April 2, 2023

Japan's childcare- and childrearing-support budgets are minimal. The government family-related social spending ranked the 25th in 2019 in terms of the ratio to the GDP among 35 OECD countries. Therefore, childrearing in Japan is financially tough for many families.

Japan's poor budgeting for children epitomizes a small number of licensed childcare nurses in daycare facilities and the heavy burden of paying childcare facility fees on parents. The current national standard for the number of children's nurses is one for every 30 children aged four and five, which has been left unchanged for more than 70 years.

In 2019, the daycare fees were exempted for children aged three to five. However, as for 0- to 2-year-old babies, parents, except for tax-exempt households, must pay the daycare fees. According to the national standards, the fees are about 240,000 yen a year for households with an annual income of less than 3.3 million yen; between 360,000 yen and 530,000 yen for households with an annual income of 4-6 million yen; and about 1.25 million yen for high-income earning households. All households must pay all fees for meals in childcare centers.

A family-related budget of about nine trillion yen will be necessary for Japan to catch up with Sweden which ranks at the top among the 35 OECD states. If Prime Minister Kishida Fumio intends to seriously address the issue of Japan's declining birthrate, he should divert the arms buildup budget to childrearing support, social welfare, and education.

Past related articles:
> JCP Motomura calls for decreasing group size in nurseries to protect children’s safety [February 4, 2023]
> PM Kishida’s ‘double the child-related budget’ slogan is empty promise [December 21, 2022]