Certified Nonprofit Corporation 3keys

The Society We Are Aiming for

No Child Can Be Neglected

Certified Nonprofit Corporation 3keys will make sure all children’s rights are guaranteed in an environment in which they were born and raised.

The current situation of children in Japan is becoming serious. There are child issues such as child abuse, child poverty, and child isolation. However, in Japan, an aging society, the budget for education and welfare / social security for children is small. Also, education and affection for children is based on the awareness and abilities of individuals surrounding children such as parents and teachers. Depending on what kind of family and environment they are raised in, there is a big difference in the education and affection that children can receive. We aim to be a society where we can all receive sufficient education and affection. It also means the rights of all children are guaranteed, no matter what environment we are born and raised in.

What 3keys do

3keys values two types of approach. The first one is providing direct support for children. The second one is disseminating information to society and changing the way of society. Japan is currently said to be the world's most aging society. Therefore, most of the administrative systems and expenditures are for elderly care, pensions, and medical care. Partly because of this, the enhancement of children's education and welfare is currently lagging behind. The poverty rate of children is the highest among developed countries, and the poverty rate of single-parent families and the response level of child abuse are the worst in the world.

If we do not enhance the social security for children and change the way of society, the fate of children will be determined by the environment in which they were born and raised. Of course, it is necessary for the Japanese society to reach out the government. However, until the day when the children benefit from the efforts, the Japanese society have to support children in front of them who are in trouble.

We need the help of donors and supporters to quickly provide support to children who are still in need and to create a society where everyone can live comfortably. Just waiting for the government to budget and institutionalize cannot stop the increasing number of children who have no hope for their future. I would be grateful if you could join us in helping to improve the environment for our children.

Informing and Changing

Children live in a society created by adults. Unlike adults, children cannot escape from it. Whether they are bullied at school or abused at home, children cannot transfer to different school, leave their parents, or buy a cell phone by themselves. The role of an adult is to guarantee everything that should be guaranteed in childhood for every child. In order to do so, adults must first understand the current situation of children and their rights. The situation of current children and adults’ childhood is very different. Therefore, it is impossible to create and provide a society where children can feel at ease with the common sense and values of the times when adults were children. Parents and teachers are not the only people who play a role in helping children live comfortably. In order for adults to correctly understand the current situation of children and to fulfill responsibilities, we encourage as many adults as possible to properly educate and play a role in the current situation.

Providing a Safety Net

Unlike in the past when we, adults, were children, today’s children live without the boundaries between the two worlds: offline and online. However, neither of them guarantees an environment in which children can grow up comfortably.

At school, children face bullying and standardized evaluation. At home, children face physical abuse, verbal abuse, neglect, domestic violence, sexual abuse, and maltreatment. In addition, there are sexual victimization and unreasonable working environment in a society including the Internet. There are too many threats which prevent children from growing up freely. If you happen to be born in a good family, if you happen to attend a good school or meet a good teacher, if you happen to meet a good adult, your childhood will be guaranteed. Do you think such a society is acceptable?

We provide safety nets (both online and offline) that support children to grow up freely. We are aiming to offer a place where children can easily drop in when they are hurt by their family, school, or society, need to take a rest, or want to keep a little distance from others in order to regain proper childhood.

Creating Contents

On behalf of schools and homes, we create a variety of contents and spread information about children's rights and their dignity, so that children can protect themselves. We believe all children must know about their rights and dignity. In order to reach all teens, we not only create but also publicize with various online tools (SNS etc.) used by teens.

The Current Situation of Japan

People might have heard about the current situation of children and young adults in Japan. Many of them are experiencing child abuse, truancy, bullying, suicide, poverty, and unexpected pregnancy.

In 2019, Japan hit the highest number of child abuse cases. There were 193,780 child abuse cases in 2019 (159,838 in 2018). In addition, in Japan, one of seven children are living in poverty. There are many children suffering from abuse and poverty at home, where it should be a base of their life.

At schools, the second most important place for children next to home, "futoko" (a term used to refer to students who are unable to go to school for more than 30 days per year, due to psychological reasons or social backgrounds) and bullying became a huge problem. In 2019, 181,272 students became "futoko" (164,528 in 2018) and there were 612,496 cases of bullying (543,933 in 2018). Both statistics hit the biggest number of all time in Japan. The main two places for children to be at– home and school–became places where they feel vulnerable, face abuse and abusive languages, and experience poverty, and bullying.

Japan lack in improvements for children’s environment and social security system. Japan is facing aging society; thus social security is more for senior citizens and not much for children and education, which became a burden for some parents and teachers. The rate of children’s poverty is 13.5%, which is higher than OECD average; however, the poverty rate of single-parent family is more than 50%, which is one of the worst in the world.

Message

"Children and young people today are luxurious"

It is a statement that has been told by many people for over 10 years since I started this work.

But I strongly disagree with this statement.

Certainly, there used to be times when people couldn't go to school or eat enough food. However, back then, if you worked hard, there was "hope" ahead of you. With a rapid economic growth, if you went to a high school or university, you basically found a stable path to retirement through lifetime employment. In addition, your company took all the social insurance procedures for you and even after retirement, your pension was guaranteed.

In the past, if you went to a high school or university, hope and stability awaited you—

the period of high economic miracle.

Unlike the past, today's children and young people, even if they go on to a university or graduate school, are facing a very unstable era. With no lifetime employment and many non-regular employments, social insurance is not always guaranteed. In a current economic situation, it is necessary for both men and women to work, but sometimes they have to stop working because of childbirth, childcare, and long-term care. They are forced to decide whether leave work or force themselves to work and abandon childcare and long-term care to certain extent. Advances in medical technology has extended the life of human, but even if you are paying a national pension, it is no longer guaranteed you will receive it when you are old; therefore, people might have to continue to work even after the age of 60.

Children and young people live every day without finding answers to these questions: "Why do people work hard?” and "Why do people live?" The high suicide rate of children and adolescents, and school refusal and withdrawal are the screams of children who are suffering from their current situation.

If we say the period of high economic miracle is the era of sprinting, which focuses on high school or college and the few years after employment, today's children and young people are in the era of full marathon without guarantee. The "guts" and "efforts" of the period of high economic miracle is no longer rewarded. Today is an era in which you can be out of breath and mentally pressured. We must grasp how much the society have changed between the past and the present in the first place.

We lack adults who listen to the screams of today’s children, take care of children by understanding what kind of era they are living and what kind of suffering they have, and are not stuck with the common sense of the past. Families and schools are also screaming. Do you think only family and school have to protect and make children happy? Nothing will change if we still leave the responsibilities to the family and school.

Throughout my 10 years of career in this field, I've met many adults who have been hurting children by abusing, using corporal punishment, and more.

After meeting more and more of those adults, I started to think it’s not just their responsibilities. Who caused them to act like that? I think they result from unconscious act of every one of us.

There is a saying: "children are treasures of a society." No one but children and young people can create the future.

Adults are the people who can give the future and hope to children with full of despair. We cannot put any more load on our children's families and schools. What we can do is to minimize their load as much as possible, but still give our children what they need. However, we cannot continue to do that by ourselves.

Please support the children with us.

Donation

We help children who do not receive enough supports from the government and children who are not a part of governmentʼs support target. Therefore, we are mainly operated by donations from private individuals and corporations. We hope you will consider making a donation so that we can support our children continuously.

One Time Donation

If you wish to do “One Time Donation,” we are happy to accept donation from a bank transfer

Beneficiary Bank : MUFG Bank, LTD.
Bank Code : 0005
SWIFT code/BIC code : BOTKJPJT/BOTKJPJTXXX
Branch : Otsuka Branch
Beneficiary Account Number : 171-0081838
Beneficiary Name : Certified Nonprofit Corporation 3keys

In the case of corporate donation, you can also donate from the following charity platforms:
https://causes.benevity.org/causes/392-B_5J5RZ2238T

Contact

3keys (three keys)

Address：〒160-0022 Uni-Works Shinjukugyoen. 1F, 1-12-5 Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo, Japan
E-mail : info3keys.jp