Japan’s Growing “Children’s Cafeteria” Movement Supporting Adults Too

The nonprofit organization Musubie, supports kodomo shokudō across Japan; these “children’s cafeterias” are special services offering free or low-priced meals. According to its provisional tally, there were 10,866 such cafeterias in fiscal 2024. With a year-on-year increase of 1,734, this was the first time the number had risen above 10,000. This exceeded the current number of public junior high schools (9,265) in Japan, and if the rate of increase continues, it is also expected to surpass the number of public elementary schools five years from now in 2029.

Many of the cafeterias are run by volunteers. Among widening economic disparity, they provide free or low-cost meals, mainly to help children from single-parent families out of food poverty. However, due to gradually diversifying demand, they are starting to be used more as multigenerational places for everyone, from children to the elderly.

Seventy percent of the cafeterias do not have age restrictions and out of the estimated total 18.9 million annual users, 70%, or 13 million, were children while the other 30% (5.9 million) were adults.

Yuasa Makoto, the president of Musubie, stated that “real human relationships and connections with community are being lost due to the declining birthrate and aging population, along with the spread of social media. Single people and the elderly are also looking for a place that they can go to in the community, not only children.”

The largest issue for children’s cafeterias is the lack of funding. Recently, to meet growing demand, some local authorities have been providing subsidies or cafeterias have been raising funds by themselves through crowdfunding. Rising prices though have meant a sharp increase in food costs and, along with the impact of rice shortages, are leading to a reduction in how much service the cafeterias can offer.

The national average ratio of cafeterias, which indicates the percentage of school districts that have them, was 34.7%. By prefecture, the highest ratio was in Okinawa, where there has been positive public support for the facilities. This was followed by Tottori and then Tokyo. The reality though is that, depending on the region, there is a lack of understanding, with one volunteer who runs a cafeteria in the Kyūshū region pointing out that “it can be difficult to open one, as some residents in the area say they don’t want facilities set up where only poor children gather.”

(Translated from Japanese. Banner photo © Pixta.)