Committee on the Rights of the Child

Eightieth session

14 January–1 February 2019

Item 4 of the provisional agenda

C onsideration of reports of States parties

List of issues in relation to the combined fourth and fifth periodic reports of Japan

The State party is requested to submit in writing additional, updated information (10,700 words maximum), if possible before 15 October 2018. The Committee may take up all aspects of children’s rights set out in the Convention during the dialogue with the State party.

Part I

1.Please provide information on any plans to adopt a comprehensive law on children’s rights. Please describe the impact of the revised Child Welfare Acton children’s rights. Please also provide information on the lessons that have been learned from the implementation of Outline for the Promotion of Development and Support for Children and Young People (2016), and the measures the State party plans to take to implement on the basis of its outcome.

2.Please provide an update on the status of the Human Rights Protection bill and the establishment of a national human rights commission that can monitor the implementation of the Convention and receive complaints on violations of children’s rights.

3.Please provide information on the targeted measures taken to eliminate discrimination and hate speech against girls, lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex children, children of unmarried parents, children belonging to ethnic minorities and children of non-Japanese origin. Please also provide information on any plans to adopt a comprehensive anti-discrimination law.

4.Please provide information on measures taken to explicitly prohibit corporal punishment, however light, in law and to eliminate it in practice, in all settings. Please also provide information on the prevention of violence and child abuse, in particular sexual abuse, and on the type of support and rehabilitation services provided to child victims.

5.Please inform the Committee on concrete steps taken to prevent children being removed from or abandoned by their families, to speed up the deinstitutionalization of children and to facilitate alternative care by foster or adoptive parents. Please provide an update on the system for the evaluation of temporary child protection facilities operated by child guidance centres. Please explain how the right of the child to maintain relations with both parents after divorce is ensured.

6.Please provide information on progress in developing inclusive education for children with disabilities in accordance with the revised School Education Act, and explain what is meant by “special needs education”. Please explain the steps that have been taken to revise the minimum standards of afterschool day care for children with disabilities in the light of the privatization and deregulation of these services.

7.Please inform the Committee about measures to reduce the high rate of babies with low birth weight. Please also inform the Committee about medical support offered to children exposed to radiation after the Fukushima nuclear disaster in 2011.

8.Please explain how the current climate mitigation policy of Japan is compatible with its obligation to protect the rights of children, in particular the rights to health, food and an adequate standard of living, both in Japan and abroad.

9.Please provide information on the measures taken to address the growing poverty among children and its negative impact on child-related social protection. Please also explain the causes of the low impact of social transfers on the reduction in the rate of child poverty and the practical measures that the State party plans to take to make social transfers more efficient.

10.Please inform the Committee about the concrete measures taken, including resources available, to provide early childhood care facilities and to ensure the quality of early childhood education. Please provide information on measures to protect children from bullying. Please inform the Committee about the measures taken to mitigate the negative consequences of the extremely competitive school environment.

11.Please inform the Committee about any steps taken to provide a legal framework to prevent the detention of asylum-seeking children and their separation from parents. Please also inform the Committee about any access by asylum-seeking children to social services.

12.Please specify any concrete steps that have been taken to guarantee the full implementation of the Convention in the juvenile justice system, and describe in detail the reintegration and psychosocial support and services that are available to children in conflict with the law, child victims and child witnesses. Please provide information on any measures taken to eradicate the preventive detention of children. Please also inform the Committee of any study into the root causes of juvenile delinquency and of any preventive measures taken.

13.Please provide information about the measures taken to implement the Committee’s previous recommendations under the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the sale of children, child prostitution and child pornography (CRC/C/OPSC/JPN/CO/1).

14.Please provide information about the measures that have been taken to implement the Committee’s previous recommendations under the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the involvement of children in armed conflict (CRC/C/OPAC/JPN/CO/1), in particular on any plans to provide members of the Self-Defence Forces with training on the provisions of the Optional Protocol, especially when they participate in United Nations peacekeeping operations.

Part II

15.The Committee invites the State party to provide a brief update (no more than three pages) on the information presented in its report (CRC/C/JPN/4-5) with regard to:

(a)New bills or laws, and their respective regulations;

(b)New institutions (and their mandates) or institutional reforms;

(c)Recently introduced policies, programmes and action plans and their scope and financing;

(d)Recent ratifications of human rights instruments.

Part III

Data, statistics and other information, if available

16.Please provide consolidated budget information for the past three years on budget lines relating to children and the social sectors, including under the various ministries, indicating the percentage of each budget line in terms of the total national budget, gross national product and geographic allocation.

17.Please provide updated data disaggregated by age, sex, socioeconomic background, national, ethnic origin and geographic location, for the past three years, on the number of children, including those living in rural and mountainous areas:

(a)Who are victims of violence, disaggregated by the type of offence;

(b)Separated from their parents;

(c)Who are orphans;

(d)Placed in institutions and with foster families;

(e)Adopted domestically or through intercountry adoptions;

(f)Who have benefited from the child support grant system.

18.Please provide updated data disaggregated by age, sex, socioeconomic background, national, ethnic origin and geographic location, for the past three years, on:

(a)The allocation of resources to the primary health-care system;

(b)Infant and child mortality;

(c)Babies with low birth weight;

(d)Obesity;

(e)Teenage pregnancy, and girls receiving medical and professional services for pregnancy and childbirth;

(f)Abortions;

(g)Suicides;

(h)Drug abuse;

(i)Sexually transmitted infections, including HIV, and children living with AIDS.

19.Please provide data, disaggregated by age, sex, type of disability, ethnic origin and geographic location, for the past three years, on the number of children with disabilities in all areas of the State party:

(a)Living with their families;

(b)Living in institutions;

(c)Attending early childhood education;

(d)Attending regular primary schools;

(e)Attending regular secondary schools;

(f)Attending special schools;

(g)Out of school;

(h)Abandoned by their families.

20.Please provide data, disaggregated by age, sex, residence and type of offence, for the past three years, on the number of children:

(a)Diverted from the juvenile justice system;

(b)In pretrial detention;

(c)In preventive detention;

(d)Serving criminal sentences, and the type of their sentences.

21.Please provide the Committee with an update of any data in the report that may have become outdated by more recent data collected or other new developments.

22.In addition, the State party may list areas affecting children that it considers to be of priority with regard to the implementation of the Convention.