Japan's government plans to carry out a survey on cases of child abuse resulting from parents' religious beliefs.

The first survey of its kind by the Children and Families Agency is to cover child consultation centers, schools and daycare centers.

It is designed to find out how well the institutions understand a set of welfare ministry guidelines on ways to deal with such cases.

The agency hopes to learn what is needed to help child consultation centers and others detect signs of abuse early and respond quickly and appropriately.

The survey is also to ask child consultation centers across the nation about so-called medical neglect, in which parents refuse to have their children undergo surgery or receive blood transfusions because of religious beliefs.

The agency plans to find out what steps centers have taken in response, such as temporarily putting children under their protection and suspending parents' rights, as well as what difficulties they had in dealing with such cases.

The agency also plans to interview children of religious group members or use a questionnaire to find out what trouble they had when they were young.

The questions would cover topics including what support they got or didn't get from consultation centers, schools and other entities.

The agency intends to select as early as next month a body to carry out the survey, and is seeking experts' opinions on specifics of its plan.