March 26, 2014
At one in four daycare centers for the elderly in Tokyo, male and female users are forced to sleep overnight in the same room, a Japanese Communist Party legislator of the Tokyo Metropolitan Assembly revealed on March 25.
JCP member of the Tokyo Metropolitan Assembly Yoshida Nobuo at a Budget Special Committee meeting pointed to the fact that at some adult daycare facilities which provide overnight stay services, users are crammed into a small sleeping room regardless of their gender, and asked the Tokyo government if it knows of the situation.
A Tokyo official in reply explained the results of a survey on overnight accommodations of 356 daycare facilities conducted last December. According to the results, 91 facilities have mixed-gender bedrooms and 186 fail to meet the space requirement of 7.43 square meters per person.
Yoshida stated, “The cramped situations in these facilities infringe on the dignity of the elderly. Tokyo should take appropriate measures without delay.” He demanded that the Tokyo government issue a warning to these facilities and stressed that in order to address the root cause of the problem, there is a pressing need to build more nursing care homes for the aged.
Citing the Tokyo government’s plan to stop subsidizing short-stay nursing care homes in March 2015, the JCP assemblyperson urged that the metropolitan government continue the subsidy and increase its budget allotment for building short-stay care homes.
Tokyo Governor Masuzoe Yoichi replied that he will call on the national government to introduce regulations on the operation of adult daycare centers with overnight accommodations and that he will exercise more oversight of those facilities.
JCP member of the Tokyo Metropolitan Assembly Yoshida Nobuo at a Budget Special Committee meeting pointed to the fact that at some adult daycare facilities which provide overnight stay services, users are crammed into a small sleeping room regardless of their gender, and asked the Tokyo government if it knows of the situation.
A Tokyo official in reply explained the results of a survey on overnight accommodations of 356 daycare facilities conducted last December. According to the results, 91 facilities have mixed-gender bedrooms and 186 fail to meet the space requirement of 7.43 square meters per person.
Yoshida stated, “The cramped situations in these facilities infringe on the dignity of the elderly. Tokyo should take appropriate measures without delay.” He demanded that the Tokyo government issue a warning to these facilities and stressed that in order to address the root cause of the problem, there is a pressing need to build more nursing care homes for the aged.
Citing the Tokyo government’s plan to stop subsidizing short-stay nursing care homes in March 2015, the JCP assemblyperson urged that the metropolitan government continue the subsidy and increase its budget allotment for building short-stay care homes.
Tokyo Governor Masuzoe Yoichi replied that he will call on the national government to introduce regulations on the operation of adult daycare centers with overnight accommodations and that he will exercise more oversight of those facilities.
