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Japan Press Service Co., Ltd. is the only news agency providing information of progressive, democratic movements in Japan

Neighborhood-wide efforts needed for safety of community and children

On November 22, a 7-year-old girl was killed and left in a cardboard box by the roadside in Hiroshima City. On December 1, another a 7-year-old girl was found dead in a forest in Imaichi City in Tochigi Prefecture, with several stab wounds. On December 10, a 12-year-old girl was stabbed to death in Uji City, Kyoto.

With heinous crimes against children occurring one after another, neighborhood-wide efforts with coalitions of schools, parents, communities, and local governments are increasing to protect children and provide safe communities.

In Kamo City in Niigata Prefecture, a Japanese Communist Party member of the local assembly together with local residents succeeded in providing 24 school buses to take students to and from the city's 11 primary and junior high schools.

These school buses had originally operated only during the winter months, but in the wake of the murder of a 7-year-old girl by a pedophile in Nara City in November of last year, the buses transport children to and from schools throughout the city all year.

Omomo Kazuaki, JCP member of the Kamo City Assembly, told an Akahata reporter that the central government should spend more money for the education and safety of children because local governments are in financial difficulties although they put priority on children's lives and safety.

An Akahata editorial on December 11 also argued for the need to establish a neighborhood-wide network of cooperation because of the limitations of efforts by parents and teachers alone. Excerpts are as follows:

To establish such a network, it is essential for companies to change their present working rules into one that guarantees workers' participation in community activities.

Shortening working hours to the same level as European countries will eventually contribute to neighborhood security as workers have spare time to take part in their community activities.

Under the present trend that divides people into "losers and winners" and that allows cold-hearted measures against the socially vulnerable, crimes targeting children or the weak are frequently occurring.

The JCP has pointed out the distorted society promoted by "capitalism without rules" for many years and calls for a dramatic improvement in the child-rearing environment.
- Akahata, December 11, 2005