Mar 26 (NHK) - A government survey shows that about 10,000 foreign children living in Japan are possibly not receiving school education.
The education ministry conducted the survey of more than 133,000 foreign children of elementary or junior high school age, who were registered as residents nationwide as of May last year.
The ministry says 7.5 percent of them, or 10,046 children, were likely not attending school.
Among them, 649 children were confirmed as not attending any elementary, junior high or international schools.
There were 8,597 children whose education status could not be confirmed by municipality officials even though they tried by phone, home visits or other methods.
The survey did not identify 800 other children.
The ministry says the number of children who were thought to be not receiving school education decreased by nearly 50 percent from the previous survey in 2019. That is partly because municipality officials had worked harder to grasp the situation.
The ministry is encouraging municipality officials to use subsidies provided by the central government to conduct their inquiries on the situation, as well as to hire specialized personnel, such as Japanese language instructors.
