Lesson: Child Poverty

At first, it came as a bit of a shock. I was saddened to hear that one in seven children in Japan lives below the poverty line (breadline in British English). Then I thought about it a bit more, and I realized I’d seen it with my own eyes. At one of the schools I worked at, many children went without. Many of those kids had one parent or no parents at all. Some were living with relatives or even older siblings. I can vividly remember when a boy of about 16 years of age asked me as I was washing my hands in the bathroom for some money to buy lunch. I didn’t think much of it and flatly refused. Then I thought it was out of the ordinary. I mentioned it to his homeroom teacher, who said he had probably not had breakfast either and that she would look after it. I don’t know if she bought him lunch, gave him money or arranged it free from the cafeteria, but I did see him eating before lunchtime was over. The bottom line is childhood poverty exists in Japan right under our noses. The question is: should it?