1.Child advocacy

• An environment for child advocacy under the amended Child Welfare Act of 2022 has been improved.
• The provisions regarding the right to discipline exercising parental authority under the Civil Code have been under review.

2.Reinforcement of child consultation centers and municipalities

• Setting up Centers for Children and Families
• Introduction of accredited qualifications with the aim of improving the expertise of officials at child consultation centers that handle child abuse and other cases
• Development of the following measures to prevent child abuse

3.Prevention and early detection of child abuse

• Publicizing and promoting “dial 189 (‘ichihayaku’ meaning ASAP)” to reach the child consultation center's abuse response team.
• SNS accounts are available where children and families can consult
• Enhancing the deployment of school counselors and school social workers
• Publicizing manuals for school teachers and staff, etc.
• Smooth implementation of the childcare household visiting support project, child-rearing support base project, and parent-and-child relationship building support project
• Identify families with preschool children and find out their support needs through outreach
• Developing the postnatal care project nationwide
• Building a support system through the expectant and nursing mothers living support project

4.Provide appropriate temporary protection

• Transparent child protection operations and procedures have been under consideration as to the judicial screening for taking abused children into temporary protective custody away from their parents.
• Equipment and operational standards for temporary protection centers have been under consideration.
• Eliminating overcapacity in temporary protection centers
• Exploration of support for abused children to ensure learning opportunities while in temporary protective custody

5.Enhancement of social child care

• Examination of evaluation indicators for social care promotion plans
• Examining standards for equipment and operation of foster care support centers
• Consideration of third-party evaluation criteria
• Consideration of flexible standard operation procedures and guidelines, such as age limit on those who receive self-reliance support services while staying at child care facilities.
• Active use of "In-home guidance measures" that support families with a risk of abuse, without separating parents and children, but keeping them in the home.

6.Strengthening Support for Parent-Child Reunification

Guidelines for parent-child reunification support services have been under consideration.

7.Reinforcement of response to cases in relevant organizations

• Measures to deal with parents' dating partners
• Early detection and push-type support (not waiting for public intervention) through coordination of data on children in education, health, welfare, and others
• Measures to promote the participation of various private organizations involved, such as NPOs and children's cafeterias*, in community networks to protect children

* Volunteer-run cafeterias provide free or inexpensive meals to children in need.

• Exploration of ways to increase the effectiveness of community network to protect children
• Strengthening of police response capabilities, 
• Sophisticating risk assessment when responding to cases

8.Strengthen coordination between domestic violence response and child abuse response

• Consideration of how to deal with perpetrators
• Enhancement of support systems such as multi-agency cooperation

9.Improvement of support for children with disabilities

• Child development support centers fulfill their roles and functions as core support institutions for children with disabilities in communities.
• Provision of parenting training and such for parents.
• Promotion of the placement of outreach support specialists.

10.Strengthen cooperation with related organizations

In preparation for the implementation of the "Act to Enhance Support for Vulnerable Women," efforts are being made to ensure closer cooperation among women's consultation centers, women's protection facilities, child consultation centers, and other relevant institutions.