The Nippon Foundation to Set Up 500 “Third Spaces for Children” for Children Raised in Challenging Environments [2021/04/14]
Speaking at a press conference on March 15, 2021, to announce The Nippon Foundation’s decision to set up 500 “Third Spaces for Children” across Japan where children raised in challenging environments can stop by after school to play and study with adult supervision.
“Third Spaces for Children” are small communities that are neither homes nor schools where children raised in challenging environments can spend several hours after school on weekdays. They are the places where staff and volunteers provide the children with educational support, life counseling and meals as well as an opportunity to enjoy sports and outdoor activities together.
Since 2016, The Nippon Foundation has established 37 such facilities in 20 Japanese prefectures and has verified their effectiveness. Now, in response to a growing call for more such spaces, I announced at a press conference on March 15 that we will expand to 500 the number of “Third Spaces for Children” in Japan between now and 2025, contributing a total of 50 billion yen (about $455 million) for this purpose.
According to statistics compiled by the Japanese Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry, about 2.6 million children aged under 18, or one in seven, live in poverty. The widening economic inequalities and the novel coronavirus pandemic have made life harder for these children, resulting in an increase in the number of juvenile suicides in the country. This has led many local communities to ask the foundation to build more “Third Spaces for Children.”
Under the project with the theme of “no child left behind,” the foundation helps public interest incorporated foundations, social welfare corporations, and non-profit organizations build and operate facilities, and purchase furniture, equipment and vehicles. After three years at most, the facilities will be taken over and run by those organizations or local governments.
On March 30, I attended a ceremony to open a new “Third Space for Children” in Minuma Ward, in Saitama Prefecture, north of Tokyo. This was the 38th facility since the initiative was launched in 2016 and the first under the expanded project.
The Nippon Foundation is receiving more applications between April 1 and 30 from organizations across Japan to join the project.
In 1973, my late father Ryoichi Sasakawa, founder and first chairman of The Nippon Foundation, established the Blue Sea and Green Land Foundation, known as B&G Foundation, to encourage our nation's young people to experience nature and actively participate in marine sports. It has built "B&G Marine Sports Centers," equipped with swimming pools, boathouses, gymnasiums and other athletic facilities in some 470 cities and towns all over the country.
Operated in cooperation with local governments and communities, these marine sports centers, which are also sometimes used as shelters in time of natural disasters, attract an estimated 12 million children and adults annually. They are located mostly by the sea, lakes or rivers away from big cities.
On the other hand, our new initiative calls for opening many new “Third Spaces for Children” in urban districts around the country.
As I said at the March 15 press conference, the late American zoologist Dr. Edward Morse wrote: “In no country in the world, are babies more closely attended or better behaved than in Japan,” in his book Japan Day by Day based on his observations while living in the country during the late 19th century.
Although it might have been a poorer country than now, Japan at that time preserved a culture in which whole communities worked hand-in-hand to take care of children. I honestly hope that the “Third Spaces for Children” project will help lead to a society where everyone cares for each other’s children.
The press conference was held at The Nippon Foundation headquarters in Tokyo on March 15, 2021, with some journalists attending in person and others online.
Speaking at a ceremony to open a new “Third Space for Children” in Minuma Ward, Saitama Prefecture, north of Tokyo, on March 30, 2021.
A ribbon-cutting ceremony to mark the opening of a new “Third Space for Children” in Minuma Ward, Saitama Prefecture, with the author standing second from left.
