Excerpts
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A healthy life starts with a healthy plate
Japan's education system has long emphasised the importance of quality food.
It has adopted the concept of "shokuiku", or food education, which stresses that good dietary habits lead to a healthy body and mind.
Shokuiku has been around for over a century, but laws enacted in 2005 now govern its application across all of society, from childcare centres right through to aged care homes.
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The system appears to work, with obesity levels in Japan far lower than other developed nations.
Japan is the only country where fewer than one in five kids are overweight, compared with 41 OECD and European countries.
A recent major international study showed half of children and young people in Australia are forecast to be overweight or obese by 2050.
"In Japan, childhood obesity isn't really an issue at all," Ms Ikemoto says.
"People are very careful about what they eat."
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The stigma of 'baby hotels'
Japan's affordable, healthy childcare system was born from crisis.
For decades, long waiting lists meant many families turned to unregulated childcare centres colloquially known as "baby hotels".
The standards of care were poor, and stories of unsupervised babies dying in cots left the nation shocked.
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'Too many children per childcare worker'
Japan's ratio of caregivers to babies and toddlers is comparable to Australia, with more staff per child in the younger years.
The ratio for three-year-olds recently improved from 1:20 to 1:15, also in line with Australia.
But the ratio of caregivers to children balloons to 1:25 once the students reach the age of four, whereas Australia is capped at 1:15.
"The biggest issue I see right now is that there are too many children per childcare worker in Japan," Ms Ikemoto says.
"This means that there isn't an environment where each child can be given individual attention or cared for carefully."
Japan has also been slow to implement mandatory background checks, despite several high-profile cases of sexual abuse in schools and child care.
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