Photo/Illutration Mitsue Tashiro speaks at a news conference in Tokyo on Nov. 28. At her right is Saki Torizuka, a colleague at Save the Children Japan. (Emi Hirai)

Nearly half of Japanese adults have never heard of the U.N. Convention on the Rights of the Child, according to a survey by nongovernmental organization Save the Children Japan.

“Whether people know about children’s rights is crucial when we discuss the role of society, such as how to eliminate poverty among children and how to guarantee their rights,” Mitsue Tashiro, the group’s program manager for domestic programs, said.

The survey conducted in July received responses from 2,163 children between the ages 15 and 17 and 27,837 adults nationwide. The results were released at the end of November.

Only 3.7 percent of adults said they know a lot about the treaty, including its content, 12.6 percent said they know a little bit about it, and 36.1 percent said they have only heard its name.

The remaining 47.6 percent said they have not heard about the treaty.

Separately, 48.9 percent of adults said they have not heard about children living in poverty, up sharply from 28.8 percent in the previous survey five years ago.

Save the Children cited the falling number of children and the decrease in media reports about child poverty among the likely reasons behind the decline in awareness.

Of the adults who know a lot about the Convention on the Rights of the Child, 43.6 percent said they also know well about child poverty, compared with 2.9 percent among all adult respondents.

Tashiro said her group plans to call on central government ministries and local governments to raise public awareness about children’s rights.

Article 12 of the convention stipulates the right of children to express their views and to be heard.

While about 40 percent of children who responded to the survey said this right is important, only 25.9 percent of adults felt the same way.

The Children and Families Agency conducted a survey covering those between the ages of 13 and 29 in Japan, the United States, Germany, France and Sweden in 2023.

A combined 42.2 percent of respondents in Japan, the lowest among the five countries, said they “feel” or “feel somewhat” that they have the right to express their views and to be heard.

The highest ratio was 75.6 percent recorded in Sweden.

“Even adults who interact with children at schools and day care centers are not sufficiently aware of children’s rights,” Tashiro said. “It is necessary to build tools for adults to correctly understand children’s rights and communicate them to children and to study ways to directly provide children (with relevant knowledge).”

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