Hatoyama hooky happy!

[Taro Toporific]

An Aging Island Embraces Japan's Young Dropouts
By NORIMITSU ONISHI
NY TIMES June 6, 2004 (reg required)
HATOMA ISLAND, Japan - For the children new to this tiny subtropical island, population 58, it was the magical time of the day - after the school bell had set them free and before sunset would summon them to their foster parents' homes....The children here are part of a growing social problem in Japan: children who refuse to go to school.
Japanese schools do not take punitive actions against parents of elementary and junior high school children who fail to attend classes; in fact, as long as they are enrolled, as required by law, they graduate. A result is that in 2002 more than 131,000 children nationwide, including nearly 3 percent of the junior high school population, did not go to school. The category ranges from children who have missed at least 30 days during an academic year to those who, like this year's co-winner of the literary Akutagawa Prize, Hitomi Kanehara, barely went to school at all.