Financing Education for the Children of the Working Poor

This research project aims at understanding the challenges and opportunities in the lives of the children of the working poor associated with access to education at the case of a comparative analysis study between Japan and the UK.

Very little is known about these members of society, who are endowed with unstable social and economic conditions in their early lives. As part of a 12-month research project, we plan a one-day research seminar activity, taking place at Nihon University in Tokyo on the 20th February 2019 supported by the Great Britain Sasakawa Foundation.

The aim of the seminar is to involve leading researchers on Japan-UK related topics such as education, poverty, social structures, and economic development, and to share latest results in these fields. The contact person at Nihon University and Co-Principal Investigator is Professor Kaori Suetomi from Nihon University College of Humanities and Sciences, Department of Education.

In particular, the research program intends to develop methods to estimate and compare populations sizes based on general metric functions of poverty including micro-data and social economic variables. The research outcome of this project is intended to contribute to national policy debates on the determinants of effective education policy.