More than 25,000 children on waiting lists for day-care centers
TOKYO —
The Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare said Tuesday that 25,556 children were on the waiting list to get into certified day-care centers. The number was down from the same period in 2010, the first time in four years that the number has dropped, the ministry said.
According to the ministry, Nagoya had the most number of children on the waiting list at 1,275, followed by Yokohama at 971 and Sapporo with 865, Fuji TV reported. Nine prefectures had no children on the waiting list, the ministry said.
Many local governments have increased the number and size of day care centers and nurseries, but the ministry said there still remains a shortage of qualified caregivers, Fuji TV reported.
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2
tmarie
Pathetic. The fat cats wonder why the birth rate is dropping???
-1
illsayit
No the fat cats are wondering why if the rate has dropped and the facilities have increased, why that has anything to do with the birth rate dropping-could it just happen to be a patheticly boring attitude that child minding facilities have something to do with having children.
0
JapanGal
What about in Tohoko?
1
societymike
@illsayit --- i read your comment 4 times and gave up
If you actually HAVE day-care age children here, you would know, these waiting lists (mentioned here) are for the Government certified daycares. There are a few different types. Government (Prefecture) certified, City Certified, and Private certified/non-certified. All have their advantages/disadvantages, but my point is, even with that big list of 25,000 waiting, most of them are still in some other type of Day Care system. The Prefecture certified is nice because you only pay based on what you are taxed per year (not counting medical/social security tax). So if you pay less taxes per year than someone else, then you will pay less for the same service as another person. (this really is good when you make foreign currency and pay less taxes on your income) For example, I get paid in foreign currency (not yen), and my country taxes my yearly income way less than Japan, so even though I make more than most of the other parents in our childrens class, I pay less % of tax, so our daycare rate is actually cheaper. It's awesome (for me at least).
However, the Government certified day cares are not usually as good as the City or private day cares. Some City certified daycares are REALLY nice and have a great teacher/child ratio, but their pay scales vary, some based on income tax, some flat rates. Then there are some City certified that are not good at all. Private can vary from amazing and expensive, to horrible and cheap.
Most parents, from what I have seen, get their child on the Government certified daycare waiting list from the start, but they end up putting them (and leaving them in) one of the City or Private centers. It's more like a safety net. It pays to really research and visit all the cay cares. There really isn't a lack of daycares, which this article makes it sound like. We have twins, so we were on the Government (Tokyo prefecture) waiting list for over a year, but after researching, we found a really nice Private daycare that is actually certified by the City we live in. They have 8 teachers for 18 children in the 1yr old class (divided into two classes). So the attention per child is great.
2
Darren Brannan
You said it perfectly SocietyMike. My daughter is in Daycare and I think we were very lucky to get her into a class in a centre just 2 mins walk from my house.In a nation with so many infants being killed by their mums it is a fact that getting kids into daycare can be a nightmare. The mums can't go back to work and contribute to society and to the family and this takes a huge psychological toll on mums. My own wife was coming at me with knives and scissors until my daughter was enrolled.I kid you not.
I was under the impression that the non-certified centres may not have adequate nursing staff, which might be a big liability with little kids. I was reluctant to go down that path. We ended up being accepted at the city-endorsed Hoikusho.
Incidentally there was an incident reported today in which some kids were made really sick by E-coli 0157 at a daycare centre and one infant has died. I guess these are considerations that must be made..is there are nurse? Is there a certified cook/dietician? I can't imagine how awful that must be to take your beautiful child to school and not be able to bring them home.
-1
WilliB
If the J-government wants to do something about the falling birth rate, this would be an obvious place to start!
0
tmarie
illsayit, go and speak to married women of child birth age with no kids and ask why they don't have kids. the cost of raising them is a reason. Women don't feel they can stay home now and raise the on one salary. Lack of daycare means lack of kids. Trust me. I am one who sits on the fence because I worry about not getting daycare if I were to have sprogs.
0
Elbuda Mexicano
Japan should learn from FRANCE! The French turned their declining birth rates around, and if I am correct they have FREE 24/7 day care centers for all kids in France.
0
Darren Brannan
I think I saw a TV show about France and the daycare 'nanny' actually came to the house.
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