WHITE PAPER ON YOUTH 2005 -- Part 2 Administrative Policies on Youths
In June 2003, the Headquarters for Youth Development was set up within the Cabinet, chaired by the Prime Minister, with all Cabinet ministers, as a framework to further promote policies for youth development. The Cabinet has also designated a minister extraordinare who is responsible for planning measures for youth development and mitigation of declining birthrate. This minister presides over meetings of deputy chiefs of the Headquarters, where interdepartmental cooperation and collaboration are strengthened to facilitate implementation of necessary measures and ensure successful implementation. In December 2003, the National Youth Development Policy was adopted at the headquarters, outlining basic principles and the mid- and long-term direction of policies of the government on youth development. The youth development approach has since been promoted based on this Policy.
In fiscal 2004, the Division Manager Level Committee for the Promotion of Youth Development reached an agreement on the guidelines for the improvement of social environment surrounding youths (to cope with the development of information society). Also, the Division Manager Level Committee on Measures against Juvenile Delinquency finalized the plan for the establishment of society-wide support system for juveniles through cooperation of relevant organizations. In addition, those two Committees exchanged information and opinions on current status of implementation of measures, future plans, etc. especially on important subjects such as child abuse and juvenile delinquency.
The Cabinet Office has been providing various kinds of support to further develop the national campaigns for youth development, which were initiated by the government's proposal calling for concerted efforts by all in November 1965.
In late December of 2004, the Declining Fertility Society Policy Council, consisting of all Cabinet members, finalized the action plan on important measures to be implemented under the General Principles Concerning Measures for the Society with a Declining Birthrate. The Policy was adopted by the Cabinet members in June, 2004 as the basic state measures for stopping the rapid declining birthrates. (This action plan is called the "Child-Care Support Plan.")
This Child-Care Support Plan intends to clarify specific measures to be intensively implemented during the period of five years ending fiscal 2009 and their goals, and also help people visualize an ideal status of our society about ten years later
In November 2001, the Japanese government submitted to the Committee on the Rights of the Child the second governmental report on how our domestic measures have been implemented in accordance with the Convention on the Rights of the Child. The Committee examined our report and accordingly adopted the Final View on Japan in January 2004.
Accepting the Final View with sincerity, the government of Japan intends to make efforts in the implementation of the convention, while considering the opinions of civil society and in cooperation among relevant authorities.
In August 2, 2004 and in January 24, 2005, Japan signed and ratified the Optional Protocol on the Involvement of Children in Armed Conflict and the Optional Protocol on the Sale of Children, Child Prostitution and Child Pornography respectively. Those protocols are supplements to the Convention on the Rights of the Child, and Japan is making efforts to implement those protocols too.