June 19, 2018

The Japanese Communist Party Tokyo Metropolitan Assembly Members’ Group on June 18 at a press conference released the survey results showing that more than 20,000 children in Tokyo are waiting to be admitted to childcare centers that meet national standards.

The JCP assembly members’ group made inquiries at 53 municipalities in Tokyo regarding the issue of children on waiting lists and received responses from 50 of them.

The survey found that in the 50 municipalities, as of April 1, parents of 20,224 children hoped to but were unable to receive childcare services at authorized facilities which meet state-set standards. Of the 20,224 children, only 4,783 fall within the national government’s definition of children waiting to get into authorized day nurseries. The definition was not applied to the remaining 15,441 children for various reasons such as that their parents chose to use non-authorized facilities as a last choice. In other words, they are not counted by municipal governments as children who have difficulties in receiving day care services.

JCP members of the metropolitan assembly Izumi Naomi, Azegami Miwako, Fujita Ryoko, and Saito Mariko held a press conference at the Tokyo metropolitan government office building.

Saito said that a number of non-authorized day nurseries take care of kids aged up to two years old and that parents who use these facilities have to exert a lot of effort to find another place which accept three-year-olds or over.

Izumi stressed that there are many more children waiting to enter authorized day care facilities than claimed by municipal governments. She stated that the metropolitan government should increase the number of authorized daycare centers.

Past related articles:
> Pro-business gov’t policies worsen declining birthrate problem [June 6, 2018]
> 18,000 children’s applications for admission to public nurseries rejected: JCP Tokyo assemblypersons’ group [March 1, 2018]