New Term Begins Under Bear Alert

A Japanese midwife is campaigning to reform sex education in schools, traveling across the country to teach children about their bodies, pregnancy, contraception, and sexual violence prevention, as longstanding restrictions in the national curriculum leave teachers uncertain about how much information they can provide.

Japan's children are increasingly turning away from books, with a nationwide survey finding that more than 70% spend less than an hour reading each week and nearly one in five do not read at all, raising concerns about literacy and learning as schools and families search for ways to rebuild reading habits.

France has seen days of protests in Paris over the rising cost of living and declining access to public services, including state education. Some demonstrations have been marred by violence and looting.

In Japan, excessive overtime work could lead to a presumed cause of death. Lots of workers have logged very high overtime hours. Families no longer accept compensation as the end of the matter and have started taking employers to court instead. These cases have started to decide what a company must know about its staff hours, and what it must do once it knows.

Tokyo's Metropolitan Police Department has released a warning video highlighting the dangers of illegal part-time jobs advertised on social media, showing how young people can be drawn into organized crime through promises of easy money before being threatened with violence if they attempt to escape.

Local governments across Japan are stepping up efforts to recruit people who hold teaching licenses but are not working in schools, known as "paper teachers," as a worsening teacher shortage has seen the national ratio of applicants to available elementary school teaching positions fall from 12.5 in fiscal 2000 to just 2 in 2025.

A growing number of Chinese families are moving to Japan to escape their country's fiercely competitive education system, attracted by a more relaxed learning environment and better quality of life, as Japan's foreign resident population reaches a record 4.28 million and universities report a sharp increase in Chinese students seeking to build their futures in the country.

The proportion of parents in Japan who want a second child has fallen to a record low of 28.2%, according to a survey by major life insurer Meiji Yasuda, highlighting growing financial pressures, demanding work schedules and concerns about the future that are making it increasingly difficult for families to consider having more children.