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On March 19, 2019, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe attended a meeting of the Ministerial Council on Child Abuse Prevention Measures at the Prime Minister’s Office.
 
At the meeting, a discussion was held on measures to prevent child abuse.
 
Based on the discussion, the Prime Minister said,
 
“The five-year-old-girl, Yua, who wrote out, in hiragana characters that she had just learned, her desire to meet her parents’ expectations even as she was abused by them, and Mia, who sent out heart-wrenching pleas for help—We cannot stop regretting that these painful and tragic incidents claim young lives as a consequence of abuse, and our feelings of remorse may never pass. It is the responsibility of all of us grown-ups to protect the lives of children.
 
With this strong resolve, we have just compiled this document on.
 
In order to implement these measures, the Government will submit a bill to amend to the Child Welfare Act and other relevant acts in this Diet session. This bill includes a series of enhanced measures to deal with the issues that have recently come to light, such as the provisions that clearly prohibit corporal punishment and provisions to review the right to discipline. It also includes separating the assignments between those officers in charge of intervention such as temporary protection and those in charge of parental support so as to enable the authorities to enforce temporary protection without hesitation as well as strengthening synergies with measures against domestic violence implemented by the counseling and support centers for spousal violence.
 
In addition to these, we also decided enhance and strengthen social child care such expanding the benefits of child welfare officers, strengthening the structure of child guidance centers, including the expansion of temporary protection facilities for children, as well as providing school lawyers to the boards of Education and former police officers to schools, expanding support to foster parents and reviewing the special adoption scheme. We will strongly promote these measures with a sense of urgency.
 
Furthermore, through the emergency safety check that I instructed at this ministerial council on February 8, there have been several cases reported that resulted in temporary protection or other measures. I ask you to continue to take all possible measures to provide such care and protection for children.
 
Amidst growing awareness among communities and relevant organizations, the number of child abuse reports has increased annually. Even under such circumstances, it is important to implement seamlessly the series of measures of prevention and early detection of child abuse, immediate and accurate response when such cases occur, and support toward the self-reliance of abused children.
 
I ask all the ministers, in particular, Minister of Health, Labour and Welfare Nemoto, to work on this issue with a strong determination such that we will exert every effort towards the eradication of child abuse – we will take all possible measures to protect the children suffering from abuse.