Healthy Parents and Children 21

This national campaign improves the standards of health for mothers and children by recommending and promoting various approaches to ensure healthy growth of children who are responsible for our future. Your cooperation would be very much appreciated.
Let us work together to create a society where children responsible for our future can grow up healthy!

“Healthy Parents and Children 21” is a national campaign launched in 2001 to promote a variety of approaches to improve health standards of mothers and children. Maternal and child health is the starting point for promoting health, and is a foundation for the healthy growth of children who will be responsible for the next generation.
In April 2015, based on the identification of current issues, a new project (through March 2024) will be launched.
Healthy Parents and Children 21 is a measure that resulted from the declining birth rate and acts a basis to support parents giving birth to children without anxiety and raising healthy children. In addition, the measure will play a role in the national health promotion campaign (Health Japan 21), which aims to create a society in which people can live happy and healthy lives, even with a declining birth rate.

• Continuing birth rate decline
• Tendency to delay marriage and childbirth, and the increased percentage of unmarried people
• Trend toward nuclear families, and raising children in isolation
• Child poverty
• Health differences in areas related to maternal and child health

(Obesity rate of elementary school students and tooth decay in three-year-old children)
The following indicators worsened during the first phase of the project (2001-2014):

1. Suicide rate among teens
2. Rate of low birth-weight babies among the total number of births

To create a society where every child grows up healthy, “Healthy Parents and Children 21 (Second Phase)” has a 10-year goal to ensure the same standard of maternal and child health services despite differences in location and family environments, and to create “a society where every child grows up healthy.”
Three basic agenda items were selected based on circumstances surrounding current maternal and child health after these issues arose during the current Healthy Parents and Children 21 project. Two items requiring more focus have been set as major agenda items.

Basic Agenda Item A: Seamless health measures for pregnant women and infants
In addition to improving maternal and child health measures during pregnancy, at childbirth, and during childhood, we will reinforce the partnership system between services and related organizations. We will also utilize information effectively and create evaluation and analysis systems for maternal and child health services, with an aim to establish a system that provides seamless support.

Goal: To improve seamless health measures for pregnant women and infants that ensure comfortable and safe pregnancy, childbirth, and child rearing.

Basic Agenda Item B: Health measures from school age and adolescence to adulthood
A variety of fields will cooperate to encourage schoolchildren to take an interest in maintaining and improving their own mental and physical health, aiming to promote health education and identify a society that supports the health of future generations.

Goal: To promote health improvements led by children, and improve health measures to nurture the health of the next generation.

Basic Agenda Item C: Development of a community that watches over the healthy growth of children
We aim to develop a community that watches over the healthy growth of children and provides support for parents so that they will not feel isolated while raising their children.

We will promote childcare support partnerships with local and national governments as well as various NPOs and private community-based organizations, mother-child groups, and maternal and child health promotion staff.

Goal: To develop a community that watches over the health of pregnant women and children and prevents parents and children from being isolated.

Major Agenda Item 1: Support for parents having difficulty raising their children
One major agenda item will be to recognize the signs of difficulties* in parents and children and approach the situation in a courteous manner to improve childcare support.
*These are the difficulties faced by people as they raise their children; caused by a variety of factors and evident in children or parents, these factors may pertain to the parent-child relationship or the environment, including the support system. “Difficulty in raising children” entails a broad range of concepts, and developmental disabilities can sometimes play a causal role.

Goal: To respect the diversity of parents and children and develop a society that supports this diversity.

Major Agenda Item 2: Prevention of child abuse from the time of pregnancy
Early education of pregnant women is important to prevent child abuse. We will also coordinate strong partnerships with maternal and child health services (who visit newborns) as well as related organizations to identify and deal with abuse as soon as possible.

Goal: To create a society without child abuse.

Many organizations have participated and cooperated with Healthy Parents and Children 21; some examples of our activities are described below.

Healthy Parents and Children 21 National Convention

We hold an annual national convention with maternal and child health service and family-planning staff participants from across the country. The purpose of this convention is to promote Healthy Parents and Children 21 by discussing the issues surrounding maternal and child health and promoting the continuation of maternal and child health and family planning services in our country by recognizing the accomplishments of staff or organizations towards this goal. In 2013, we held a convention in Yamagata Prefecture titled, “We all cheer for childcare: For healthy pregnancy, childbirth, and childcare,” which encouraged all participants to exchange opinions and effectively interact with each other.

General Meeting of the Promotion Council for Healthy Parents and Children 21

Organizations participating in the promotion council meet once or twice every year to report on activities related to each agenda item, share current circumstances and issues surrounding maternal and child health, and exchange opinions about future directions. The General Meeting is a great opportunity for each organization to learn what others do and to reinforce partnerships. The lively discussions lead to successful promotion of activities.

Activities for each Promotion Council for Healthy Parents and Children 21 agenda item

To promote the approaches taken by Healthy Parents and Children 21, relevant organizations will convene for activities related to each agenda item. As an activity for Agenda Item 1, we held an open lecture titled, “How to get through the crisis of adolescence: Healthy body, healthy mind, and healthy sex” at Jikei University School of Medicine in 2013. As many as 200 people, including educators and healthcare professionals, contributed to making this event a great success. We would like to further promote Healthy Parents and Children 21 as a national campaign by continuing these educational activities.

To decrease the number of cases of abortion (Japan Family Planning Association, Inc.)

The Japan Family Planning Association, Inc. (JFPA) was established in 1954, when there were 1,140,000 abortions. They have been working for 60 years under the slogan, “Every Child a Wanted Child,” to promote education about low-dose birth control and emergency contraceptive pills and provide telephone counseling; the organization also holds seminars for educators and creates and distributes educational materials. They will be proactively engaged in the activities of this campaign, even though the number of abortions was less than 190,000 in 2013.

If you find the Healthy Parents and Children 21 project interesting, please contact us at the office listed on the following page.

In response to the low birth rate, we invited the public to offer ideas for the slogan and logo for the 2000 nationwide campaign dealing with low birth rate.
The logo of “Healthy Parents and Children 21” is the work of Mr. Hideo Matsuoka, a graphic designer residing in Yamagata City, who won the Minister’s Prize with his entry.

What is the meaning of the Healthy Parents and Children 21 (Second Phase) logo?

Healthy Parents and Children 21 (Second Phase) intends to create a society where every child grows up healthy. Light green was used for the background as part of a color theme for development of a warm community that watches over the healthy growth of all children in the society and that provides support for parents during the child-rearing period so they will not feel isolated.
Since Healthy Parents and Children 21 is a national campaign, this second project will emphasize its promotion; changing the color of the logo is intended to reinforce these public promotion measures.

About logo use

1. For local governments or organizations participating in Healthy Parents and Children 21:
   Permission is not required if the logo will be used in promotions to support Healthy Parents and Children 21.
2. For those not participating in Healthy Parents and Children 21:
   If the logo will be used for promotions that support the purpose of “Healthy Parents and Children 21,” you must apply for permission to use the logo.
3. Please keep the following in mind:
   ・When printed in color, the colors may not be changed.
   ・The image may be enlarged or reduced; however, the shape may not be changed.

Notes on the logo change

1. The current logo for “Healthy Parents and Children 21” will be used until March 2015; the logo for “Healthy Parents and Children 21 (Second Phase)” will be used starting in April 2015. You may use the new logo for “Healthy Parents and Children 21 (Second Phase)” before March 2015 only if you use it for purposes related to “Healthy Parents and Children 21 (Second Phase).”
2. You may continue to use posters, pamphlets, and stickers already made with the current logo; however, please switch to the new logo for new orders.
3. If you will use the logo for “Healthy Parents and Children 21 (Second Phase)” on posters, pamphlets, and stickers that are already permitted for use, you do not need to re-apply for permission.
4. To apply for permission to use the logo, please submit an application form to the following address, in accordance with logo use restrictions for Healthy Parents and Children 21:

Submittal distination

Shogakukan-Shueisha Productions Co., Ltd.
2-20-5F Kanda Jimbocho, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo 101-0051
TEL:03-3515-6862
E-mail: sukoyaka21@shopro.co.jp

Administrative Office(Shogakukan-Shueisha Productions Co., Ltd.)

2-20-5F Kanda Jinbou-cho, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo 101-0051, JAPAN E-mail: sukoyaka21@shopro.co.jp