IchigoJam training at St.Francis with Araki-sensei in Sendai online
Araki-sensei from Sendai also had to adjust his face to face coding classes with kids and made the online teaching entertaining and easy to follow. This class was social distanced by the volunteers, we had to reduce the number of people and will rotate them for different days and events. The class was lead by one of our YouMeWe Ambassadors who graduated from one home and is now working with us to teach others.
The next generation...
Getting taller everyday, this is the creation of one of our Digital Citizens at Matsubaen. He is 15 and decided to make his own computer. He asked for new chairs for the computer lab and after we ordered, he assembled.
He is also part of the CodeClub/Dojo run by our new 19 year old staff member who graduated from the Matsubaen home and built his own computer when he was 15.
A Series of Staff workshops
In collaboration with TELL, we will be hosting online Staff Seminars for the staff working in the children's homes today. This will run for the first quarter.
******
A Series of workshop
for the children’s home staff and directors: January through March 2021 Presented by TELL
1. For staff:
Goals
● Provide opportunities for gaining knowledge on how to take care of your own mental
health
● Provide opportunities for learning how to care the traumatized children more
effectively
Objective
- Obtaining stress management skills
- Obtaining anger management skills
- Learning signs to be able to identify burning-out and compassionate fatigue
- Learning effects of Adverse Childhood Experiences
- Learning how to identify the children’s’ needs from presenting behaviors
- Taking time to consider work-life balance
2. For directors/managers (encho)
In order to cover and address the complex needs of the children's home directors, this workshop will be formulated based on a questionnaire to directors.
Goals
● Provide opportunities for gaining knowledge on how to identify at-risk staff ●
Objective
- Learning how to communicate at-risk staff and connect to services -
3. Workshop delivery
a. Through on-line live presentations and Q & A (90 min).
b. Through on-line recorded video presentations (70 min.)
4. Workshop schedule (tentative schedule)
Workshop
Theme
Live presentation
Recording access
1
Stress and Anger management for Children’s house staff
1/15/2021
1/20/2021~ 3/25/2021
2
Re-define your role as a children’s home staff ~ How the childhood adverse experiences affect on people and society
1/22/2021
1/27/2021~ 3/25/2021
3
How to read children’s needs~ learning from the Circle of Security metaphor
2/5/2021
2/10/2021~ 3/25/2021
4
Directors/managers training
How to identify the staff’s mental health
2/19/2021
2/24/2021~ 3/25/2021
difficulties, and how to create mental health-friendly workplace and agency culture to prevent turn over
5
How to balance work and private life starting from the new fiscal year
3/5/2021
3/10/2021~ 3/25/2021
6 Q & A sessions 3/26/2021 N/A
5. Introduction of the presenter, Kyoko Sonoda, MA LPCC
Kyoko obtained her master's degree in counseling psychology from the University of Colorado at Denver in 2004. She is the Licensed Professional Clinical Mental Health counselor of the State of New Mexico, U. S. A., and works at the TELL Counseling Center since 2017. She has completed EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing) training and various parenting methods, such as “Circle of Security”, “Theraplay”, “Nurturing Parenting”, “Child-Parent Relationship Therapy”, “Cooperative Parenting for Divorced Parents”, and “Positive Discipline”. She regards the prevention of child abuse as her life work and she is thrilled to provide this series of workshops.
Thank you COLT
We wanted to share with you the photos from Matsubaen and their Christmas thanks to the generous donation from COLT.
H-kun graduated in 2020 but did not have a suit so we bought him a suit, 5 shirts and several neckties. The home requested several SWITCH game consoles and booklets on how to use them as well as 6 gaming desk chairs.
Thank you again for your continued support and helping make Matsubaen's Christmas that much more special.
How do you want your life to end up?
photo by Derek A
This week we saw the “Coming of Age” ceremony celebrated in Japan as the young adults who turned 20 years old joined the majority. Many young ladies dressed in the traditional kimonos while young men wore suits.
One of the things we realized from the homes that we support is that the children who turn 20 do not have kimonos and the staff tend to raise the money to rent them. We would like to appeal to people who are holding on to kimonos and are willing to donate or loan them for this special occasion. We can put you in contact with our respective homes to support.
The other thing we think about as we go into the 3rd year of our 5 year plan is that this year is to be focused on Access; Resources, Connectivity, and Networking.
While the children in the homes did not have much say in way they came into this world or the families into which they were born, they can have a say on how their lives end up. We, at YouMeWe see this as our mission.
Life plans help people think about how they want their lives to end up. By having a plan, at any age, helps everyone even if they go off course for a short while. It is that plan that you can come back to. At YouMeWe we are evolving from the analogy of offering ornaments for a Christmas Tree when a child has never seen a decorated tree. Through Life Plans, Life Connection, Money Connection ,Career Assessments and SMART Goal planning, then we can offer the kids the skills sets they will need to focus on in order to be successful in their futures.
This is where the volunteers and donors are most important. Not only providing the funding as we do this but also to act as mentors and coaches to the kids as well as becoming that extended network for the children as grown adults. The children are not the problems, it is their family of origin which is where they come from but their family of destination which holds the answers and where they are headed with our help.
What the children in the homes need more than anything is that human connection. The effort and reminder that their lives matter and are worth investing in.
How do you want your life to end up?
Christmas Wish Lists 2020
仙台天使園 (Sendai): http://amzn.asia/fv3pvdU
大洋学園 (Taiyo Gakueun): http://amzn.asia/0Jeb5Xs
清瀬子供の家 (Kiyose): http://amzn.asia/ciYNeUH
駒方寮 (Komogata Ryo): http://amzn.asia/egBHgMI
若松寮 (Nagoya Wakamatsu Ryo): http://amzn.asia/0wpKlGK
白河学園 (Shirakawa Gakuen): http://amzn.asia/7EWcYos
聖フランシス子供寮 (St.Francis): http://amzn.asia/d5gemmA
まつば園 (Matsubaen): http://amzn.asia/dZV0Hqw
ポート金が谷 (Port Kanegaya): http://amzn.asia/6IXPEeM
聖ヨセフホーム (St.Joseph's): http://amzn.asia/0GE3v6v
青葉学園 (Aoba Gakuen): http://amzn.asia/cKWodQ7
福島愛育園 (Fukushima Aiikuen): http://amzn.asia/iP6QW3t
Development of Jidōsōdanjo and Yōgoshisetsu by Joseph Bray, YouMeWe Intern
Tokugawa Iemitsu Receiving Lords in Audience, 1875
At the advent of the Tokugawa period, welfare was purposefully reduced to just the family and the surrounding community - as a result, the Gonin Gumi Seido (five-family-unit system) was established in 1643, which were a collection of five different households. They were the lowest level of urban administration, reporting to the naushi (neighbourhood headmen), who in turn reported to the machi doshiyori (town elders) who were assistants to the Edo machi bugyō (Edo city magistrates). Each of the Gonin Gumi Seido were responsible for the crimes that may be committed by any member of the five households, as well as collecting the machi iriyō taxes. This five unit system was also implemented in the Kingdom of Ryūkyū. The Tokugawa regime is regarded as one of the most conservative and medieval ‘police states’ in recorded history. Travelling through the country was heavily restricted, if not outright banned, and the community’s responsibility was spread amongst many different approaches to the preservation of Tokugawa society. Informers of the state were believed to be everywhere and the status quo for many was to conduct self-policing due to being coaxed into it. The widely regarded method of staying out of poverty was to work hard and to use money sparingly. This was the result of a strict neo-Confucian ideology, which declared that the state and its affairs should be upheld and respected.
Some daimyō during this era would attempt to implement policies to combat the amount of infanticide within their ruling regions, either punishing them or subsidising their expenses to aid families in caring for their children. That being said, there were no facilities that were deliberately created for the caring and protection of young children. It was only at the end of the Tokugawa reign that Satō Nobuhiro (1769 - 1850), one of the country’s leading agronomists, pioneered a properly established state-run institution for the poor and needy. Satō was an early advocate for Japanese Westernisation, attempting to incorporate Western science, in particular astronomy, with Japanese political and philosophical beliefs. However he was, quite contradictory, a pursuer of Japanese world domination, as detailed in his 1823 document ‘A Secret Strategy for Expansion’. ‘Peripheral non-responsibility’, as quoted by Komatsu (1992), is the position the Tokugawa state took in providing welfare. Before the advent of the Meiji period (1868 - 1912), relief for those in less-than-desirable circumstances was wholly dependent on the family and local community, as based on traditional Confucian moral teachings.
Sato Nobuhiro
During the Meiji restoration in 1868, the first official welfare system was implemented into society. In fact, one of the main stipulations of the new Meiji government’s guidelines was: “Offer compassion for widowers, widows, the lonely, and the maimed.” After this, state legislation shortly began; although it was focused on the military, navy, police, and civilian officials. This consisted of providing disability, retirement allowances, and benefits, with general public aid arriving at a later time. The Jukkyū Kisoku (Poor Relief Regulation) of 1874 was merely a response to unrest within the populus at the time. This was a recurring theme within the Meiji period, in that social policy introduced during this time was mainly to damper civil unrest, rather than a means to uphold a minimum standard of living for Japanese citizens. This was similar to Bismarckian policies in Germany, in that they came about simply as a means of mitigating social tension.
The Meiji Restoration
Laissez-faire economics was the Meiji government’s main approach to social welfare, accompanied by the sentiment that recurring state intervention would breed apathy and laziness in the civilians of the country - an ideology that would be counter-productive to the development of the state. The only significant exception to this was compulsory elementary level education for children, deemed a key component to Japan’s modernisation and a means to combat western colonisation. In 1875, 35% of children were receiving elementary level education: This increased to over 95% only 30 years later in 1905.
Schoolgirls in Hakama during the Taisho period
As a result of further social unrest in the 1910s, the hōmeniin system was developed by Ogawa Shigejiro, 1912, in the Kansai area, which is regarded as the centre of Japanese capitalism in the Taishō period (1912 - 1926). Hōmeniin was given its name according to hōmen meaning an area of the city that was declared ‘poor’ by the local government, and -iin meaning supervisor. On the other hand, when referring to the genesis of modern social welfare systems in Japan today, most accounts quote Kasai Shinichi, Okayama prefecture’s Governor, and his saisei komonsei (social reform advisory system) of 1917. Despite this, the hōmeniin is still regarded as the most significant as it dubbed the welfare system with a name wholly its own. Hōmeniin can be described as a synthesised concept of the German Elberfeld programme and the Friendly Visitors of the Charity Organisation Society in London. Elberfeld programme’s influence is the only one that has been recognised by modern policy-makers, most likely due to the heavy reliance of female workers within the Friendly Visitors. The hōmeniin system did differ from the Elberfeld programme in one crucial aspect, in that financial aid was accessible in the German programme was through a relief fund that consisted of money from the city and prefectural government. Most resources for the hōmeniin were sourced from donations and pockets of the volunteers in the hōmeniin themselves, with volunteers being local teachers, policemen, pharmacists, rice dealers, etc.
The Friendly Visitors
Over the next 20 years before World War II, the role of the hōmeniin evolved and spread throughout the country. Although it started as a means of controlling the public and mitigating social unrest, by 1940 it was a brave and outspoken group of over 100,000 people who were calling for improved social legislation. The role of social control was filled by compulsory local neighbourhood associations, called tonarigumi. But as Japan marched forward into what historians have dubbed the kurai tani (dark valley) of the 1940s, tonarigumi and hōmeniin became more wrapped in each other’s affairs in order to ensure full coordination in the war effort. It would be a mistake to assume that the war only had a negative impact on Japan’s social welfare development. Health insurance plans were extended to uphold citizenry health, specifically those who were of conscription age. Burakumin, Japan’s ‘outcaste’ class, who were redefined as shiheimin (new commoners) in the 1870s, were treated as social outcasts in the pre-war periods. This was improved under the perspective that every Japanese individual was treated as sekishi (children) of the Emperor.
Kurai Tani- The Dark Valley
An orphanage in Osaka, 1951
After 14 years of the World War II conflict, Japan was then run by the American-led occupational forces of General MacArthur. The administration of the time was for keeping the hōmeniin system, regardless of the country’s changing governmental structure and the ongoing recovery from the war. In order to wipe clean the association of a social control tool used by the prior ultra-nationalistic state, the hōmeniin was renamed to the minseiin, which translates to ‘person/persons commissioned to promote and stabilise the life of the people’. The Children’s Bureau was then established in 1946 within the Kouseishō (Ministry of Health and Welfare), which was eventually rebranded as the Children and Families Bureau in 1964. Mensei.jidōiin seido (Child welfare officers) were employed by the Children and Families Bureau that represented and retained jurisdiction over the whole child welfare system of Japan. They were responsible for overall planning and budget for child welfare, while also supervising and providing guidance to local administrative organisations and child welfare institutions. Policies of the central government had the duty of being enacted by local staff of prefectures and ‘designated’ cities, accompanied by advice from the Jidō Fukushi Shingikai (Child Welfare Councils). The most important post-war child welfare services legislation were:
New Japanese Constitution of 1946 - Guaranteed provision of welfare to all Japanese citizens on an equal basis.
Jidō Fukushishō (Child Welfare Law), 1947 - Provided child protection, child care, and foster-care systems, while laying the foundation for public intervention on behalf of the nation’s children.
Jidō Kenshō (Children’s Charter) established on the 5th May, 1951 (Children’s Day) - Article 2 states ‘those children not having homes shall be brought up in an environment having similar advantages’.
These provided the framework of legislation through which Japan would carry out its provision of child welfare. This remained relatively unchanged until the first major revision of Child Welfare Law in 1998.
Jidōsōdanjo (Child Guidance Centres) are the main field agencies in Japan. By law, they are compulsory in every prefecture and designated city with approximately more than 175 in the country currently. They were initially temporary accommodation for children that were abandoned after World War II, with some still having this short-term stay aspect to them. However, their practices spread to juvenile delinquents, disabled children, and children without carers. Jidōsōdanjo have been dubbed the ‘nucleus’ of welfare activities for Japanese children, and there are many different types of consultations that the facilities can offer. Their percentage spread (as of 1998), are as follows:
Child protection (yougo soudan) - 10.9%
Delinquent behaviour - 5.3%
Physical and mental disability - 52.7%
Child health and other matters - 10.1%
General problems with bringing up and educating children (youiku kanren) - 21%
Most referrals are from families or relatives that are worried about their own children, with the many remaining cases being from welfare institutions, city officials, or the telephone. Schools and medical/nursery facilities make up a very small proportion of these referrals as well, which are major sources of referrals in most European and North American child welfare institutions. Almost none of the referrals are the children themselves, with jidōsōdanjo mainly being offerers of advice about the children, rather than to the children. The reasons for consultations (as of 1995) are as follows:
Sickness and disability - 20.1%
Disapperance from home - 7.5%
Divorce - 7.3%
Death - 1.8%
Abandoned child - 0.8%
Kazoku kankyō (family environment) - 38.6%
Of which abuse cases - 9.1%
Other - 23.9%
The staff at jidōsōdanjo have members of staff typically made up of professional physicians, child psychologists, physiotherapists, nursery teachers, and clerical staff. Jidōfukushishi (child welfare officers) carry out the bulk of the work, and are an important and understudied group in the Japanese welfare system. In order to qualify for this type of position, it is required by Child Welfare Law to:
a) Have graduated from a school or other institution designated by the Minister of Health and Welfare; or
b) Have concluded studies at a university that specialised in psychology, education, and/or sociology, or other similar courses (called sankamoku shikaku - three-subject qualification); or
c) Be a physician; or
d) Have worked in a child welfare operation as a social welfare secretary for 2+ years; or
e) Be a person whom (a)-(d) might apply because of requisite academic knowledge and experience required for a child welfare officer
A Christian Orphanage in Sendai
The jidōsōdanjo in Yokohama, Osaka, Saitama, Kanakawa, and Niigata have the majority of their staff trained and qualified in specialist social welfare activities, being at the forefront of social work practice. However, in major cities such as Tokyo or Kyoto, most of the staff are futsū no kōmin (regular local government officials) who qualified simply because they were doing their job - Working at a jidōsōdanjo is not the loftiest of prospects for government officials with high social standing. The staff will usually put together a report of a plan either case-by-case for each child or as a whole at the jidōsōdanjo, depending on the approach they want to take. Though they have a range of options, around 90% of decisions are simple advice sessions without taking any follow-up measures or setting up a programme of ‘continuous guidance’. This is carried out by the jidōfukushishi themselves though they are usually bogged down with previous workloads, where 60% of jidōsōdanjo staff interviewed said they were each holding more than 50 cases (as shown in 1999). Despite cases being relatively straightforward and simple to resolve, there is a huge amount of bureaucratic paperwork and recording accompanying every action the staff decide to take, and there are many cases of ‘burnout’ for these workers. As such, the work can be delegated to local minsei.jidōiin or shūnin jidōiin. The remaining 10% of cases usually require more dramatic intervention, as it is not safe for the child to be left where it is. Despite prefectural and city offices being the only official bodies that are able to admit children into welfare facilities and potential foster homes according to Child Welfare Law, authority for this is delegated to the relevant jidōsōdanjo. Most of the time, jidōsōdanjo staff have to persuade parents/guardians to willingly place the child within these institutions, despite parents not wanting to allow their child to be fostered. Sophisticated, even underhanded, methods of persuasion are employed by the staff members in order to get the parents to comply with the placements made. In very rare circumstances jidōsōdanjo have to resort to going to the Katei Saibansho (Family Court) in order to remove the rights of the parents or guardians that oppose such a placement. There has rarely ever been more than 15 children in total at any one time in a yōgoshisetsu (Child Placement Institutions) where parental rights have been drastically removed in this manner.
References
Children of the Japanese State, by Roger Goodman
https://www.timetoast.com/timelines/rise-of-japan-f645a8e8-75de-4baf-b9e5-7934421dd8ba
https://web.akita-townjoho.jp/event/20200619-ugo-19/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Satō_Nobuhiro
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burakumin
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edo_period
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meiji_Restoration
Thank you to Go Connect by Custom Media
GoConnect Debuts at the Expat Expo, Raising ¥41,000 for Charity
On November 6–7 at Kamiyacho Trust Tower, the first public exhibition for international residents was held—Expat Expo Tokyo 2020. Our recently rebranded platform GoConnect made its public debut at the event, with lots of giveaways from the platform and its Partners, as well as a raffle in support of a very worthy charity.
The two-day event drew more than 1,000 guests and nearly 30 companies from a variety of industries—such as travel, food, beverage, language schools, and real estate. Visitors were treated to opportunities to experience Japanese culture through activities such as samurai performances and trying on kimonos. Many companies also provided the chance to try their products and services—booth visitors could enjoy everything from sake tasting to a short massage.
https://goconnect.jp/
A massive thank you to COLT for their continued support!!
Some words from their Charity Bike Ride in 2020
“For eight consecutive years, we have organised and hosted the Colt Charity Bike Ride. An annual event, where we take 130 riders and 40 support crew, with the goal of riding between two Colt cities, covering anywhere between 500km – 700km in four days. It is Colt’s single biggest CSR event, and in the years that it has been running we have donated more than €1.34 million to charities around the globe.
After a few months and many brainstorms, the Colt Charity Challenge 2020 was born – a virtual event to be held in September, where all Colt employees (and anyone in our wider Colt community) are collectively challenged to travel the length of the Colt network – that’s 100,000 kilometres of combined activities. You can get involved by running, swimming, cycling, walking, dancing, rowing, kayaking – if your activity can cover a distance, you’re in! “
Continue to read here.
Isolated Together: Amplified vulnerabilities in Japan’s Children’s Homes
Abstract: There are 608 “children’s homes” (児童養護施設 jidō yōgo shisetsu) across Japan that care for children and adolescents whose parents are unable to care for them (even though in many cases, their parents are known and still in contact with them). The causes for separation vary, including financial or psychological pressures, often taking the form of neglect or abuse. Institutionalization of any kind is always difficult for both children and their caretakers. Inside the children’s homes, the situation is difficult due to limited staff and tight budgets. The onset of COVID-19 has meant a dramatic decrease in the support services, staff, and resources that these institutions can provide, putting an already vulnerable population at added risk. Based on interviews with administrators at some of the leading nonprofits working with these children, this article lays out both the immediate difficulties within children’s homes during this difficult time, and the longer-term challenges they face in providing support for these young people.
CLICK HERE TO CONTINUE TO READ.
Thank you for the 20 laptops JLL
Thank you to our friends at JLL for the donated 20 laptops. This will bring us closer to our 2020 goal of a PC for everyone of the 600 homes in Japan. JLL has been supporting us for years and we really appreciate your help.
10.000 words on Night Zookeeper
Our students from Ghana are having weekly English classes using the Night Zookeeper program with the help of our team member Victor the video calls are being monitored and the kids can practice what they’ve learned. They already wrote 10.000 words! So to encourage and congratulate them we sent backpacks and English Dictionaries. The most exciting part is that their stories are going to be published in “The Qualia Review” magazine!
The Development of Welfare in Japan (500-1600 AD)
The Shitennō-ji Temple, home of the Hiden-in
The development of welfare in Japan, and consequently the development of care for orphaned children, has been theorised to come from three different sources. The first of which was from a man named Shōtoku Taishi, a man dubbed as the first ever state-wide policy-maker in the country. He was active from 574 to 622 AD, and was also thought to have brought Buddhism to Japan, which was the driving force of policy making. This led to the creation of the first welfare institute in 591 AD, the Shika-in (Translation: Four facilities) located at Shitennō-ji Temple in Naniwa, now present-day Osaka. There were four different types of welfare and medical institutions located within the Shika-in, these were the Keiden-in, Seyaku-in, Ryobyo-in, and Hiden-in, and respectively their roles were music & religion, a free pharmacy, a free hospital, and the catering of the poor and orphans. Such institutions originated in China during the Tang period and are believed to be the earliest examples of social welfare. In Japan, the livelihood of the needy was dependent first on the immediate family, then any relatives, then the surrounding community - it would be the state’s responsibility to provide welfare in last resorts. They would only deliver care to those who were not able to receive care from the family or local community, or if they were incapable of looking after themselves. The main demographic of which were children under the age of 16 without fathers and the elderly who were over the age of 60 without any children. The Hiden-in is thought to be a precursor for today’s welfare institutions in Japan for both the elderly and the young. It was formally conceived in 702 AD as the Taihō Code, Japan’s first public assistance programme and an adaptation of China’s Tang dynasty governmental system - the Code of Yonghui.
The charitable Wake no Hiromushi
Buddhism was also attributed to the work of two other significant figures who were prominent in their welfare activities during the Nara and early Heian periods. The first was the priest Gyōki (668 – 749 AD), who was credited with different civil engineering feats such as creation of road infrastructure, as well as determining the shape of the country using a one-pointed vajra: a symbol that combined a diamond and a lightning bolt. The second was the Wake no Hiromushi (730 – 799 AD), a lady-in-waiting who has been recorded to devote herself to the nursing of sickly orphans. She is still remembered annually at the Kyoto Jidai Matsuri procession, with the English-translated leaflet describing her as a ‘woman who took care of many orphans, her merciful deeds served as the foundation for Japanese orphanages’.
During the late Kamakura and Muromachi periods of Japan, the country was split into small, non-unified states. During these periods, the welfare of the needy was left to the actions of local feudal lords, most of which are recorded to care very little about the needs of those most dire. Welfare during Japan’s Middle Ages was mainly attributed to practitioners of Buddhism, such as Chōgen (1128 – 1206 AD), Eison (1201 – 1290 AD), and Ninshō (1217 – 1303 AD). Ninshō has been recorded to re-establish the Hiden-in over 500 years after its initial development, furthering the care for orphaned and needy children. As these priests were carrying out their endeavours without any form of state support backing them, they are believed to be the predecessors of today’s social work volunteers. Almost every account of these acts of altruism from early Japanese Buddhists have been described using the term jihi, which is derived from two Pali and Sanskrit words that effectively mean ‘true brotherly/parental love’ and ‘compassion’, ‘pity’, or ‘pathos’. It is a concept that is regarded as the basic attribute of an individual who seeks salvation through Mahayan Buddhist thought, otherwise known as bosatsu. Commentators believe that an understanding of jihi helps understanding the development of the welfare movement in Japan.
The second origin of welfare institutions is recorded as the Imperial Family’s efforts. There are recorded examples of welfare activity from the Imperial Family that are dated 200 years prior to Shōtoku Taishi’s introduction of the Hidenin, including almshouses within Kōkufu-ji Temple that were allegedly founded by the Empress Kōmyō in the eighth century. Official sources state that this connection of the Imperial Family with welfare activity in Japan has been a steadfast effort ever since these original recorded sources.
Empress Kōmyō, one of the earliest reported providers of welfare in Japan
It should be noted that these two alternative accounts on the genesis of social welfare in Japan should be taken with a grain of salt. One commentator states that the image of a generous emperor providing for his people is a modern construct and warns against treating the pre-modern accounts of Imperial activities too literally, welfare or otherwise. The image of the Imperial Family has been carefully moulded over the centuries in order to have people view them in a favourable light. In a similar vein, there are only tenuous links between the efforts of individual Buddhist priests in the sixth to thirteenth centuries with current welfare activities. Another commentator states that the shogunate during the Tokugawa period (1603 – 1868 AD) prevented the development of Buddhist social and medical work, instead making the priests focus on funeral and memorial services. Despite these accounts, these early accounts of Japanese welfare are still relevant and remain significant within welfare endeavours in present-day Japan.
A third origin for the onset of welfare facilities and activities has been credited to the arrival of the first Christian missionary in Japan, Francis Xavier (1506 – 1552 AD), as well as other missionaries from 1549 AD onwards. Xavier was recorded to perform numerous charitable acts alongside missionary and commercial activities, as well as being notably active in the organisation of welfare efforts for the elderly and orphaned in Western Japan. Another noteworthy figure was Luis d’Almeida (1525 – 1583 AD), a Portuguese missionary who arrived in 1552 AD, that set up a famous orphanage and hospital in Funai, present-day Ōita Prefecture.
St. Francis Xavier delivering his sermon
A common explanation for the activity of these missionaries was the population’s wanton abortion and infanticide of unwanted babies, despite their otherwise favourable first impressions of when they initially started exploring Japan. This could be considered one of the earliest accounts of “culture shock”, particularly in regards to the best way to provide welfare for a country’s citizens. The stable level of the country’s population over the three centuries has been explained by demographers to be a result of the purposeful abandonment of young children, where in comparison the Chinese population doubled in size over this same period. This is known as mabiki, or the thinning out of rice crops in order to ensure the best chances of survival and flourishing in the remaining stalks. This was certainly the case in north-western Japan, where the harsh climate and aggressive tax system made it increasingly difficult for individual families to survive with more than one or two children. Infanticide was so commonplace, that families would find solace in their actions by buying or making kokeshi dolls, which are small wooden representations of the children. These dolls, despite their original meaning being forgotten due to the tides of time, are still bought today as souvenirs or presents.
Vintage kokeshi dolls
The rationalisation for this level of infanticide during the feudal periods had both religious and economic reasons. In terms of religion, a child who was younger than 7 years old had an ‘uncertain life’, and could still return to the current world even if they were sent back to the ‘other world’ to bide their time until more favourable circumstances for their growth. They were deemed ‘intermediate beings’ who had left the other world but were not yet fully integrated with this one and it was thought as ‘sending them back’ – because of this, they were given a special, non-Buddhist funeral. Some commentators believe that this type of religious mindset meant that the rate of mabiki was around 40 percent over the whole population. William LaFleur in his book Liquid Life (1992), an account of the relationship between abortion and Buddhism in Japan, suggests that this behaviour was not a result of poverty as it was a common practice in the wealthier urban areas as well. This highlights the emphasis on the quality of life of those who were allowed to grow up as opposed to the quantity of those who survived. LaFleur states that mabiki was viewed as a positive practice of obtaining and maintaining the preferred family size, and was interpreted to be responsible parenting and a love for one's children.
When anti-Christian edicts in 1613 were established, Christian missionary work was significantly impaired and was stopped altogether in 1639, where missionaries were ordered to be expelled from the country after less than a century of welfare activity. Despite this, the teachings of Christian welfare work had still been introduced to Japan and could be referred back to when the country reopened its borders to the outside world at the end of the nineteenth century. Since then, the main providers of private personal social services have been Christian groups, despite the fact that the Christian population of Japan has never exceeded 1 percent of the total population.
Jihi - Compassion
References
Children of the Japanese State, by Roger Goodman
https://japanese-wiki-corpus.github.io/building/Hidenin%20Temple.html
https://japanese-wiki-corpus.github.io/person/WAKE%20no%20Hiromushi.html
I get to be a hero
When working with the children of the homes, we are reminded that we need to help them to stop looking in the rear view mirror and to look ahead to a point where they can be heroes and most importantly, believe it.
It is a challenge to keep an eye on the mission of what we are trying to do, year in and year out. When the years go by and the children are getting older and though they go out into the “real world” there are more then, to look after. The job is never done.
A little boy introduced to you in Sendai who wasn’t even from Japan and living in the home because his parents quit him and went back home leaving him behind. When introduced he just looks away. What else can you do when even your own parents aren’t interested?
A little girl in Iwate-ken, “When are you coming back?” Us: “ We promise we will be back” Her: “That is what they all say”"
The 3 year old boy who was moved from the baby home where the kids are raised from hospital in case their mother gave birth while in prison and then from the hospital they are cared for until 2 and transferred to a more permanent home. But he hangs on to the leg of his new teacher even if she gets up to walk across the room like he is on a ship weathering a bad storm and her leg is the only thing left he has to hang on to and he will not let go.
The teen who wanted a job, got a job interview, got the job and then never showed up for the first day of training. No one can find him. Apologizing for all the parties who had come together to make it happen. Writing him the letter so that he knows that no matter what, he is part of the team and we are still going to support him and his younger brother. That when he expresses that he wants something he is, in fact, not alone and people are moving all around him in a chorus to help him with what he desires. That he should think about talking to us more before he decides not to show up so we can talk it out. You then meet him and you can see in his eyes the switch of caring has already been switched off when he bows and apologizes to you.
The teen whose father passed when he was 8 and his younger brother 4 and the mom quits them and starts a new life somewhere else without them. You meet with him weekly because he wants to go to university and when it all gets to be a bit much, he goes missing. By the time he gets home you ask that they let you know because he is now like a son.
He is sitting with you when you explain to someone who asks, that the plan is to stick with him until he graduates high school, if he wants to go to university, we will support him, if he doesn’t we support that decision too and will help him find a job but we are sticking with him for the long run. You glance over and he is smiling as if you are talking about someone else and he cannot believe you mean him.
You take them to get suits and ties and shirts because literally no one else thought to do that.
You explain to them in letters that you may not be around for their entire life but for the rest of your life you are available to them 24/7.
You drive them to the job interviews and explain that they can do anything if they put their mind to it.
You glimpse in the rear view mirror when changing lanes to a better life but you keep your eye on the road and you too can be a hero.
Yamakawa-sensei of Matsubaen talks about support from YouMeWe NPO
During COVID 19, YouMeWe NPO has been working closely with Matsubaen and other homes to meet their online learning needs. Whether it be by funding the tablets and software they needed to subscribe to or providing laptops to freshman college students who had to return home and access their classwork remotely.
Matsubaen has been part of our Global Challenge walking around the earth virtually with the kids and the staff in the homes logging 10,000 steps a day since May 27th. We are in the final stretch as they have learned about nutrition, balance, focus and sleep. Generous donors such as www.thetombo.co.jp have placed devices in the home for the kids to use while studying at their desks and they are able to use a virtual app that has them walking through the streets of the very same countries they are visiting using the app and device to meet their 10,000 steps.
Thank you ZenWorks for the donation!
A massive thank you for Roger Berman from ZenWorks for the contribution to our “Cityzens Giving for Recovery Yokohama" project!
Tokyo-based ZenWorks provides a diverse range of licensing-related services. Through our core licensing business areas of consulting and agency services, we support the business development of premium creative content from around the world.
July Bonus Day raised over 920,000 JPY.
Thank you to all who helped with the July Bonus day, we estimate that with matching we were able to raise over 920,000 JPY ($8,576).
It was a big day with many friends and supporters helping us spread the word, donors making their donations on the day to boost the impact and pass the message on.
We started the day on the Guy Perryman Radio Show, gave updates throughout the day and ended with a group doing an online presentations about their countries and cultures for the kids online.
Thank you UM for your Global presentation to the kids
Thank you UM, a global organization who is committed to the philosophy of ‘Better’ that includes both their services but also to help build a better world. Every year they have a global Impact day where all the employees get together and give back to the community.
Last year it happened across 40 countries and this year they have expanded it to 60. Last year they had several successful activities that included helping at schools, old age homes, organizing book and food drives, etc.
Today they presented to homes in Tokyo, Fukushima and Nagoya over Zoom giving presentations on the many countries their staff are from but most especially as the kids are part of the Global Challenge walking around the earth in 100 days starting in Uluru on May 27,2020 virtually. Today’s event brought the cultures and counties alive for the kids to appreciate that much more.
