June 15, 2019

The Okinawa Prefectural government on June 14 published survey results showing that the poverty rate among children of compulsory school age (aged between six and 15 years) decreased to 25% in 2018 from 29.9% in the previous survey three years ago. However, given the national rate of 13.9%, the child poverty is still a serious problem in Okinawa.

Many parents living in poverty work as non-regular workers. In the prefecture’s survey, the percentage of parents who did not take their children who get ill to doctors increased in 2018 compared with the previous survey in 2015. A major reason for this was that parents were busy working.

The free entry section of the survey contained parents’ comments: “I want to use free tutoring services,” and “I don’t want to force my child to give up on his/her dream due to financial difficulties.”

Later in the day at a regular press conference, Okinawa Governor Tamaki Denny said, “Taking the comments and demands expressed by parents and children in the survey seriously, I’ll work hard to create a society where no one will fall behind financially.”

Past related article:
> Gov’t survey finds one in seven children still in poverty [June 28, 2017]