Fried chicken is on the menu, so the children let out a cheer.

Preschoolers and primary school students are filing into Children’s Cafeteria Qchan for a hot dinner in a bustling district of Nagoya in central Japan. The glass-walled cafeteria is welcoming and kid-friendly, with a spacious open kitchen and an aquarium stocked with colorful tropical fish.

“Meals here are well-balanced and very, very delicious,” 9-year-old Hasegawa Ichika says with a broad smile while picking up vegetables with her chopsticks. “We also get fruit and dessert.”

Why We Wrote This

The number of children’s cafeterias, also known as ibasho – or, “places where one feels accepted” – have increased exponentially across Japan in the past decade as grocery prices rise and residents cope with loneliness and isolatio

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