## New Children’s Plan (principal measures for FY2004)

## ☑ Overview of program

With the full introduction of a five-day school week from FY2002, the New Children's Plan was drafted in consideration of the results achieved in the period FY1999-FY2001 by the National Children's Plan (Emergency Three-Year Strategy), which sought to establish environments that nurture children in local communities. The New Children's Plan was designed to promote measures in cooperation with other ministries and agencies that help continually expand children's opportunities to participate in hands-on activities.

## Developing systems and providing information for community hands-on activities

## Developing systems to strengthen community educational functions and hands-on activities

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• National Experiential and Volunteer Activity Promotion Council

• National Experiential and Volunteer Activity Promotion Center

• Community Educational Function and Experiential Activity Promotion Council

• Experiential and Volunteer Activity Support Center

## Programs to improve children's physical fitness (expanded)

Devising comprehensive measures to improve children’s physical fitness, including practical activities aimed at improving the physical fitness of children and encouraging children to form desirable lifestyle habits through cooperation between families, schools and communities

## Children's Channel

Offering participatory programs for children nationwide by utilizing two-way satellite communications facilities (L-Net) in libraries, community centers, museums and other locations around the country where children gather on Saturdays when school is out

## Producing TV science programs

Producing TV science programs and making them available through CS broadcasts to introduce science, technology and related topics in an easily understandable fashion

## Expanding opportunities and sites for children-centered community activities

## Programs to promote “classrooms for children in local communities” (new)

For the development of children with strong and well-rounded characters, who will create Japan’s future through support from society at large, utilizing schools, etc. to provide children with spaces (activity centers), where the educational functions of local adults will be concentrated and safety managers and activity advisors will be assigned to support children in conducting various hands-on activities and making exchanges with local residents, including sports and cultural activities after school or on weekends

## Programs to promote extended foreign-language experiential activities

These programs cultivate children’s foreign-language communication skills through communal living with native speakers, and offer training to enable participants to meet the challenges of internationalization

## University Junior Science Program

Making greater use of universities and other institutions of higher learning to instill in children curiosity and interest about science and technology, and offering experiential lectures that motivate students

## Programs to promote extended outdoor and nature experiences for youths

Organizing groups of youths from different grades for extended two-week nature-based experiential activities, primarily during summer vacation, at outdoor activity facilities and farm houses

## National youth education facilities

Providing opportunities and sites for a variety of activities such as communal living in a rich natural environment and nature-based experiences at national youth education facilities

## Children's Dream Fund

Subsidizing experiential and reading activities conducted by private organizations

## Enhancing counseling system for home education and providing learning opportunities

## I mplementing the General Program to support and promote home education (new)

Promoting the training of instructors to improve the qualifications of parenting supporters and to support home education, the starting point for all education, and utilizing a variety of occasions to provide parents with home education learning opportunities

## Preparing/distributing new Pocketbooks for home education

Continuing to prepare and distribute new home education handbooks to encourage parents to take another look at their families and enable them to tackle parenting with confidence

## Hosting National Home Education Forums (new)

Hosting forums in two regions to stimulate discussion nationwide on supporting home education and increasing the momentum for action

## I ncreasing opportunities for children to enjoy sports

Fostering and establishing comprehensive community sports clubs based in familiar school and community sports facilities that enable local residents, including children, to regularly engage in sports activities, and supporting wide-area sports centers to provide support to these facilities

## Promoting experiential-type environmental learning for children in cooperation with other ministries

Implementing, in cooperation with other ministries and agencies, programs in which children themselves plan and carry out regular experiential activities focused on the familiar community environment

## Children's classes in traditional culture

Offering opportunities for systematically and regularly experiencing and learning the tea ceremony, flower arrangement, Japanese dance, traditional music, and local handicrafts at schools and cultural facilities on Saturdays and Sundays

## Supporting cultural experience programs

Providing opportunities for children to interact with and experience other cultures in a variety of settings