TUCKED away in a back street among foreign embassies and wealthy homes, Hiroo Friends is one of Tokyo’s best orphanages. Its 42 children are cared for by roughly the same number of staff. At night, the children sleep in their own rooms; in the morning they walk to some of the city’s best public schools. The one thing few have is the chance of a normal family life.
Of the nearly 39,000 children in orphanages across Japan, just 12% can expect to find foster homes or adoptive parents—among the lowest rates in the rich world. Most children who enter state care will remain there until adulthood. Japanese families adopt over 80,000 people a year, but mostly as adults, typically so that they can take over the family business. In 2014 just 513 children were adopted; in March 2015 only 4,731 were in foster care.
Culture is one reason, says Yoshiko Takahashi, a manager at the Hiroo orphanage. Most Japanese are reluctant to accept children unrelated by blood. But legal and bureaucratic barriers don’t help. Biological parents remain legal guardians of children who have been institutionalised for years—often promising repeatedly to take...Continue reading
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