Ice-free port? or truant?

Online translators are not the most reliable, especially when typing in the romanization of Japanese words. I just looked up the translation in English of "futoukou" and was given the word, "ice-free port." It turns out that both 不凍港 and 不登校 are pronounced "futoukou." I can't imagine I need to remember the former.

The latter, however, made headlines yesterday. 1 in 34 junior high school students in Japan skipped at least 30 days of school last year. Top reasons given by educators:

• the growing number of students unable to make friends
• lack of training at home in basic living skills, and
• a lack of home discipline.