Child-Rearing Costs Soar in Junior, Senior High School in Japan

Tokyo, Oct. 23 (Jiji Press)–Total costs to raise a first child in Japan soar when the child enters junior or senior high school, a study by the National Center for Child Health and Development showed. The total cost to raise a child was 16.32 million yen through junior high school graduation and 21.72 million yen through senior high school, according to the survey, which covered more than 4,100 mothers across the country whose first child was aged 18 or younger in November. Compared with the findings of a survey on child-raising costs until graduating junior high school, conducted by the Cabinet Office in 2009, the costs went up by about 200,000 yen, mainly due to increases in living costs. The latest survey showed that yearly costs increased with the child’s age. Living costs, such as those for food and clothing, accounted for more than half of the total at every age. By child’s age, the costs totaled some 800,000 yen per year for a child aged 6 or younger, 1 million yen for elementary school students, 1.4 million yen for junior high school students and 1.8 million yen for senior high school students. Kenji Takehara, head of the center’s Department of Health Policy, said there is a lack of data that could provide the basis for assessing the financial support needed for child-rearing households. “Support should be based on data,” he said. END [Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]