Towards a society where children want to embrace life InsightsEssays: Civil Society in Japan

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Posted on April 14, 2025

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Towards a society where children want to embrace life

 

The World Health Organization has released data indicating that Japan has the highest suicide mortality rate among G7 developed countries. Alarmingly, suicide is the leading cause of death among young people in their teens and twenties, reflecting unimaginable suffering. To address the challenges and issues faced by these young individuals and explore ways to alleviate their struggles, CAP Center Japan, an NPO whose acronym stands for Child Assault Prevention, hosted an online seminar on February 1, 2025.

The seminar, titled “Children Who Want to Disappear'” The Present and Future of Children, 2024, featured Ms. Atsuko Hida as the speaker. Ms. Hida is a non-fiction writer and serves as a director at CAP Center Japan.

 

Ms. Atsuko Hida

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Why report on “children who want to disappear”?

After a decade as a newspaper reporter, Ms. Hida transitioned to a career as a reportage writer, delving deeply into issues such as poverty and abuse affecting women and children. Committed to her guiding principle of truth-telling for her readers, she has authored numerous books. Among them are Corona and Women’s Poverty 2020-2022: I Heard the Voices of Women Surviving and Did That Child Who Graduated from the University of Tokyo Become Happy?

Ms. Hida’s commitment to addressing “children’s suicide” was inspired by a university student’s poignant words during a symposium. When asked about the causes behind the rise in child suicides, the student replied, “No adult teaches us how to survive. Please tell us why we must continue to live.” Deeply moved by this heartfelt plea, Ms. Hida resolved to focus her reporting on the challenges faced by children in today’s world.

 

The challenges faced by children today

Ms. Hida began by presenting the most recent data on youth suicide rates. According to the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare’s report from January 29, 2025, the provisional number of suicides among elementary and junior high school students in fiscal year 2023 was 527, already surpassing the total for fiscal year 2022. Unlike adults, the causes and motives behind youth suicides are often unclear, with increasingly complex backgrounds leading to these tragedies.

It is important to note that this figure only reflects the number of children who have died by suicide and does not account for suicide attempts or the prevalence of suicidal ideation—thoughts or contemplation of taking one’s own life. A survey conducted by The Nippon Foundation revealed that one in two individuals aged 18 to 29 has experienced suicidal ideation.

Among the background realities discussed, one particularly striking account was that of the “To-yoko Kids*,” a group Ms. Hida has personally visited and interviewed extensively. Around 2018, teenagers and young adults in their twenties began gathering in Tokyo’s Kabukicho area in Shinjuku, searching for a sense of belonging. Despite heightened media attention following a widely reported fatal assault in 2021, the situation remains unchanged. To-yoko continues to serve as a refuge for young people who have no place to call home.

*Translator’s note: “To-yoko kids” refers to marginalized and often homeless youth who congregate in the Kabukicho area of Shinjuku, specifically near the Toho Cinema building. The term “To-yoko” is derived from “next to Toho.”

 

Ms. Hida observed that between 2020 and 2023, the number of host clubs in the Kabukicho area skyrocketed from 60 to over 300, often taking over spaces left vacant by restaurants that had closed during the COVID-19 pandemic. With increased competition, hosts began targeting the young girls gathering in To-yoko. According to one individual Ms. Hida interviewed, “approximately 70% of the young people in To-yoko are female,” many of whom face challenges such as bullying, truancy, or abuse, leaving them without a sense of belonging at school or home. Hosts reportedly use enticing phrases like “Won’t you be my family?” to lure these girls into their clubs, trapping them in debt and exploiting their vulnerabilities. This often leads to coercion into prostitution, a practice that is said to occur frequently.

*Translator’s note: Host clubs in Japan are venues where male hosts provide female customers with companionship, engaging in conversation and sharing drinks for a fee. These establishments craft an atmosphere of romance and undivided attention, making them a significant aspect of Japan’s nightlife culture.

 

What lies behind the children’s situations

From her previous interviews, Ms. Hida shared three key cases: 1. abuse, 2. teenage pregnancy and pregnancy-related struggles, and 3. young carers.

A young woman in her early twenties lived her life intending to die at 20, having endured abuse from her parents throughout her childhood. Despite excelling academically due to her academically driven parents, she suffered sexual abuse from her father at home and was told by her mother that she was unwanted. She also experienced bullying in middle school. Heartbreakingly, the first searches on her first smartphone were for “I want to die” and “suicide.” Eventually, she ran away from her unbearable situation, became addicted to a host in Kabukicho, was forced into prostitution, and ultimately attempted suicide. Sadly, many women facing similar struggles turn to overdosing or self-harm as a result of their pain.

One individual who lived as a young carer shared that she had been looking after her disabled siblings since elementary school. Because her father was authoritarian and her mother was busy with part-time work, she stopped attending school and was the only one available to care for her older siblings. According to research findings from the Tokyo Metropolitan Institute for Medical Science, children who are young carers between the ages of 14 and 16 face an increased risk of self-harm and suicidal ideation.

 

How to build a society where children want to live

In one of her interviews, Ms. Hida learned from a female counselor that a young woman in her early twenties had said, “The faces of the people who had been there for me were what stopped me when I thought of dying.”

According to a psychiatrist, the experience of overcoming hardship with support is crucial for developing hope. Ms. Hida explained that young people carrying deep pain need to process their trauma, and for those supporting them, the most vital action is to listen attentively. The young woman in her early twenties, previously mentioned, is now said to be working with a private support organization, helping women in To-yoko, after surviving her own suicide attempt.

At the University of Tokyo, a new academic discipline called “Hope Studies” (Kibo-gaku) was launched 20 years ago to examine the relationship between “hope”—traditionally considered an individual attribute—and society. It seeks to identify ways for everyone to actively construct their own sense of hope, recognizing that young people isolated in an unequal society may find it difficult to maintain hope.

 

CAP Center Japan: Dedicated to protecting children’s futures

The diverse examples underscore the painful reality that violence, in the form of abuse and bullying, distresses children and pushes them towards suicide. CAP Center Japan, the hosting organization for this seminar and where Ms. Hida is a director, is dedicated to eradicating such violence and strives to create a society where every child can live with security, self-assurance, and liberty.

CAP Center Japan conducts preventative education programs to safeguard children from violence, targeting educators, parents, community members, and the children themselves. They also run CAP Training Centers to equip individuals with the skills to implement these programs and actively engage in outreach and information sharing, like this seminar. They are currently holding a donation campaign, which runs until March 8, 2025, to protect the futures of as many children as possible.

Listening to Ms. Hida’s account of the harsh realities faced by children was truly heart-wrenching. It is clear that young people who say they want to disappear are not really seeking “death.” What they desperately need are warm, caring adults who will stand alongside them, and fundamentally, the elimination of violence and other contributing problems. This was a valuable experience that compelled me to think anew about my own potential to make a difference.

 

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Original text by Hinako Ishii, JNPOC’s volunteer writer, originally posted on February 21, 2025; translated by JNPOC.

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