Children’s Participation in Japan

An Overview of Municipal Strategies and Citizen Movements

Abstract

*Focus on Japan | Research Articles

In the past decade, children’s participation in their communities has slowly been growing in Japan, owing to two major factors: changes in municipal policies related to the national ratification of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC), and a progressive citizen movement that calls for greater public participation in general. The paper identifies six main trends in children’s participation in Japan stemming from this context: Machizukuri (community development and neighborhood improvement), environmental education, synthetic experiential learning, the growth of free schools, the creation of new kinds of gathering places for youth, and direct attempts by the government to fulfill the goal of giving children a voice. Following this discussion, the paper presents examples of children’s involvement in community development in Japan.