Officials at Yokohama City Hall said Monday the city has reduced the number of children on nursery school waiting lists to zero from 179 as of April 1, meeting its 2010 target of doing so in three years. (Japan Times)

The education ministry has compiled a list of bullying acts that should be reported promptly to police, and has communicated this list to prefectures and boards of education of large cities through an official notification. (Yomiuri)

An expert panel on education will recommend that the government lower the grade when primary school students start studying English from the fifth year and make it a regular subject for fifth and sixth graders, sources said. (Yomiuri)

A bear was shot dead after it wandered into a school in Kanazawa, Ishikawa Prefecture, on Thursday. (Japan Today)

The employment situation for new graduates from four-year universities and other schools in Japan has been improving, a government survey revealed Friday. (Jiji Press)

Japan's Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare decided Tuesday to allow families on welfare to save for university admission fees for their children. (Jiji Press)

Middle-aged men are quitting paid work to care for elderly parents in increasing numbers, a survey by a research institute showed Sunday. (Kyodo)

Teachers aspiring to be principals or deputy heads of public schools will have to undergo a yearlong training program at a teachers graduate school to qualify as administrators, according to a set of proposals compiled by a task force. (Yomiuri)

Japan ranked 31st in the Mothers' Index rankings of best and worst places to be a mother complied by international nongovernmental organization Save the Children. (Jiji Press)

New rules have been established over the forced separation of children from one parent for the purpose of handing them over to the other parent in divorces in a practice called direct enforcement. (Yomiuri)

Japan will introduce an income limit for households that use a program for free public high school tuition, education minister Hakubun Shimomura said Friday. (Jiji Press)

Japanese responded to record numbers of severe bullying cases last year, prompting a national outcry and calls for legislation. But a proposed bill doesn't address schools' intense culture of conformity, critics say. (csmonitor.com)

Seven third-grade high school students have been accused of assaulting younger students at a Yamanashi high school, media reported Thursday. (Japan Today)

Although tens of thousands of people fled their homes in Fukushima Prefecture following the March 2011 reactor meltdowns, many, including children, still remain. (Japan Times)

The Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry will move up a plan to encourage businesses to develop authorized child-care services to reduce the number of children on day-care center waiting lists, a government regulatory reform panel has said. (Yomiuri)

The Osaka Prefectural Board of Education on Thursday announced a six-month suspension for a 29-year-old female high-school teacher who was working as a prostitute in her off hours. (Tokyo Reporter)

Education minister Hakubun Shimomura unveiled Wednesday a plan for the government to provide scholarship to help high school graduates take part in short-term overseas study programs that would fill the period after graduation if universities shift their admissions to fall. (Kyodo)

Three high school boys are to be charged with slandering a classmate who committed suicide as a result of bullying in Kawanishi, Hyogo Prefecture. (Japan Today)

Teachers, students and guardians appear not to have argued against corporal punishment at the high school in this western Japan city where a 17-year-old student committed suicide after receiving physical punishment from his basketball teacher, a report by a team of lawyers said Wednesday. (Jiji Press)

Hurdles are still too high for foreign nurses to be formally accepted to work in Japan. The government has accepted nurses from Indonesia and the Philippines as "candidates" to work in Japan based on bilateral economic partnership agreements, which allow countries that sign them to engage in economic exchanges, including that of human resources. (Yomiuri)