EDUCATION – 4

Fukuoka Prefectural Police have arrested a staff member at a kindergarten in Munakata City over the alleged abuse of a male pupil earlier this year, reports Kyodo News (Oct. 21). (tokyoreporter.com)

The number of foreign students who changed their visa status to work in Japan after graduating from universities or vocational schools hit a record high in 2018, immigration authorities said Wednesday, amid a chronic manpower shortage in the nation. (Japan Times)

Bullying cases reported at schools across Japan totaled 543,933 in fiscal 2018, up 31.3 percent from a year earlier and the highest level on record, according to an education ministry survey released Thursday. (Japan Times)

Japanese commercial banks have been snapping up zero-coupon debt issued by a state-backed scholarship body in the latest twist in the the Bank of Japan’s negative rate campaign where no-interest loans can be a good deal for lenders. (Nikkei)

Japan’s education ministry says 332 school children committed suicide in the year through March, the highest number since records began in 1988.
(NHK)

The U.S. Marine Corps on Thursday acknowledged an error in the identity of a second Marine pictured lifting the American flag over Iwo Jima in one of the most iconic photographs of World War II. (Japan Times)

With a rapidly aging and declining population, human capital is one of Japan’s most precious resources. Yet despite Japan’s need to draw on every individual in the workforce, there is a section of the population whose potential is being overlooked: children in poverty. (Nikkei)

Japan manages a rare feat for a developed country when it comes to feeding its children — high scores for nutrition but very low obesity rates. One major key? School lunches.
(Japan Today)

In the month of October Japan celebrates “Sports Day” which is the anniversary of the 1964 Tokyo Olympics and a holiday to inspire exercise for all. Around this time, schools all over the country hold Sports Festivals where they take part in a variety of physical activities from dancing to relay races. (soranews24.com)

About 3.85 million people studied Japanese at a record 18,604 institutions overseas in fiscal 2018, with the number of institutions soaring in Asia, according to a survey released this week. (Kyodo)