organized nationwide, with approximately 35,000 such associations consisting of about 930,000 members (primarily elementary school students) active in communities.

Youth sports associations may be of the single-sport variety (e.g., rubber baseball, soccer, volleyball or kendo) or a multiple-sport organization, and their activities utilize schools and public facilities (Figure 1-1-7). Besides sports activities, these associations allow members to participate in outdoor and cultural activities, local projects and events, and volunteer and other social activities. Particular emphasis has been placed on social activities in local communities that form the foundations on which the associations are built, and these activities have come to have great significance as key experiential activities that help young girls and boys become respectable members of society.

Figure ♦ 1-1-7 Youth sports associations: composition by sport/activity

Sport/activity	Number of associations (percentage)
1. Rubber baseball	6,896 (19.4%)
2. Multiple-sport	5,207 (14.7%)
3. Soccer	4,786 (13.5%)
4. Volleyball	3,398 (9.6%)
5. Kendo	3,390 (9.6%)
6. Basketball	2,905 (8.2%)
7. Karate	1,868 (5.3%)
8. Softball	1,258 (3.5%)
9. Judo	1,230 (3.5%)
10. Table tennis	684 (1.9%)
11. Other (52 categories)	3,847 (10.8%)

(Source) FY2003 survey by Japan Amateur Sports Association

## 5 Sound Development of Youth

In the face of progressing computerization and other remarkable changes in the circumstances surrounding children, promoting the sound mental and physical development of young people and fostering in them well-rounded characters and moral/ethical values have been vital issues in nurturing youth who have dreams and goals for the future and who can actively take the steps necessary to create a prosperous society.

The Headquarters for Youth Development $ ^{*} $ set up in December 2003 summarized the government’s basic philosophy on nurturing youth and the medium- to long-term direction of measures in the areas of health, welfare, education, labor and delinquent behavior to this end in the “National Youth Development Policy.” Focused on the 0-30 age group, it incorporated the fundamental concepts underlying measures to nurture youth, the basic direction of measures for separate age groups (infancy, elementary school age, puberty, and adolescence), and the basic direction of measures for dealing with delinquent youth and other young people in special situations.

MEXT is currently pursuing the measures below for the sound development of youth in close cooperation with other ministries and agencies.

## (1) Enhancing Experiential Activities for Youth

It has become clearer than ever that the more daily-life and nature-based experiences a child has, the more likely he/she is to have developed moral and ethical values. The December 2000 Report of the National Council on Educational Reform recommended expanding nature-based experiential activities and other experiential learning. On this basis, MEXT drafted the Education Reform Plan for the 21st Century in January 2001 and took advantage of the full introduction of the five-day school week from FY2002 to put together a New Children’s Plan to promote measures in cooperation with other ministries and agencies aimed at continually enhancing children’s opportunities to participate in experiential activities.

## 1 ) Promoting experiential activities through various programs

(a) Programs to promote environmental learning through experiential activities by children in collaboration with other ministries and agencies