Japan Thinks of the Children

I recently saw that Japan had topped Save the Children's annual Child Development Index, which ranks nations on how well they care for their children. I wasn't surprised in the least: I've seen first-hand how good the country is at providing care for its kids, from offering free health care to children under 6 (costs for doctor visits and medicines are covered entirely by the health insurance system) to a structured schedule of vaccinations provided free by each city, which has helped Japan attain one of the lowest infant mortality rates in the world (Japan was #3, America was...#180). Care for a child starts with the first visit to an obstetrician, where the new mother-to-be is issued a boshi techo, or "Mother-and-Child Notebook" in which everything about the child will be recorded: size and estimated weight during each stage of gestation, the results of various tests at birth, the complete history of all vaccinations, development of speech and motor skills, and so on. Japan's desire to care for its children well shows in education, too, with a much higher level of participation by parents in PTA-like organizations than I've seen in the U.S. I've never heard of school budgets being cut, either, and the subject of education seems pretty sacrosanct among Japanese politicians. As Japan tries to battle its "famine" of children brought on by the country's low birth rate, it's good to see that each child is being cared for well.

This game appears to be a DS title developed to teach new mothers the things they need to do when their babies, arrive, e.g. how to put them in the bath, etc.