1. Poverty Affecting Education<br />JAPAN NEWS<br />TODAY: April 11th, 2009<br /> according to the survey. ‘‘While education is the key to breaking the cycle of poverty, children who have lost parents have given up hopes of advancing to higher education, including college,’’ Kudo said. ‘‘We need to take appropriate measures immediately in order to support them.’‘ At the JFBA’s symposium, Abe said, ‘‘It is necessary to guarantee the livelihood of children, regardless of whom they live with—a mother, a father, a grandparent—and regardless of their nationality.’He must have wondered whether he would ever be found. However, farmer Kunio Shiga was discovered alive and well - and sitting among the debris of his home - more than four weeks after an earthquake and tsunami devastated Japan.<br />The Ashinaga survey on widows said that as of December 2008, 9% of their high school-age children gave up on higher education due to economic difficulties, up from 6.8% in February last year. The NPO presented the voices of high school students from single-mother households in its report, which included comments such as, HERE‘‘I wanted to go on to higher education, but I have decided to find a job to support my mother, who has raised me by herself’’ or ‘‘I wanted to attend cram school to improve my academic capabilities so I could get a scholarship, but I could not do so because my family does not have enough money.’‘ The survey also showed 58.9% of the widows worked on irregular basis as of December. Their average annual earnings stood at 1,346,000 yen in 2007. In order to support themselves, 32.9% of the single mothers go to work even when they feel sick, with some expressing concerns, such as ‘‘What will happen to my children if I fall ill?”,<br />http://www.japantoday.com/category/lifestyle/view/poverty-of-single-mother-households-highlighted<br />
