Chapter 1 Status of Children's Reading Activities in Recent Years

a. There was an increase in the number of libraries, in the percentage of availability of online public access catalogs in libraries, and in the percentage of schools with a school librarian.
b. There was a decrease in the number of children's books checked out from the library and in the proportion of schools that organize simultaneous school-wide reading activities
c. The non-reading rate* remained at the same level: 6.4% of primary school students, 18.6% of lower secondary school students, and 51.1% of upper secondary school students in FY2022.
* The percentage of students who do not read a single book in a month

Chapter 2 Basic Policy

a. Reducing the non-reading rate
b. Ensuring reading opportunities for a diverse range of children
c. Improving the reading environment for a digital society
d. Promoting reading activities from the perspective of children.

Chapter 3 System of Promoting Children's Reading Activities

a. National and local governments shall endeavor to strengthen cooperation with schools, libraries, other relevant institutions, and private bodies for developing other necessary systems to ensure the smooth implementation of measures promoting children's reading activities.
b. Prefectures and municipalities shall endeavor to formulate measures that promote children's reading activities.

Chapter 4 Measures to Promote Children's Reading Activities

A. Common spheres
 1. Partnership and cooperation:
 a. Partnership and cooperation between teachers (including teacher librarians*), school librarians, daycare workers, librarians, supervisors of teachers, advisors for social education providers, volunteers, and other stakeholders*The teacher librarian qualification requires a teaching license, which differs from the librarian qualification.
 b. Sharing of learnings and human resources within the region
 2. Human resource development:
a. Review of courses and training for librarians and others in light of the Reading Barrier Free Act and the evolving ICT environment, including the promotion of online remote government-led training.
 3. Awareness-raising:
 a. Promoting Children's Reading Day (April 23) (A Forum to Promote Children's Reading Activities) led by the national government
 b. Expansion of the scope of awards by the Minister of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (in the field related to early childhood education).
 4. Developmentally appropriate endeavours:
 a. Promoting seamless support from infancy onwards in response to diverse child circumstances
 b. Promoting initiatives--considering the non-reading rate--that focus on the transition stage between school types
 5. Initiatives to increase children's interest in reading:
 a. Promoting child-oriented and collaborative activities
 b. Promoting further participation through the use of ICT in existing initiatives
 c. Promoting initiatives that consider access to participation for all children (such as sign language and multilingual support)
B. Family
 a. Promoting reading at home to make it a habit and position it as part of family education
C. Community（through libraries）
 a. Facilitating efforts to promote reading activities in the community
 1) Ensuring reading opportunities for a diverse range of children
 2) Improving the reading environment for the digital society
 b. Establishment and operation of libraries with enriched materials
 c. Increase the number of librarians
D. Schools, etc.
 a. Facilitating efforts to promote reading activities in schools
 1) Ensuring reading opportunities for a diverse range of children
 2) Improving the reading environment for the digital society
 3) Children's perspectives
 b. Planned procurement of school library materials
 c. Promoting the deployment of teacher librarians and school librarians
E. Private organizations
 a. Private sector organizations facilitating efforts to promote reading activities
 b. Publicizing and encouraging the efforts of private organizations and volunteers by subsidizing them through the Children's Dream Fund, etc.