The Yomiuri Shimbun This is the sixth installment in our third series on child poverty. The hand gripping the receiver of the payphone was shaking. It was the middle of the night in February 2011, and a first-year high school student in the metropolitan area had asked one of her friends for her homeroom teacher’s cell phone number. She was almost praying as she dialed the number. When the line connected, she asked for help in a quivering voice. “My mother kicked me out of our home and I have nowhere to go,” she whispered. After a short pause, the homeroom teacher replied: “It’s alright. Come to my home for now.” She’d talked with her teacher three months ago when she couldn’t go to school...
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