Paper short abstract:

"Kodomo Shokudo" is a children's cafeteria offering free food to the children of poor families.Their various activities are not only to alleviate poverty but also to develop communal child-rearing. This study aims to clarify how "Kodomo Shokudo" contribute to community-based revitalization in Tokyo.

Paper long abstract:

One in six children in Japan lives below the poverty line as of 2017, which is the highest rates among the developed countries. The cause behind this is poverty in families raising children, especially in single-parent families dominated by mother-child households, and a poverty rate that remains high in Japan at 54%. In addition, the number of elementary and junior high school students receiving educational assistance has increased slightly since the late 1990s.

"Kodomo Shokudo" is a children's cafeteria or children's dining room offering free food to the children of poor families. "Kodomo Shokudo," which provides hot meals to children who cannot eat a satisfactory meal at home for economic reasons, is said to have started around 2012, and its numbers have increased rapidly to 3718 as of 2019. "Kodomo Shokudo" is a private-sector initiative in which local volunteers and others participate in the operation and provide free and cheap meals to poor families and children eating alone. "Kodomo Shokudo" have various approaches. For example, some "Kodomo Shokudo" were opened in vacant stores in the shopping district and are expected to help in the revitalization of that district. People who run the children's cafeteria in the area interact with each other, reduce the number of children who eat alone, and hope it to be a place for exchanges among generations of local residents. The various activities of the "Kodomo Shokudo" are not only to alleviate poverty but also to develop communal child-rearing, and through that achieve the revitalization of the local community in urban area. This study aims to clarify how "Kodomo Shokudo" contribute to community-based revitalization in Tokyo, where the number of "Kodomo Shokudo" is the largest in Japan.