Development of A Welfare-Education Program
enhancing ”Competency” of Children in Poverty
A Research Project Subsidized by Ministry of Education, Japan , 2011-2013
No. 23330186
Project Members :T. Uzuhashi (Doshisha Univ.), H. Yano (Mukogawa Women’s Univ.), A. Abe, (National
Institute of Population and Social Security), H. Yamagata (Osaka City Univ.), M.
Ohshio (Ryukoku Univ.), M. Murozumi (Tetsukayama-Gakuin Univ.), K. Igami (KobeKokusai Univ.), S. Tanaka(Prefectural Univ. of Hiroshima), M.Tokoro (Osaka CityUniv.), M. Toriyama(Hokkaido Univ.), R. Yamamura(Doshisha Univ.)

1. The Objectives of the Research………………………………………………………………………………………………………….
OutlineRecently child poverty has started to draw more public attention in Japan.
Although one can easily predict that child poverty leads the reproduction of poverty, we
have not observed any progress in a research that prevents child poverty on a practicallevel, especially in the development of effective social programs.
Therefore, our research aims to explore causes of poverty on a macro level
while we will also focus on social work practices that tackle the issue on a micro level.
First, this research will look at social factors of child poverty such as theparents’ social status, children’s academic achievement, health, social behavior, etc., andarticulate the key factors that are effective to unlink the poverty chain. Second, thisresearch aims to develop welfare/educational programs that would facilitate children inpoverty to develop skills and self-awareness, so they would be competent enough tounlink the poverty chain.
………………………………………………………………………………………………………….
In 2006, the OECD’s economic report made a shocking impact in Japan. It
unveiled the fact that Japan was the second worst among OECD countries in its
comparative poverty ranking after the U.S. The report also indicated that 1) the childpoverty rate had been rising and reached 14% in 2000, 2) the figure is, in fact, quite1high among OECD countries, and 3) the poverty rates among households with single
mothers are extremely high, indeed.
The report was so influential to Japanese researchers that they became moresensitive to the issue of child poverty. Many studies were already conducted oninequality by researchers, but the issue of actual poverty, or issue of child poverty, was
not drawing enough attention, because their focus was mainly on inequality,
We all agree that the issue of child poverty should be taken more seriously not
only because children cannot be responsible for the issue but also because the poverty istransferred to the next generation through their poor health, lack of motivation, etc. No
researches, however, have proved empirically the assumption that children would
inherit the lack of motivation and hope for futures from their parent(s).
Given the background described above, our first objective is to explore therelationships between variables like parents’ social status, learning environment,
educational achievement, health status, social behavior, and children’s ways of thinking.
We plan to conduct a quantitative research to study the correlation between them andfigure out effective approaches to unlink the poverty chains.
Recent research findings suggested that issues surrounding children such as
poor academic achievements, high dropout rates, and misbehavior are strongly
associated with their households’ poverty level. This indicates that collaboration
between welfare programs and educational programs is very important. Therefore,
development of such programs is urgently needed in everyday practice.
To develop a program, we would like to focus on the idea of “competency.” This
term means the ability, including skills and behavior, in which one can develop in orderto overcome difficulties in his/her life, by using social and psychological resources
available. The term competency is often used to capture those abilities. The “keycompetencies” introduced by OECD refers exactly the same types of ability, which isrequired when one maneuvers the threats in his/her life.
While social safety net such as health, housing, jobs, and public assistance arefundamental to a person to confront poverty, welfare/educational programs, whichembrace dignity and autonomy in one’s life, are equally important.
Enhancing the point raised above, our second objective is to develop
welfare/educational programs that would facilitate children in poverty to improve theirability and to acquire skills and self-awareness, so they would be competent enough tounlink the poverty chain. The significance of the research is that we map out andintroduce new direction for social policy in the area of child poverty, by bridging themacro-micro spectrum in our research. The originality of our research is that we are not2

only focusing on the cause of child poverty, but we are also committing the developmentof a social program for children to tackle causes of the issue.
In addition to that, this research is also significant because it is carriedthrough international perspectives. We plan to conduct field interviews in the countries
where welfare/educational programs have already been implemented; namely Head
Start of the United States, Sure Start of the England, and WE Start of South Korea.
In the United States, Head Start was launched in 1965. It is a pre-primaryeducational program for underserved children. Sure Start, started in 1998, wasimplemented to the disadvantaged area in order to prevent social exclusion, improveacademic performance, and reduce the inequality in health. WE Start was originallylaunched in a local municipality, and it aims to provide customizable programs among
health, welfare and educational services for children in poverty. In addition to thosecountries, our research will also feature welfare/educational programs in othercountries/areas such as Hong Kong and Finland. Through field interviews in thosecountries/areas, we will seek for “ a program model for Japanese version of Head Start ”.
The research will be assisted by our international research partners: S.
Kammerman from Columbia University (U.S.), J. Bradshaw from York University andTavistock Institute (England), Y.M. Kim from Chung-Ang University (South Korea), Y.
Ngai from City University of Hong Kong (Hong Kong), M. Ishikawa from Embassy ofJapan in Helsinki (Finland).
Our domestic researches will be conducted mainly in Osaka, since Osaka is
the area where the level of child poverty is seriously concerned, and it is the area where
both macro and micro approaches are awfully needed.

2. Research Method and Schedule
We aim to achieve the research based on strong empirical evidence byconducting domestic surveys and by elaborately investigating the latest international
trends. To achieve the research goal, we organize two research groups and conduct threekinds of surveys.
Two Groups are :1. The Macro Research Group which carries out a quantitative survey and seeks tofind factors affecting child poverty in Japan, to establish strategy for breaking
off a vicious circle of poverty
2. TheMicroResearchGroup

whichattempts

tobuilda

practicalwelfare-education program to enhance “competency” of children in poverty for3unlinking the poverty chain
Three Kinds of Surveys are shown in Chart 1
Three-Years Research Schedule is as follows :In the first year (2011), we review previous studies to develop survey
questionnaires and carry out pre-survey. And in the second year (2012), we conduct
three different surveys in Japan. Domestic surveys will be carried out in Osaka Cityand its surrounding areas. This is because Osaka City has the high rate of children
receiving school expense subsidies or those from social assistance recipients’ families.
Therefore exploring the mechanism of “child poverty” and taking action based on thosefindings have been considered as burning issues.
We also do field interviews in several countries/regions (United State, United
Kingdom, Finland, Korea and Hong-Kong) for identifying the actual situations/causes ofchild poverty, public policies and actions by NPO/NGOs tackling child poverty during
three years of research.
In the last year (2013), we hold an international forum inviting overseas
researchers and also compile policy recommendations, and finally publish the outcomeof our research by integrating findings of two research groups along with releasing ourwelfare-education program.

Chart1: Conceptual diagram of research framework
Survey1: A quantitative survey on
self-efficacy and competency of children
The theoreticalbackground andthe perspective
throughout theresearch

Survey2: A retrospective survey to young
adults on the transitional phase from childto adult
Survey3: A survey on social services andprograms for children of mother-headedlone- parent families

UK,

Overseas Field Interview
US, Finland, Korea, Hong-Kong

4

PolicyRecommendations

ProgramDevelopment