OSAKA--As part of a class project, a high school female student crafted a question to nine major political parties ahead of the July 10 Upper House election that touched upon her family’s plight.

The 15-year-old student at Osaka Prefectural Nishinari High School said she thought about her parents as she came up with the question.

Her draft question asked, “Single mothers have low incomes, and the currently available child rearing allowances are less than sufficient. I believe they need to be raised. What do you think?”

The student’s parents got divorced when she was 4, and she now lives in a family of three with her mother and older sister.

Her mother has told her that her father has been paying less and less child support, which is now less than half of what it initially was.

The student has stopped going to a dance school and a cram school, as her mother has often complained that money is tight and asked her to go without some things she wants to do.

Her mother is currently looking for a job.

The student said she wants her father to pay a certain amount of child support. If her mother were to ask him for that, however, she is afraid he may resort to using violence against her.

She therefore said she finds it more comfortable to receive money from the government rather than from her father.

Single parents with one child are currently entitled to receive a maximum of 43,070 yen ($317) per month in child rearing allowances from the government. And only an additional 10,170 yen is offered for a second child.

“I just don’t understand why so little is given for a second child,” the student said. “I want the child rearing allowances to be increased so people can receive money more steadily.”

NO VOTE, BUT WANTING VOICES HEARD

In the letters to the political parties, the freshmen at Nishinari High School, of whom there are 198, asked officials of the parties what they think of assistance measures for single mothers.

The school in Osaka’s Nishinari Ward has been designated by the Secretariat of the Osaka Prefectural Board of Education as one of the “empowerment schools,” which offer students who were long absent from school in the past a fresh opportunity to study.

Many of the students enrolled there live under difficult family circumstances.

Some of the students and their teachers at the school have shared their thoughts behind the questions in their letters.

“A high percentage of single mothers are nonregular employees,” Yuri Nakamura, 28, a homeroom teacher for Class 5 of first-year students, told her class during a lesson on June 16. “What do you think should be done?”

No sooner had she asked the question than several students raised their voices.

“Raise their wages!” one of them shouted.

Nearly half of all students in the class come from single-parent households, either fatherless or motherless.

The lesson was part of “anti-poverty learning,” an original program offered at Nishinari High School. It was started about 15 years ago under the stated goal of “severing the chain of poverty.”

The program takes up such subjects as welfare benefits and human rights for minorities, and gives students an opportunity to learn about similar social issues that have a direct bearing on their lives. The students have been recently learning about single mothers.

Figures of the government’s Comprehensive Survey of Living Conditions show the annual working incomes of single mothers averaged 2.31 million yen in 2019. The welfare ministry’s Nationwide Survey on Single-Parent Families showed that only 24.3 percent of single-mother households received child support from divorced fathers in fiscal 2016.

Some of the students, on learning about these realities, said they thought the current system for providing assistance is less than sufficient.

The high school freshmen, who are 15 or 16, are not eligible to vote in the Upper House election because they are under 18. The teachers still thought they could participate in society through this alternative approach of sending written questions to political parties.

MAKE SURE CHILD SUPPORT IS PAID

One 16-year-old male student also said he was seeing the issue in light of his own circumstances.

“I believe there should be a law or a system for making sure that child support is paid,” his draft question said. “What is your take on this?”

The student’s parents were divorced when he was in elementary school.

His mother is working part time. His older sister and older brother have also entered the workforce after finishing high school, without going on to college, to help with the family’s finances.

The student has never been told about his father paying any child support. But he does not believe his mother is receiving anything of the sort, because his father has been seen driving around in a luxury car while his mother and his siblings are busy working.

The student said he is planning to work part time to pay his own cellphone bills.

The Civil Law says that parents getting divorced should agree on how they will share the expenses for raising their children. That provision, however, is not legally enforceable.

Slightly less than 90 percent of all divorces are settled by mutual agreement, without the intervention of a court. That means few of the couples getting divorced make formal arrangements on child support payments through mediation by a court or other procedures.

In some countries outside Japan, child support payments are collected by administrative organs in certain cases.

“There should be a system for making sure that child support is paid,” the student said. “I have come to think it is important to raise our voices so officials will think about policy measures from the viewpoint of children as well.”

The curriculum of the “anti-poverty learning” program is the brainchild of Akio Hige, another teacher at Nishinari High School.

“Our program is aimed at helping the students see their own lives in light of society, take notice of the issue of social structures and thereby grow into a protagonist who will make active approaches to society,” said Hige, 62.

“Even if we do not receive a reply, that’s also a finding. Taking this opportunity, I would like to pass down the importance of sending out a message to society.”

Many of the students living in poverty internalize the situation that they are in by blaming their parents or themselves.

But Hige said they have an opportunity to free themselves from a similar notion of individual responsibility, as opposed to social responsibility, by learning about social security systems and realizing that poverty arises from defects in them.

“I hope they will grow to have a critical eye on society and be able to take action by thinking about what needs to be done,” the teacher said.

QUESTIONS SENT TO POLITICAL PARTIES

[Full text of the written questions worked out by the Nishinari High School freshmen]

(1) Single mothers have low incomes. We believe the currently available child rearing allowances are less than sufficient and need to be raised. What do you think?

(2) It is said that only about 20 percent of divorced husbands are paying child support. We believe there should be a law or a system for making sure that child support is paid. What is your take on this?

(3) We believe that wages for women, not just single mothers, should be raised. What do you think?

(4) A high percentage of single mothers are nonregular workers. We believe that wages for nonregular workers should be raised. What is your take on this?

(5) We believe there should be more scholarship grants, which do not need to be repaid, so children from fatherless households can go on to higher-level schools. What do you think?

(6) We believe that businesses and workplaces should create an environment that single mothers find it easier to work in. What is your take on this?