Childline Japan

Childline (チャイルドライン) is a free, confidential phone and chat line that listens to the stories and feelings of any child in Japan under the age of 18.

Phone: 0120-99-7777, free to call, every day from 4pm to 9pm.
Chat: available at childline.or.jp/chat on the first and third Mondays of each month and Tuesday through Saturday.

A child can reach out about anything at all, when they want someone to listen, when they are feeling down, when they want to cry, or even when something good has happened and they have no one to tell. They do not have to give their name, what they say is kept secret, and they can stop the call or chat whenever they want. For parents, this is a good number for a child to have quietly in their pocket, a place to turn when they need an ear that is not a parent or teacher.

The service is run by the Childline Support Center (チャイルドライン支援センター), a certified NPO, and it is genuinely national: around 2,000 trained volunteers listen from more than 70 locations across 40 prefectures, handling roughly 200,000 calls and chats a year. The organization works from the principles of the Convention on the Rights of the Child, and it does more than listen. It also passes what children say up to the people who make decisions, and runs an “I want to tell adults” section where kids can anonymously write down what they wish grown-ups would change.

Support is provided in Japanese, so a child who is not comfortable in Japanese may find it hard to use. For English-language help, a foreign family may want TELL Lifeline, which offers support in English.