In 2016, the Japan Committee for UNICEF began working toward the implementation of the Child-Friendly Community Development Project (CFCI) by introducing the Project to local governments nationwide in August and surveying their interest in participating in the Project, and holding a symposium in November.
In 2018, a Japanese Child-Friendly Town Model was created with reference to UNICEF headquarters and "child-friendly town development" standards in other countries. Five municipalities (Niseko Town, Adaira Town, Tomiya City, Machida City, and Nara City) conducted a two-year verification process to determine whether this model can function as an effective indicator for promoting children's rights, children's participation in society, and child development policies in Japanese municipalities.
After completing the two-year verification process , each of the five municipalities conducted a self-evaluation , which confirmed the effectiveness of the project and their intention to continue it. Based on these results, the Japanese CFCI was officially launched in June 2021 to encourage other municipalities to participate.
In December 2021, five municipalities were approved as "UNICEF Japan-style CFCI Practice Municipalities" after evaluation by a third-party evaluation special committee. （A memorandum of understanding was signed with the CFCI Committee of the Japan Committee for UNICEF , and full-scale implementation of the Child-Friendly Community Development Project will take place over the next three years.
In addition, Toyota City has been recognized as a CFCI candidate municipality in January 2023 and is working toward becoming a CFCI implementing municipality.
This project is to approve municipalities that implement UNICEF recommended methods based on UNICEF's criteria to realize "child-friendly community development". It does not certify or endorse that a municipality is a "child-friendly town."
The CFCI implementing municipalities
The Child-Friendly Cities and Communities Initiative (CFCI), which UNICEF advocates to make local governments and communities around the world better environments for children, was officially launched in Japan in June 2021. Five municipalities (Niseko Town, Hokkaido; Abira Town, Hokkaido; Tomiya City, Miyagi Prefecture; Machida City, Tokyo; and Nara City, Nara Prefecture) that met the criteria set by JCU were recognized as the CFCI implementing municipalities.
The five municipalities conducted a self-evaluation of their implementation of the CFCI that was started in October 2018,and JCU’s CFCI Committee reviewed the validity of the self-evaluation. The five municipalities were then approved as the CFCI implementing municipalities on December 17, 2021, and the MOU was signed accordingly between JCU and the municipalities.
See the signing of the MOU and messages from the mayors of the five municipalities in the following video clip.
Abira Town, Hokkaido
Niseko Town, Hokkaido
Tomiya City, Miyagi Prefecture
Machida City, Tokyo
