Japan's Children and Families Agency aims to streamline child abuse, abuse

The Children and Families Agency was created Saturday with high expectations for streamlining administration on key issues affecting children by centralizing government policies.

There has been a lot of frustration among the many people involved in efforts to address problems involving preschoolers, child abuse and other matters because of the administrative divisionalism among government organs that are tasked with addressing these issues.

The new agency hopes to help to eliminate jurisdictional barriers.

The government has finally tackled these overlooked problems, said Yumi Ogawa, 49, head of Anju Maman, a nonprofit organization that provides support for parents of preschoolers in Bungotakada, Oita Prefecture.

When they reach the age of 3, children are eligible to enter kindergarten. However, prior to reaching that age, acceptance into a nursery or certified childcare facility known as nintei kodomoen is limited to those whose parents are both working or have other special circumstances.

There are an estimated 1.82 million children under 3 with no enrolled in any type of facility.

Ogawa said she has met many homemakers struggling with child-rearing and feeling mentally drained, so much so that some have expressed regret in having given birth at all. She will take care of toddlers and help mothers with household chores to provide as much support as possible.

The government body in charge of each type of childcare facility was different until Saturday, including the Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry for kindergartens, the Cabinet Office for certified facilities, and the Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology Ministry for kindergartens. Even if Ogawa asked for the support she needed, no fundamental solutions were forthcoming.

The new agency is responsible for the management of the nursery schools and certified facilities. The government plans to create a system that allows all children to enroll in the facilities regardless of their parents' work status. "I would like to see a system that helps all households," Ogawa said.

The administration of child abuse cases has an adverse effect on the administration's sectionalism, as well as the handling of child abuse cases. There have been many cases of young lives lost because of the failure of local governments, child consultation centers and police to share information on suspected child abuse.

The Children and Families Agency has been shifted the jurisdiction over child abuse cases from the health ministry to the Children and Families Agency. The new agency has the authority to issue advisories to another ministry or agency when it notices a problem with the latter s response to an incident, which raises expectations for stronger cooperation with local governments and the police.

Keiji Goto, 63, a Tokyo-based NPO who works on issues of child abuse, said that the Children and Families Agency should firmly fulfill its role as a command center.

As soon as possible, a system should be up and running in which child consultation centers and local governments share all abuse cases with the police and accurately assess the risk so that they can visit households at an appropriate frequency.