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Children

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The government will promote digitalization in semi-public sector (children), which is closely related to people's lives and has a large ripple effect on other private sectors with significant involvement by the national government.

Overview

Regarding children and families in difficult situations such as poverty and abuse, it has been pointed out that support is not delivered or is difficult to reach because the actual situation is difficult to see and grasp. In order for the necessary support to reach children and families who need it, it is necessary to realize active "push (outreach)" "one-stop" support.

For this reason, while ensuring the proper handling of personal data, municipalities and support organizations are utilizing the information and data on individual children obtained in the course of health, welfare, education, and other initiatives to identify these children and families. In addition, the government is not considering establishing a centralized database for the management of children's information. In order to realize active "push (outreach)" and "one-stop" support.

Children and Families Agency, which was established in April 2023, will play a central role in promoting the "Digital Transformation of Child Policies," including this project, and Digital Agency will also provide support as one of the relevant ministries.

Relevant policy

Recent Efforts

Survey and Research on Specification Arrangement in Management System Coordination of Childcare Facilities, etc.

In the field of childcare and child rearing, which is one of the fields of children, there are issues such as the introduction rate of management systems for childcare facilities is said to be around 40%, and the lack of coordination requirements between systems makes it difficult to cooperate with municipalities. Based on the revised Based on the "Priority Plan for the Realization of a Digital Society" (approved by the Cabinet on June 9, 2023), the "digitalization of semi-public sector for Medical Care, Education, Disaster Prevention, Children, etc." will be promoted, so the "Survey and Research to Verify Coordination Requirements for Management Systems in Childcare Facilities, etc." project was implemented in fiscal 2023.

Report on the Results of Projects to Demonstrate Support for Children through the Coordination of Various Types of Data (Surveys and Research Concerning the Demonstration of Data Coordination by Local Governments)

Based on the "Priority Plan for the Realization of a Digital Society" (approved by the Cabinet on December 24, 2021), local governments conducted demonstration projects in FY 2022 to verify the challenges of linking educational, childcare, social welfare, and medical data across fields and using them for push-type (outreach) support according to the needs of children and families who potentially need support, regardless of types of difficulties such as poverty, abuse, truancy, and bullying. For details, please refer to the public call Guidelines and outcome reports below.

Senior Vice-Minister's Project Team for Information and Data

In order to examine the content of child-related information and date held by municipalities and support organizations, the ideal way to organize and cooperate with each data-holding organization, the status of preceding municipalities, and the ideal way of demonstration for municipalities, a project team was set up with State Minister for Digital Transformation as Chief and Cabinet Office, the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare, and the Senior Vice-Ministers of MEXT as its members, and a summary of points for discussion was compiled on June 14, 2022.

Meetings, etc.