. Labor Market Deregulation (See Chapters 5 & 7) ............................................ 28 8-2. Deregulation in child day-care and commercialization of after-school day-care for disabled children (See Chapters 3, 6, 24, 25 & 26) ............................................. 29 8-3. Education as workforce preparation (See chapters 7, 24, 28 & 29) .................. 29 1 8-4. Provision of educational service based upon competition and its negative effect (See Chapters 2 & 29) ............................................................................................... 29 8-5. Importing performance based outcome assessment to early childhood education and care (see Chapters 25 & 35) .............................................................. 30 8-6. Strengthened punitive approach (See Chapters 15, 16 & 36) .......................... 30 8-7. Neo-nationalistic influence on education (See Chapters 13, 27, 30 & 31） ..... 31 8-8. Indirect negative impact on child guidance system and alternative family environments (See Chapters 18, 19 & 20)................................................................ 32 Chapter 2. Overview on Difficulties of Children under the Highly Competitive Educational System ......................................................................................................... 33 1. Difficulties of children confirmed in the last three concluding observations .......... 33 2. Statistical data on bullying, school non-attendance, school violence and suicide .. 34 2-1. Indicators to measure pressures on children .................................................... 34 2-2. School non-attendance (See also Chapter 33) ................................................... 35 2-3. School violence ................................................................................................... 36 2-4. Bullying (See also Chapter 34) .......................................................................... 37 2-5. Suicide (See also Chapter 21) ............................................................................ 40 2-6. Two characteristics in four statistical data ....................................................... 40 3. New data indicating that children are in a state of vigilant alertness ................... 41 4. To build an “accepting and responsive” relationship that ensures the child’s rights ...................................................................................................................................... 44 PART II GENERAL MEASURES OF IMPLEMENTATIONS ................................................................................. 47 Chapter 3. Problems of Policy Making and the Coordination by Cabinet / Cabinet Office ......................................................................................................................................... 48 1. Absence of a comprehensive coordinating machinery for child related laws and policies from the viewpoint of children’s rights ........................................................... 48 2. Coordination of child related policies and laws under the Cabinet Office from the viewpoints of economic management and financial and budgetary policies ............... 48 3. Strengthening the education policy as part of the cabinet’s economic policy: Education system suited to each student’s ability and educational funding as an investment ................................................................................................................... 50 4. Off-the-point arguments on the problems in education .......................................... 53 5. Economic background of child day-care policy ........................................................ 54 2 6. Conclusions .............................................................................................................. 56 Chapter 4. Legislative Measures to Implement the Convention .................................... 57 1. Introduction ............................................................................................................. 57 2. Need for a comprehensive law on child rights ......................................................... 57 3. Promulgation and amendment of legislation that refer to “the spirit of the convention” or Incorporate “the primary responsibility” of parents ........................... 59 3-1. Names of new and revised laws and their contents .......................................... 59 3-2. Replacement of primary responsibility of parents with primary responsibility for economic cost of child-rearing? ........................................................................... 62 3-3. The risk of intervention of by state into child-rearing ...................................... 63 3-4. The responsibility and duty of the government is shifted to “all the people” ... 63 4. Conclusions .............................................................................................................. 64 Chapter 5. Collection and Allocation of Resources ......................................................... 66 1. Introduction ............................................................................................................. 66 2. Ineffective redistribution through services in cash ................................................. 66 2-1. Cash transfer accounting for only a small fraction of income .......................... 66 2-2. Universal services in cash created but abolished ............................................. 67 2-3. Insufficient cash transfer to single mothers ..................................................... 68 3. High private expenditures on child daycare and education .................................... 68 3-1. Child daycare ..................................................................................................... 68 3-2. Education ........................................................................................................... 70 4. Increasing internal reserves of large corporations under regressive tax ................ 72 5. Appropriate way to collect financial resources for children .................................... 73 6. Conclusions .............................................................................................................. 74 Chapter 6. Negative Impacts of Commercialization on Corresponding Upper Secondary School and After-school Day-care for Disabled Children ................................................ 76 1. Characteristics of services by business corporations..............................................