2,800 parents and childcare workers hold rally for better childcare

Japan Press Weekly

Japan Press Service Co., Ltd. is the only news agency providing information of progressive, democratic movements in Japan

2,800 parents and childcare workers hold rally for better childcare

About 2,800 people, including childcare workers, on November 24 held a rally at Hibiya Amphitheater in central Tokyo in protest against the government’s plan to relinquish the responsibility to administer childcare services.

Participants wearing hats and raincoats on which they wrote their demands that the national and local governments fulfill their responsibilities to provide better childcare services and support families with small children and that they drastically increase expenditures on childcare service and after-school care program.

The rally was called by the organizing committee consisting of the Japan Federation of Prefectural and Municipal Workers’ Unions and the National Union of Welfare and Childcare Workers.

Speaking on behalf of the organizers, National Liaison Committee of Childcare Organizations President Ueno Satoko said, “The petition signatures collected jointly by parents and childcare workers for better childcare services have been accepted by both Houses of the Diet for three consecutive years since 2006, but the government is now pushing ahead with regressive childcare service reform to allow the national and local governments to relinquish their financial responsibilities for childcare services.”

Participants made speeches. A woman who has a child taken care of at a public childcare center in Funabashi City, Chiba Prefecture, said, “More parents and childcare workers should work together in solidarity in order to protect the present childcare service system and children’s rights.”

Earlier in the day, about 300 parents and childcare workers took to the streets in the Ginza, one of Tokyo’s upscale shopping districts, and called for support for the signature campaign urging the government to fulfill its responsibility for childcare. Participants held placards that read, “The government must not abandon its responsibilities for childcare services!”, “Improve conditions of childcare services!” - Akahata, November 25, 2008