This study examines how parental marital history influences ninth-grade students’ outlook on marriage. In Japan, young people’s views on marriage have diversified against the backdrop of rising lifetime singlehood and increasing divorce. However, existing research on the impact of parental divorce on children’s marriage-related attitudes has focused mainly on university students or adults. This study instead focuses on adolescents in junior high school, a period in which values remain relatively malleable and individuals begin to envision future intimate relationships.

The analysis uses microdata from the 2011 Cabinet Office Survey on the Life Attitudes of Parents and Children, covering 2,955 parent–child pairs. Family structure is classified into seven categories based on parental divorce timing, remarriage, and the presence of stepparent relationships, with continuously married first-marriage families as the reference group. The dependent variables are three indicators: expectations of being married by age 40, expectations of raising children by age 40, and a preference for early marriage. Binary logistic regression models are estimated, controlling for the child’s gender, perceived household economic conditions, family atmosphere, and gender role attitudes, and testing interactions between family structure and gender.

The results show that children who experienced parental divorce during school age (ages 7–15) have significantly lower expectations of being married and raising children by age 40. In contrast, no clear negative effects are observed for widowed mother households, father-only households, or remarried households. Although gender interactions are generally limited, boys in remarried households with stepparent relationships exhibit significantly weaker expectations regarding future childrearing than girls. These findings indicate that parental divorce can influence the formation of marriage-related outlooks even in early adolescence and highlight the importance of the timing and form of family transitions in shaping young people’s future expectations.

This study analyzes the narratives of childhood cancer survivors within five years of treatment completion. Drawing on Bury’s concept of biographical disruption, the study examines how experiences of cancer in childhood produce upheaval in developmental trajectories, temporal orientation, and social participation, using the three dimensions of narrative inquiry: sociality, temporality, and place. The analysis indicates that prolonged hospitalization and illness separated the children from everyday routines, creating uncertainty about how to interpret and integrate the time they had lost, while they were simultaneously expected to articulate positive or “resilient” narratives of survivorship. As a consequence, opportunities for expressing their lived experiences in nuanced terms were constrained. Moreover, age-based regulations within educational systems and medical assistance programs—designed around norms centered on healthy children—expose structural inequities, whereby challenges that should be addressed collectively by society were instead individualized and left to the efforts of children and their families.

In this paper, I focus on the teacher and students interactions during class activities in a elementary school first-grade class and analyzes how consensus-based activities are established within the classroom. The analysis revealed the characteristics of teacher guidance that enables consensus-based activities and the features of the school socialization process through which first-graders, as newcomers to school life, become proficient in such activities.

The analysis showed that activities undertaken based on consensus reached within the classroom did not necessarily require incorporating every student’s opinion to be viable. During the process of interaction, the teacher advanced classroom activities by building upon the contributions of specific students, while simultaneously working to make these activities seem self-evident to the class. By doing so, the teacher created a situation where students engaged in activities based on consensus not as individuals but as members of the class, enabling participation even for students who did not express their opinions.

Based on the above analysis, I pointed out that the process of school socialization, through which students become proficient in consensus-based activities, cannot be understood by treating individuals as the unit of socialization. Rather, it is achieved with the class as the unit. Furthermore, I pointed out that being a socialization process centered on the class unit means it enables students to tackle tasks that would be difficult for them to achieve individually, by working together with other students.

The aim of this study was to clarify the process by which a mid-career childcare teacher’s views on childcare shifted during a restructuring of the early childhood education and care (ECEC) center’s childcare practices. An interview was conducted with Teacher Z, a mid-career teacher who experienced the transition from same-age to mixed-age childcare, and the data were analyzed using the Trajectory Equifinality Approach (TEA).

The Equifinality Point was defined as “I want to support children’s development through mixed-age childcare.” The process leading to this point was divided into four phases:(1) the period of confusion about the transition,(2) the period of examining the transition,(3) the initial stage of implementation (the first year of transition),and (4) the period of assuming the role of chief teacher (the second year of transition).

Initially, Teacher Z experienced anxiety about the shift to mixed-age childcare. However, through implementing partial mixed-age childcare once a week, she gradually developed a sense of understanding and confidence, which led to a shift in her views on childcare toward the second Equifinality Point, defined as “I want to support children’s development through mixed-age childcare.” Furthermore, the transition resulted in deteriorating relationships among mid-career teachers. Through confronting the conflicts and difficulties arising from this experience, her views on childcare shifted toward “I want to support children’s development within a childcare system collaboratively created by the entire nursery school.”

The findings of this study may provide implications for ECEC centers considering the restructuring of their childcare practices.

This paper is to examine how young people who shared the context of an Educational Difficulties school give meaning to the interpersonal relationships formed there within their post-high school lives.

To answer this question, this paper focused on “recalled school experiences” based on qualitative research with graduates of a upper secondary specialized training school (hereafter referred to as School X).

Analysis revealed two key findings. First, while the shared context and close student-student and student-teacher relationships within X School served as resources supporting a sense of security and self-affirmation during enrollment, they generated normative conflicts and misunderstandings in post-graduation workplaces or further education settings. These were interpreted as sources of hardship and feelings of inferiority. Second, when facing such difficulties, the “recalled school experiences” concerning relationships at School X were also found to be reinterpreted as a source of support for overcoming challenges in social life. Specifically, relationships formed at School X continued after graduation, mediating emotional stability and access to institutional resources.

Thus, it became clear that supportive relationships at School X carry an ambivalent meaning: while they can potentially hinder graduates’ social independence, they can also serve as a foundation bridging them to public support agencies when facing life difficulties.

This paper will clarify the expressive techniques of performing arts for primarily infants aged 0 to under 3 years old, namely infant-oriented performing arts, also known as “Baby Theater,” and examine their educational significance. To investigate these research questions, the analysis of selected works by creative groups with outstanding skills and proven track records. This analysis revealed expressive techniques in infant-oriented performing arts. Based on the premise that infants experience performances alongside caregivers: 1) Ensuring infant safety while engaging their multisensory capabilities, 2) Expressing emotions through diverse methods, 3) Reconstructing infants’ daily lives scenes, 4) Constructing and expressing relationships among elements within the work including the audience, 5) Accepting infants’ free and autonomous appreciation and participation. The infant-oriented performing arts provide with foundational experiences in cultural and artistic enjoyment through these elements. These experiences foster learning and growth as social and cultural beings. They also promote the cultivation of cultural values by encouraging shared appreciation with caregivers. Furthermore, infant-oriented performing arts serve as a shared platform for child and childcare support and community welfare. As called for by the Basic Act for the Promotion of Culture and the Arts, they contribute to cultural and artistic enjoyment from infancy and considered an effective form of social prescribing for social inclusion through the lens of culture and the arts.

This study argues that childhood is shaped by the interactions between adults and children. It is based on ethnographic data collected in Romania. This academic challenge lies at the intersection of contemporary debates in anthropology and sociology of children and childhood. These disciplines have discussed how academic research can overcome the hierarchical dichotomies between adult/researcher and child/subject.

To this end, the study provides an overview of academic arguments in anthropology and the sociology of children and childhood, as well as the crisis of representation in anthropology and contemporary discussions in the sociology of children and childhood. Through this review, the study identifies a theoretical framework through which anthropology and the sociology of children and childhood can communicate and develop further.

The following chapter presents the ethnographic data. This study employed long-term fieldwork as its research method. It was carried out in Romania from 2019 to 2021. The study is based on data collected in a village near Brașov, in the center of the territory.

The ethnography is described from the perspectives of both adults and children. Data from both groups shows how childhoods are reproduced through interaction between adults’ requirements and children’s acceptance or rejection, though this does not mean children can always negotiate with adults.

In conclusion, this study argues that children are active participants in the reproduction of local childhoods, not merely recipients of a childhood defined by adults. Furthermore, this study highlights the importance of considering children’s perspectives when discussing the concept of childhood, in order to avoid falling into the hierarchical dichotomy between adults and children.

The purpose of this paper is to clarify how Diversified Schools include students experiencing non-attendance and to identify possibilities of exclusion from the perspectives of the graduates. Through an analysis of the interviews, the findings of this paper are as follows.

First, some students adjusted their absent days to meet transfer requirements. On the other hand, school transfers were achieved through flexible judgements by school principals, such as individual counseling and interviews, even when students did not meet the transfer requirements. These findings suggest that inclusion in Diversified Schools is made possible not through the uniform application of transfer requirements, but through multiple ways involving both students’ adaptation and flexible judgement from school.

Second, official recognition as a “non-attending student” did not generate negative self-perception; rather, it served as an opportunity for students to form positive identities and develop a sense of security. Though previous research has suggested that students attending a school specializing in supporting non-attending students can experience a sense of stigma, this study found that such recognition could foster a sense of camaraderie as well as a sense of security and promote inclusion in school.

Third, the students may experience difficulties in school attendance after transfer, indicating that new forms of exclusion may emerge within Diversified Schools.

The findings of this paper clarify the transfer process and identify not only functions of inclusion but also possibilities of exclusion from the perspectives of the graduates.

As a policy implication, it is necessary not only to increase the number of Diversified Schools, but also to qualitatively evaluate the voices of current and former students.

To elucidate one aspect of the significant emergence of “children as consumers” in Japan during the 1960s, this paper explored children’s agency within marketing to children. This paper analysed the ethical children’s marketing campaign conducted by Citizen Watch Co., Ltd. between 1963 to 1965. The author, in examining the position of children within this initiative, categorised this campaign into two activities and analysed the development of the perspective on children within each activity.

In the preface, the author reviewed research on children as consumers in Japan, explaining the purpose and significance of this paper and the sources examined. In the second section, the author revealed that this child-focused marketing campaign was underpinned by a move to incorporate the populous junior high school age group into the watch market. In the third section, the author explored that children were positioned as “consultants” who provided opinions to businesses based on their research, and it became clear that children were regarded as fully-fledged individuals on equal standing with adults in this campaign. In the fourth section, the author examined that children were perceived as building connections with peers across school and community boundaries.

The last section summarizes the discussion and provides new insights into children as consumers in Japan during the 1960s. The author clarified that these two types of children’s agency had been constructed within this campaign. The author also indicated that children’s agency within this campaign had limitations in that children’s agency was not positioned as challenging corporations or consumer society. Moreover, it became clear that the strategy of expecting children as consumers, to transcend the educational view of childhood centered on schools also ultimately failed.

The field of community development stands as a key proponent of the perspective of active children in Japan. This study contributes to research on views of children by clarifying the historical context and underlying logic behind the emergence of children’s participation discourse specifically within the field of urban planning. From the practices and writings of Morio Uzuki and Isamu Kinoshita, this study reconstructs the formation of two typical logics of children’s participation discourse originating from the field and offers sociological analysis.

In the 1960s and 1970s, the field of urban planning reflected on conventional approaches and advocated for community development, thereby seeking participatory decision-making. A tendency to focus on “children” as part of the decision-making disadvantaged existed. Furthermore, within workshops as a participatory method, the realization grew that children’s perspectives and their ability to think beyond vested interests proved effective in involving adults and fostering dialogue.

In the mid-1990s, Kinoshita developed a theory demonstrating the positive cycle between community development and children’s participation, which was synchronized with domestic educational reforms and international discussions on children’s rights. By the 2000s, as New Public Management renewed approaches to resident participation, Uzuki introduced and developed participatory community development programs for children as a key to the sustainability of community development systems.

Sociologically, this history can be interpreted as the development of self-reflection within the field of urban planning. The intensifying reflexivity in urban planning since the Garden City identified resident participation as a key to this reflection, further focusing on children’s characteristics. However, compared to the development of reflexivity in child-centered education, the degree of reflection on the concept of the children is not as profound. Logically, while children’s participation may become key to making resident participation substantive, the risk of interrupting the very reflexivity inherent in resident participation itself is also present.

This report explores an innovative approach to voter education that utilizes mock elections to prompt junior high school students to confront regional challenges as “their own issues.” By implementing a standardized instructional plan across schools with starkly different regional characteristics—specifically a small town facing depopulation and a metropolitan area—this practice intended to prompt students to recognize local challenges more intensely and foster a robust awareness of their roles as future sovereigns.

The instructional design consisted of three phases: policy analysis, mock voting, and an online exchange. During the role-play-based family council in Phase II, a significant “internalized insight” occurred; as students engaged in heated debates from their assigned perspectives, they shifted from being passive observers to active stakeholders. One student noted that while they previously viewed the town from a distance, the practice made them feel that regional issues were directly “connected to their own lives”.

A key element was the introduction of “outsider” perspectives through interactive communication with a school in a different regional context. In the online exchange, students were surprised by the differing voting results—where urban students prioritized medical facilities, local students focused on regional revitalization through a theme park. This contrast triggered a metacognitive opportunity, allowing students to re-examine their own local situations from a fresh vantage point and notice resources or crises, such as infrastructure decline, they had previously overlooked.

The results show that students successfully internalized their local challenges by overlaying fictional election issues onto their actual hometown realities. This heightened awareness led to proactive involvement, with students voluntarily participating in local cleaning and supporting welfare facilities. Ultimately, this practice demonstrated that bridging regional inquiry with mock elections empowers students to acquire the ability to devise solutions and implement concrete actions. Such experiences from early adolescence serve as a vital foundation for sustainable regional development and future leadership.

The purpose of this paper is to report on the practices of Sakura Kyoushitsu, a children’s cafeteria that provides “opportunities for experiential activities” beyond merely serving meals, and to present the perspective that children’s cafeterias have the potential to correct disparities in experiential opportunities and contribute to curbing the reproduction of social stratification.

In recent years, it has been pointed out that disparities in children’s experiential opportunities, stemming from factors such as household economic circumstances, can reinforce inequality through the formation of children’s noncognitive skills and their career choices, thereby promoting the reproduction of social stratification. In this context, the Sakura Kyoushitsu children’s cafeteria, located in Okinawa Prefecture where child poverty is severe, collaborates with local school social workers. As targeted support primarily for children from low-income families, it provides not only meals and a safe space but also diverse experiential activities tailored to children’s requests (such as musical instrument playing, calligraphy/ink painting, drone operation, stargazing, museum visits, etc.) alongside learning support. Furthermore, as part of community-based learning, the project highlights a collaboration with a local brewery to develop and sell products upcycled from beer yeast residue. This initiative allowed children to experience the entire process from planning and prototyping to cooking, marketing, and sales. University student volunteers participated in these efforts both on-site and online. Based on the above, this practice facilitates: ① providing experiential opportunities and ② building relationships through ongoing interaction with student volunteers, thereby enabling the transmission of school-affiliated “culture” across diverse attributes and groups. Future research will track the long-term impact of these initiatives on social-emotional skills and educational achievement.