In the press review of this Friday March 26, we will address prayers and hope in New Year’s poems, Japan chooses not to continue the “Go To Travel” campaign, and an investigation into the corporal punishment inflicted on them. children.
Poems of hope in times of pandemic
This year, reading New Years poems at the Tokyo Imperial Palace, like so many other events, took place under health restrictions. The ceremony, which is normally held in mid-January, welcomed only three people in the Matsu-no-Ma ceremonial hall, while normally around 100 participants are present. People whose poems were selected and who could not make it to Tokyo still had the opportunity to participate online. A total of 13,657 poems were submitted around the theme of fruit. Many poems, including those composed by Emperor Naruhito and Empress Masako, contained their prayers and hopes for an end to the pandemic.
The resumption of the “Go To Travel” program postponed
Japan will not resume its program “Go To Travel”Before June. While the state of emergency was lifted for Tokyo and its neighboring departments earlier this week, the Japanese government fears a resurgence of COVID-19. Until the campaign resumes, the government will allocate 300 billion yen to municipalities to support the promotion of domestic tourism. From April 1 to May 31, it will also provide grants of up to 7,000 yen per person for overnight trips to areas low in COVID-19. Remember that the program was launched last July to help tourism face the pandemic and was suspended at the end of December in response to a peak in infections.
Half of Japanese people still use corporal punishment
According to investigation led by the NGO Save the Children Japan, 55.4% of parents or guardians hit their child to educate or punish them. Although the results are lower than in 2017 (70.1%), this survey shows that corporal punishment is still used in the home. In February, the NGO also interviewed 344 children aged 6 to 17. Among them, 38.7% said they had already been physically punished. Megumi Nishizaki, project manager in the domestic affairs department and head of the investigation, said: “ Although some improvement has been noted compared to 2017, further awareness raising activities are needed.”
