JAPAN: State counselling centres dealt with 17,725 cases of child abuse last year, up 53 per cent on the year before, according to a government report, and more than 16 times the number in 1990. A child abuse prevention law, enforced last November, obligates schoolteachers, nurses, doctors and health officials to keep an eye out for abuse cases and report them. Previously the public refused to acknowledge the problem.
Satomi Iwasawa, a Tokyo-based education journalist, suggested causes were the higher divorce rate, which has put a strain on parents, and dubious parenting methods promoted in the media. Full story www.tes.co.uk
Michael Fitzpatrick
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