to reheat in case they are not home or too busy to do the cooking. They do not attempt to represent their families in the community through participation in their children's school PTA and other community functions. Compared to modern American children, Japanese youths have less drug use, depression, violence, and teenage pregnancy, although these may be caused due to harsher laws and intrinsic social values in the Japanese culture. Government regulations The Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology has admitted that the education system and parental pressure are taking their toll on children. Education reforms that the Ministry of Education has enacted beginning in the 1970s have challenged Japan's egalitarian school system. To decrease academic pressure among students from examination competition, the Ministry of Education cut school hours and increased non-academic activities such as recess and clubs in elementary and junior high schools. In 2002, the central government reduced school hours again, decreased content, and introduced a new curriculum at all public elementary schools to encourage individual students' learning interests and motivation. The Japanese Ministry of Education published a white paper stating that children do not have opportunities such as "coming into contact with nature, feeling awe and respect for life, and experiencing the importance of hard work learning from difficulties". Japanese education and related stress Post-war Japan in the 1950s made it a "national mission to accelerate its education program. Children of this era had to distinguish themselves from peers at an early age if they hoped to get into a top university. Entrance exams for these children began in kindergarten. By the mid-1970s, pressure to achieve in children created the need for specialty schools. Seventy percent of students continued their long school day at juku or "cram schools". In the 1980s, a series of suicides linked to school pressures began. Elementary and middle school students took their lives after failing entrance exams. During the 1990s, the economic collapse in Japan (after its global economic dominance in the previous decade) led to a loss of motivation by students. The once highly touted academic ratings of Japan in math and science fell behind those of American levels. The stress began to lead to classroom disruption. In 2001, the National Education Research Institute found that 33 percent of teachers and principals polled said that they had witnessed a complete breakdown of class "over a continuous period" due to