'Children's cafeterias' combat poverty, neglect

Laughter and lively chatter filled a room at a modest apartment in Tokyo one recent Thursday night as more than two dozen kids and volunteers gathered around tables laden with curry, rice, salad and fruits.

Misako Omura's weekly dinner is one of a growing number of "kodomo shokudo," or "children's cafeterias," that are springing up across Japan. The mostly grassroots efforts seek to address a range of child-related issues, from poverty to ensuring that those with late-working parents get a proper dinner. A tally by the national Asahi newspaper found 319 such places serving free or low-cost meals across Japan as of May, up from 21 in 2013.

Over the past 70 years, Japan's rising affluence has banished most of the penury of the lean years during and after World War II, when children sometimes starved and many families went hungry. But despite its ultramodern conveniences, Japan had the 10th-highest child poverty rate among 31 relatively well-off countries in a 2013 UNICEF report.