Japanese Movements on Children’s Participation
and Child-friendly City
Isami KinoshitaJapan celebrated the 20th anniversary of its ratiication of the United
Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (crc) in 2014. However,
the rights of children are still not secured enough in Japanese society.
here are still old-fashioned ideas of conservative people that hinder the
implementation of the crc in the society. One reason might be the imageof the word “right” that is translated into Japanese language as “kenri,” andmisunderstood as promoting a claim to private right. It is also translated
as “jinken,” which literally means human rights. hus, the children’s rightto participation in crc articles 12 and 13 has not been appreciated much inJapanese society, except in several municipalities. he Child Friendly Cities(cfc) program of unicef requires children’s participation as its irst building block. herefore, it may be worth to promote cfc without using thewords “kenri,” with the children themselves participating by showing theirabilities and subjectivities to adults in their real living world. here may bevarious approaches to promoting children’s participation, but an appropriate way suited to Japanese culture and society is needed.

Movements for Child-friendly Cityhe establishment of child-friendly cities in Japan took place through theinitiatives of the local governments. hese local government initiatives fall
generally under three streams; a fourth stream involves the citizens.
he irst is the movement to establish the legal framework mainly inthe form of child rights ordinance. he number of local governments deliberating on the enactment of child rights ordinance increased during the
2000s. As of December 2014, forty local governments in Japan have enacted
ordinances on the rights of the child. See Annex A for the list of cities withchild rights ordinances. hese ordinances are named either as “Child Rights
Ordinance” or “Child Ordinance,” with the latter avoiding the word “Rights”
due to the problem of acceptance of the idea of claiming “rights.” Regardless13

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of name, however, the contents of these ordinances do not difer much fromeach other. Aside from these basic ordinances, many local governments
enacted ordinances focusing on speciic issues such as prevention of childabuse, child rearing, sound development of children, etc.
hese ordinances correspond to the second building block, the legal
framework block, of the nine building blocks of the Child-friendly City(cfc).1 herefore, those municipalities have likely satisied one of the nineconditions of cfc.
he General Research Institute of the Convention on the Rights of theChild (crc Institute) in Japan, established by law professors Akito Kita,
Shigeto Aramaki, etc., led and supported the advocacy for these legal framework enactments. Kawasaki city enacted such ordinance in 2000, the irst local government in Japan to do so. his development was reported to unicef
Innocenti Center in Florence, Italy and introduced on the website of the cfc.
he second stream is the movement of local governments to promote
the participation of children in local governance and community development. his movement is in line with the national policy on decentralization
to support rural development and local self-governance. his policy led tothe promotion of local autonomy and community development. he local
governments included in their decentralization eforts the idea of participation of youth and children in programs related to sustainable development.
hey promoted the basic idea that children have the right to participate inmatters that afect their future. his is likewise based on citizenship education that supports proactive participation of children in local governanceand in the management of their immediate environment.
he third stream is the movement to promote the active participation ofchildren at the latter stage of the Action Plan for the Support for Raising the
Next Generation under the “Act on Advancement of Measures to Support
Raising the Next-Generation of Children.” his act was originally conceived
as a measure to address the falling birthrate. But this original plan was
criticized for considering only the viewpoints of adults in terms of parental
leave from work and childcare, and not the voice of the children themselves.
Several movements of local governments worked to incorporate the participation of children in the latter stage of implementation of the Action Plan.2
he diferent backgrounds of these local government eforts determined
the streams of local government movements supporting cfc.

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But there is another stream at the local level that can be categorized as
the fourth type: the citizens’ movement. It can be said that this movement
developed from the movement of parents on children’s play and cultural activities. his is especially the case of the children’s theater or family theater
movements that started in 1960s. he movements spread all over the country and were subsequently organized as a network. his network is known as
Kodomo Gekijo (heater) or Oyako (Parents and Children) Gekijo Network
at prefectural and national levels. he underlying idea of the movements
was to enrich the creative expression of children and to increase their sensitivity while promoting children’s theater. hese movements were concernedwith the Convention on the Rights of the Child (crc) and the promotion of
the children’s right to participation. Also, these movements played a greatrole in the rapid rise of the civic movement that campaigned for the enactment of child rights ordinances. his fourth stream should be appreciated as
playing a part in diferent dimensions across the three other streams of local
government movements.
Advanced Cases
Aside from the case of Kawasaki city, the following two cases illustrate how
the second and third streams took place.
) Niseko Town, Hokkaido prefecture
he Niseko town experience is a typical model of the second stream.
Niseko town is the pioneer municipality in enacting an ordinance on local
autonomy among the municipalities in Japan. he Niseko Town Machizukuri[District Enhancement] Basic Ordinance was enacted in 2000. Its Article 11
states:3
he rights for citizens under the age of twenty years to participate in Machizukuri.
he Town Council gives the right to participation in suitable
Machizukuri projects to Minors and children under 20 years ofage.
In 2002, two years after the enactment of this ordinance, Niseko town set
up Machizukuri (town planning) committees for primary school and lower
secondary school students respectively. he students, ten students in eachcommittee, came from schools that were willing to participate in the work

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H U M A N R I G H T S E D U C AT I O N I N A S I A - PA C I F I Cof the committees. he students talked about town issues including the situation surrounding them, drafted proposals, and took the challenge of realizing some of their proposals. Besides the Children’s Machizukuri Committee,
a “Children’s Parliament” was established composed of ten children selected
through a public selection process. he “Children’s Parliament” is like anordinary town council. he “Children’s Parliament” discussed and agreed
to request the town oicials in a dialogue to support the implementation of
the proposals presented by the “Children’s Machizukuri Committee.” Anyproblem raised at the “Children’s Parliament” on the children’s proposals is
discussed at the “Children’s Machizukuri Committee” to resolve the problem and study proposals. he children worked on many kinds of projects,
such as wall painting at the bridge of railway station, making billboard tostop illegal dumping of waste, setting up view spots of a beautiful scenery topreserve the landscape, etc. A former staf of the Niseko local government
for children’s participation, Mr. Tohru Saito, recalled the participation ofchildren in the committee as follows:
hose children who took part in the Machizukuri Committee
acted by themselves in self-driven manner, and enjoyed diferent
experiences. hanks to activities that demonstrated their expertise as “children,” it looked like our town is becoming a better
town. In addition, by engaging in public relations, the sight ofthe children increased the awareness of the town folks on childrights. heir [children] hard work on Machizukuri Committee
has become a stimulus to the adults [the general public and local
government oicials].
he Town Mayor, Mr. Ken Katayama, is very active in supporting the
cfc program. Based on the achievement of the decade-long children’s participation program, Niseko town should satisfy the condition of the irst cfc
building block. he provision on children’s participation in the Machizukuri
basic ordinance relates to the legal framework requirement. While there has
not been any real monitoring system or Ombudsman for child rights, people
in the town say that the mayor has been taking a lead in this role, and thetown is considering such an external monitoring system in the near future.
) Chiba Cityhe second case is the Chiba city in Chiba prefecture, near Tokyo.
his is a typical case of the third stream. Chiba city is the place where theJapanese Movements on Children’s Participation and Child-friendly City

Children in Niseko Town study renewable energy and make a micro-hydraulic powermodel using plastic bottles4

View spot selected by children in Niseko town. (Photo by Isami Kinoshita)

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irst Asian Paciic Regional Conference of Child Friendly Cities was heldin 2009.5 To prepare for this conference, Chiba city collaborated with thisauthor and the Association for Children’s Environments (ace) to promotechildren’s participation. At that time, the city was drafting the action planfor the latter period for implementing the “Act on Advancement of Measures
to Support Raising Next-Generation of Children.” he local oicials, therefore, advocated the inclusion of a statement on children’s participation in
the action plan. he Asian Paciic regional conference was held in a venue
the city built as the center for children to gather. he place named QiBall(Children’s, Science and Business Center) has studio, meeting rooms, sports
hall, library and day care center together with a science museum. QiBall has
a management committee composed of children. he children who wereusing music studio composed the theme song of the cfc and ace based onregional conference theme “Children’s Power – Power to the Children” andsung the song at the conference. Ms Karen Malone, the chairperson of theChild Friendly Asia Paciic Network, and Mr Ray Lorenzo, the director of
ABCitta and the urban planner facilitating children’s participation in urban
design mainly in Italy, attended the conference.

Children singing their theme song “Power to the Children” in Chiba City (Photo by Isami
Kinoshita)

After the conference, Chiba city was very eager to promote children’s
participation and started various participatory programs such as “Children’sPower Workshop,” “Children’s Power Forum,” “Exploring City Oicial
Works,” “Lunch Meeting with the Mayor,” “Mini City cbt-Children’s Play
Town,” “Children’s University,” “Children’s Café,” etc.

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Children’s Forum with Japan’s youngest mayor talking with the kids. (Photo by Ryuichi
Matsushima)

Issues regarding children such as child abuse, street safety, child-friendly hospital, etc., are discussed and selected as research agendas in the workshops, with ive to six sessions being held per topic. After the discussions,the children give a report at the Children’s Power Forum and talk with themayor and local government oicials in charge of the issues. “Exploring theWork of City Oicial” provides children the opportunity to visit the city
oicials’ working place and know how the city is managing diferent projects. And after the tour, they have a lunch meeting with the mayor and the
responsible oicials. By frankly talking with the mayor, the children express
their impressions, questions and ideas. hrough this process, some ideas are
realized such as adoption of a character mascot in the image of a microorganism drawn by children when they explored sewage disposal plant.

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H U M A N R I G H T S E D U C AT I O N I N A S I A - PA C I F I CChildren’s Exploring City Public Work Projects and Lunch Meeting with the Mayor in Chiba
City. (Photo by Ryuichi Matsushima)

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“Children’s Play Town” is the big role-play of a mini city managed only
by children, based on the experience of Mini Munich. Children in Munich
would assume roles as city oicials and mayor. Sometimes the child mayorof the mini city would attend some city events together with the real city
mayor.6“Children’s Parliament” was previously too much of a type of tokenism,
but from this movement it was improved to become a real children’s participatory process to express their opinion to the real government of Chiba city.

Children’s Parliament in session. (Photo by Ryuichi Matsushima)“Children’s Café” supports children who have no place to go after school
and on weekends. Chiba city started the trial opening of the “Children’s
Café” at an empty room at a community center. he café opens every weekend at a site that have many social issues such as the mixed area of foreign
immigrants, social housing area for the lower class, and the condominiumof rich families that has no management body in charge. his experiment
made it clear that there were many children who needed this kind of place
where they could stay and talk with staf members because there was noplace for them to have human contact in case they have any communication problem at school and at home. Chiba city is now thinking of extending
the children’s café program to other areas in collaboration with non-proit
organizations for children.

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Chiba city has not yet adopted a legal framework on child rights under
the cfc building blocks system. But it pursues the idea of experiencing collaboration with children irst and then enacting legal framework later basedon what is really needed according to experience. his may be a unique approach and its legal framework may turn out to be an original one, very
diferent from those in the other municipal ordinances on the rights of thechild.
Education on Child Rights
Human rights are taught from primary school level in Japan. hey are introduced in relation to issues of bullying, abuse, and physical punishment.
he human rights being taught are, however, limited to preventing bullying, abuse and physical punishment. he students are neither taught about
the right to participation (articles 12 and 13 of the crc) nor the right toplay. here are not so many schools that have been introducing crc intheir school education program. Compared with other countries that support child rights education in the school curriculums by providing educational tool kits, the Japanese schools are not so active in teaching the crc.
Even the reports of the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science andTechnology (mext) and the Ministry of Foreign Afairs state that they publicize the crc by just introducing it in their websites.7
However, there are some advanced local governments that teach crc
in schools. In Shimane prefecture, the prefectural Board of Education madea handbook on crc for primary and secondary (lower and upper) levels.8
Some schools in Tokachi region in Hokkaido prefecture promote children’s
participation in their schools based on articles 12 and 13 of the crc.9
General Observations
here is still a kind of allergy among conservative people in Japan to
the word “kenri” as a translation of the word “right,” and thus they react
negatively against it and causes them to misunderstand child rights as giving children the freedom to claim an egoistic idea. But the word “jinken” asa direct translation of human rights is commonly accepted in school education. he education on crc in the school system and society has actually
been delayed by this linguistic issue. As a social background on its history,Japanese Movements on Children’s Participation and Child-friendly City23

the Japanese society exists as a group society, not as a society consisting ofindividuals. herefore, the misunderstanding brought by the negative reaction to the word “kenri” has not been solved. his means that there is still
not enough understanding of human rights. It also means that the Japanesesociety is not yet a mature civil society. Nowadays, there is a growing tendency toward a high consumption society that causes people to live a closed,
individual life with no concern for social matters. his in turn breeds bureaucratism, on one hand, and an inhuman economic system that controls
people’s life, on the other hand. To ind another direction to create a morehumane society and a sustainable democratic society, human rights education should be introduced more in the education system as a base for developing a democratic and peaceful society.
he Child Friendly Cities Program, which promotes children’s participation as shown in the case studies in some municipalities, is a very important and useful program that creates such an ideal civil society with citizens
as subjects expressing their sovereign power. he children’s participation
program has been changing the mind of adults who met the active children.
Adults tend to act more authentically when facing children, which mightbring the society to the direction of an ideal future, hopefully a sustainable
future. Being child-friendly means being friendly to all.
Endnotes
1. According to Building a Child Friendly Cities - A Framework for Action, theprocess of building a Child Friendly City “is synonymous with implementation of
the Convention on the Rights of the Child in a local governance setting. he nineelements include:
a. Children’s participation: promoting children’s active involvement in issues
that afect them; listening to their views and taking them into consideration in decision-making processes;
b. A child friendly legal framework: ensuring legislation, regulatory frameworks and procedures which consistently promote and protect the rights of allchildren;c. A city-wide Children’s Rights Strategy: developing a detailed, comprehensive strategy or agenda for building a Child Friendly City, based on the Convention;
d. A Children’s Rights Unit or coordinating mechanism: developing permanent structures in local government to ensure priority consideration of children’s
perspective;e. Child impact assessment and evaluation: ensuring that there is a systematic process to assess the impact of law, policy and practice on children - in advance,
during and after implementation;

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f. A children’s budget: ensuring adequate resource commitment and budget
analysis for children;
g. A regular State of the City’s Children Report: ensuring suicient monitoring and data collection on the state of children and their rights;
h. Making children’s rights known: ensuring awareness of children’s rights
among adults and children;i.
Independent advocacy for children: supporting non-governmental organisations and developing independent human rights institutions - children’s ombudspeople or commissioners for children - to promote children’s rights.”
Unicef Innocenti Research Centre and International Secretariat for Child
Friendly Cities, Building a Child Friendly Cities - A Framework for Action (Florence:2004), page 4.
2. Additional information about this is as follows: “he Act on Raising the
Next Generation had a limited term and was to expire in 2015, but the 2014 amendment extended the term for ten years. (Act on Raising the Next Generation, Act
No. 120 of 2003, Supplemental Provisions, art. 2, amended by Act No. 28 of 2014.)
he original Act obliges employers with 101 or more employees to formulate actionplans to achieve employees’ work-family (child-rearing) balance. Business owners
must notify the Equal Employment Oice of the Labor Bureau of the Ministry of
Health, Labour, and Welfare (mhlw) about these measures and make them publicly
available. (Id., Article 12.) he 2014 amendment of the Act adds a provision related
to publicizing model companies that have implemented good measures. When acompany is approved as a model company, the company releases information on its
action plan and statistics, but will be exempted from the requirement to notify the
mhlw. (Id., art. 15-2.) he mhlw has a website [www.ryouritsu.jp/bn02.html - inJapanese language] that introduces action plans for the achievement of a work-family balance (last visited June 23, 2014).”
Source: Law Library of Congress, 24 June 2014, www.loc.gov/lawweb/servlet/
lloc_news?disp3_l205404042_text.
3. For the full text of the ordinance, see www.town.niseko.lg.jp/machitsukuri/
jyourei/images/kihon19.pdf.
4. Photos by Niseko town government, www.town.niseko.lg.jp/machitsukuri/
jyourei/kodomo.html#anc07.
5. For more information about the conference, please visit the website of theChild-friendly Asia-Paciic, www.childfriendlyasiapaciic.net/.
6. For more information on Mini Munich, please visit www.mini-muenchen.
info.
7. Ministry of Foreign Afairs & mext , he White Report about Human Right
Education and Publicity 2014, www.moj.go.jp/content/000124193.pdf.
8. Forprimaryschools:
www.pref.shimane.lg.jp/kyoikusido/index.
data/25kenri-shou.pdf. For secondary (lower and upper) schools: www.pref.shimane.lg.jp/kyoikusido/index.data/25kenri-chu.pdf.
9. Haruo Sawada, Akito Kita, Shinnya Wada and Arato Shigemaki, Creating
School with Children – he Wind of crc from Tokachi, Hokkaido (Tokyo: Nihon
Hyoron Publishing Company, 2006) (in Japanese).

Japanese Movements on Children’s Participation and Child-friendly City

Annex A
Cities with Child Rights Ordinances in JapanCity

Ordinance

1. Kawasaki city, Kanagawa prefectureChild Rights Ordinance - December 2000

2. Naie-cho, Hokkaido prefectureChild Rights Ordinance - March 2002

3. Tajimi city, Gifu prefectureChild Rights Ordinance - September 2003

4. Meguro-ku, Tokyo

Child Ordinance - November 2005

5. Memuro-cho, Hokkaido prefectureChild Rights Ordinance - 2006

6. Uozu city, Toyama prefectureChild Rights Ordinance - March 2006

7. Toshima-ku, Tokyo

Child Rights Ordinance - March 2006

8. Gifu city, Gifu prefectureChild Rights Ordinance - March 2006

9. Nabari city, Mie prefectureChild Ordinance - March 2006

10. Hakusan, Ishikawa prefectureChild Rights Ordinance - December 2006

11. Shime-cho, Fukuoka prefectureChild Rights Ordinance - December 2006

12. Imizu, Toyama prefectureChild Ordinance - June 2007

13. Toyota city, Aichi prefectureChild Ordinance - October 2007

14. Joetsu city, Niigata prefectureChild Rights Ordinance - March 2008

15. Nagoya-shi, Aichi prefectureChild Ordinance - March 2008

16. Hino city, Tokyo

Child Ordinance – June 2008

17. Sapporo city, Hokkaido prefectureChild Rights Ordinance - November 2008

18. Chikuzen-cho, Fukuoka prefectureChild Rights Ordinance – December 2008

19. Iwakura city, Aichi prefectureChild Rights Ordinance – December 2008

20. Koganei city, Tokyo

Child Rights Ordinance - March 2009

21. Ishinomaki city, Miyagi prefectureChild Rights Ordinance - March 2009

22. Tono city, Iwate prefectureChild Ordinance - March 2009

23. Nisshin city, Aichi prefectureChildren Creating Future Ordinance - March 2009

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24. Chikushino city, Fukuoka prefectureChild Ordinance - March 2010

25. Makubetsu town, HokkaidoChild Rights Ordinance - April 2010

26. Kota town, Aichi prefectureChild Rights Ordinance - December 2010

27. Uchinada town, Ishikawa prefectureChild Rights Ordinance - December 2011

28. Oushu city, Iwate prefectureChild Rights Ordinance - January 2012

29. Munakata city, Fukuoka prefectureChild Ordinance - March 2013

30. Kitahiroshima city, Hokkaido prefectureChild Rights Ordinance - June 2012

31. Chiryu city, Aichi prefectureChild Ordinance - September 2012

32. Sennan city, Osaka prefectureChild Rights Ordinance - October 2012

33. Setagaya ward, Tokyo

Amendment of Child Ordinance - December 2012

34. Aomori city, Aomori prefectureChild Rights Ordinance - December 2012

35. Shibetsu city, Hokkaido prefectureChild Rights Ordinance - February 2013

36. Nikko city, Tochigi prefectureChild Rights Ordinance - March 2013

37. Matsumoto city, Nagano prefectureChild Rights Ordinance - March 2013

38. Chita city, Aichi prefectureChild Ordinance - March 2013

39. Nagano prefectureChild Support for the Future Ordinance - July 2014

40. Nara city, Nara prefectureChild Friendly City Ordinance - December 2014

Source: General Research Institute on the Convention on the Rights of the Child;
List of Local Governments with Child Rights Ordinances
http://homepage2.nifty.com/npo_crc/siryou/siryou_jyorei.htm