An increasing number of children lack disciplinary training at home, due to poverty and other reasons.

We don't need no education (ministry official) !!!!!!

Poverty seems an odd reason. In fact, it seems like more an excuse. I am well aware that poverty can break down social order, but Japan is so very stable and has a welfare system so I am not prepared to allow the excuse of poverty.

I think laziness of parents and the community has more to do with it as they are not guiding these kids into productive activities. Then there is being insular, as kids who need baby-sitters are not getting them, in other words, forcing others to be lazy in their duties as well.

It takes a village to raise a child. But more an more, children are being raised by portable gaming devices and teen punks at the park. And those portable gaming devices are not the result of poverty!

I'm with you, Peace Out. Poverty has nothing to do with a lack of discipline. I've worked with the poor and, by and large, their children are well-disciplined. I'd like to know where this official got his unequivocal proof.

What affects the temperament of children is the lack of closeness with adults, but also an overabundance of exposure to graphic violence in the news and entertainment media, and in their homes and communities. Thats' why it's important too develop prosocial attitudes and behavior in children at a young age otherwise aggression not remedied may lead to later acts of delinquency.

And this in a land with one of the lowest birthrates in the world???

The education ministry should look in the mirror (the horror of irony).

Not poverty but poor parenting. Rich, poor, middle class; if you raise your children with no manners, s sense of entitlement, and no rules you get what we have today.

children lack disciplinary training at home, due to poverty

What!? The parents couldn't afford to say/do something when their kids needed it? That's BS, they're just not doing it. Let me cite my own stepdaughter as an example. She's a single parent with a young son who likes to punch when he's angry. He tried it on me. I warned him, but he did it again, so I smacked him. Then he did it again, so I smacked him again. Then he started to swing again but stopped. You could see him working it out in his mind. "Gee, if I punch grandpa, he's gonna smack me" He's never done it to me since. But he does it a lot to his mom, and she ignores it completely. And those are hard, angry, full-force punches. I told my wife "That kid will be trouble when he's bigger if he doesn't get his way."