1 in 7 Japanese Children live in Poverty

It's rare that we get this kind of story from Japan. Statistical stories are hard to find from Japan because their government doesn't keep official poverty figures. Part of the reason for not keeping the stats is because of the rapid growth Japan experienced since World War II.

So, from the group called Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, is the followinganalysis of child poverty in Japan. Our snippet comes from Kazuo Otsu of the Daily Yomiuri

According to statistics released by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, one out of every seven Japanese children under 17 lives in poverty.

Poverty has long been known to adversely effect children's health and education, but there also are concerns now that growing up in poverty tends to lock children into a cycle of poverty that leaves them economically disadvantaged all their lives.

According to a 2000 OECD survey, the child poverty rate in Japan stood at 14.3 percent, 2.2 percentage points higher than the average among developed nations and an increase of 2.3 percentage points from 10 years earlier.