Breaking cycles of poverty through child care institutions in Japan: According to a survey and interviews to university students who were fostered in child care institutions.

• Child care institutions(CCI) in Japan are saving children who come from poor and problem families. • To get out from their original families, these children must behave as 'decent children'. • Entering college is a huge success, but disciplines in the CCI makes them have troubles in college. • CCI children can enter and graduate from low-rank colleges. • After graduation, their jobs with a low salary will head them to the path of poverty again. The purpose of this paper is to clarify the process of going to college and subsequent college life of those who have experiences of entering Child Care Institutions (CCI) in Japan and to discuss higher education policies concerning 'child poverty' based on the results. This paper focuses on children who escaped from unstable families and could attain higher education in Japan. Particularly, this paper explored the experiences of several children who entered Child Care Institutions (CCI) and then continued their studies in college and examined the limitation of the support system for poor children in Japan. In this research, mixed method will be used. A questionnaire survey of students at University X and interviews towards 16 college students who had experiences of staying in CCI were conducted. The results are as follows: 1) Those who have entered CCI have chosen to go to university while internalizing the expectations of the surrounding staff. 2) However, happiness shared between the institution staff and the students are ended up entering university. 3) Those who have entered CCI have changed their thinking about employment and have financial difficulties after entering university. From there, it can be seen that the students are concerned about the gap between institutional life and university life in terms of building social relationship capital and rebounding to a disciplined life. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]