June 7-9, 2016
In 2015, 14 small children died in accidents at daycare facilities in the country. In the last dozen years, a total of 174 children died in such accidents. Behind these tragedies lie the government’s deregulation policies.
The Abe Cabinet presented “The Japan’s Plan for Dynamic Engagement of All Citizens” on June 2 with much fanfare. One of the plan’s key policies is to improve the childcare environment. It proposes to allocate 80 billion yen to encourage private companies to build and operate daycare facilities for about 50,000 children on waiting lists.
Jitsukata Nobuko, vice president of the national liaison council of childcare-related organizations (Zenhoren), pointed to the fact that the majority of such accidents occurred at unauthorized private daycare centers. “Municipal authorities do not get involved in the operation of company-run facilities. Accordingly, things like facility standards and who is responsible for services are all unclear. It inevitably brings about deterioration in the quality of childcare services.”
A woman living in Tokyo, 38, raising a one-year-old boy, applied for admission to six authorized childcare centers near her home in order to return to work this March. However, all her applications were rejected. She had no choice but to leave her child at an unauthorized day nursery in Chuo Ward which is jointly operated by seven private enterprises.
Soon after the admission, on March 11, her boy died while napping at the facility. According to the facility’s account, the boy was put in bed alone in another room because he cries “too often”. The nursery director ordered a staff member to have him sleep on his stomach. The staff member was an unqualified caregiver. All workers at the facility failed to check on the sleeping baby for more than two hours.
The central government guideline states that infants should not be laid face down to prevent them from suffocating. The Tokyo Metropolitan government guideline also requires childcare providers to confirm children’s breathing every 10 minutes while they are napping.
The personnel of the private day nursery, including the director, have only a few years of experience in caring for infants. It seems that they had not received adequate job training based on these official guidelines.
* * *
When a child is found dead in a childcare center and the cause of the death is not immediately identifiable, the facility operator often explains that it was due to sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS). If this explanation goes unchallenged, no investigation into the case will follow because SIDS is a disease, not an accident.
A mother in Osaka City received such an explanation after her son died in November 2009 in an un-authorized childcare center run by a private company. The company denied its responsibility for the death of the then four-month-old boy by arguing that he had died from SIDS. Being unconvinced by this argument, the mother sued the company and the Osaka City government which was in a position to oversee the child care center.
In November 2015, the Osaka High Court acknowledged that the boy died from suffocation as he had been laid face down for a long time. In the court battle, the mother and her lawyers revealed how sloppily children were treated in the day-care center: at the time the fatal accident occurred, only two workers, neither of whom had a childcare qualification, took care of 17 children; there were usually no more than two caregivers at the facility, in other words, when one of the two prepared meals, the other looked after all the children; and these workers did not regularly supervise sleeping children for SIDS symptoms with due care. The case in question was the second fatal accident in facilities operated by the defendant company.
The Osaka City government neglected to give appropriate instructions to the facility although they were aware that qualified workers had been short-staffed there.
Lawyer Teramachi Toko, who has worked to help parents who lost their children in accidents in childcare centers for more than 15 years, pointed out that the operators’ negligence is hard to prove because these cases tend to occur behind closed doors. She explained that these companies often use SIDS as an excuse to conceal the facts.
The number of fatal accidents per child is estimated to be 60 times higher in un-authorized facilities than in authorized ones. The minimum required number of workers with qualifications in the former is one-third of that in the latter. Facilities with death records are known for their shortages of workers, especially experienced, skilled workers.
Teramachi said that seven in ten fatal accidents occur during nap times. She went on to say that without sufficient caregivers, childcare workers cannot spare enough time for keeping a close eye on the children and that unqualified workers are not able to handle several crying children at once.
Regarding the government plan to allow operators to use more unqualified workers and accept more children in facilities, Teramachi said, “This will further endanger children’s lives. The government should tighten regulations and not relax them.”
* * *
Why so many “fatal accidents” occurred at childcare centers?
A civil organization, Infant Safety Alliance (ISA), consisting of parents who lost their babies during childcare operations and their supporters, examined 240 cases of children’s deaths at daycare centers which were reported to the Welfare Ministry. Based on the examination, ISA Vice President Koyama Yoshio said that childcare deregulation promoted by the Liberal Democratic Party government underlies infant deaths at childcare facilities.
Since 2000, under the name of decreasing the number of children waiting to enter authorized day nurseries, the LDP-led government has implemented deregulatory measures which, for example, force daycare centers to accept more children than their capacity and replace full-time childcare workers with part-time/unqualified workers. In addition, the government has encouraged more and more businesses to enter into childcare services. Meanwhile, in 2015, Japan’s ratio of government spending on childcare and pre-school education to its GDP stood only at 0.45%, the lowest among OECD member states.
Sakasai Naoki of a private research organization for early childhood education said, “It’s an illusion that the relaxation of regulations and the promotion of free competition in the childcare industry will contribute to better childcare services.” He went on to say that the government neglect of its financial responsibility has brought about the deterioration of childcare services, which jeopardizes children’s lives.
A journalist specializing in childcare issues, Kobayashi Miki, said, “In order to provide adequate care services to children, it is normal that personnel expenses represent 70-80% of the total costs of a childcare facility. However, companies entering in the childcare market are trying to increase their profits by reducing labor costs. So, they use childcare workers willing to work for less under harsh working conditions.”
Kobayashi stressed that the improvement of childcare workers’ working conditions is vital to solve the issue of children on waiting lists for admission to authorized day care centers.
The Japanese Communist Party and three other opposition parties together submitted to the latest Diet session a bill to offer higher wages and better working conditions for childcare workers in response to demands from parents and workers. A drastic change in the government policies on childcare services is necessary to protect children’s lives.
Past related articles:
> Welfare Ministry intends to make childcare centers accept children beyond their capacity [March 29, 2016]
> Opposition alliance proposes measures to increase childcare workers’ wages [March 25, 2016]
> Half of public childcare staff in Tokyo work under non-regular contracts [January 15, 2015]
> Deregulation of nursery operations leads to more children’s death [May 29, 2012]
The Abe Cabinet presented “The Japan’s Plan for Dynamic Engagement of All Citizens” on June 2 with much fanfare. One of the plan’s key policies is to improve the childcare environment. It proposes to allocate 80 billion yen to encourage private companies to build and operate daycare facilities for about 50,000 children on waiting lists.
Jitsukata Nobuko, vice president of the national liaison council of childcare-related organizations (Zenhoren), pointed to the fact that the majority of such accidents occurred at unauthorized private daycare centers. “Municipal authorities do not get involved in the operation of company-run facilities. Accordingly, things like facility standards and who is responsible for services are all unclear. It inevitably brings about deterioration in the quality of childcare services.”
A woman living in Tokyo, 38, raising a one-year-old boy, applied for admission to six authorized childcare centers near her home in order to return to work this March. However, all her applications were rejected. She had no choice but to leave her child at an unauthorized day nursery in Chuo Ward which is jointly operated by seven private enterprises.
Soon after the admission, on March 11, her boy died while napping at the facility. According to the facility’s account, the boy was put in bed alone in another room because he cries “too often”. The nursery director ordered a staff member to have him sleep on his stomach. The staff member was an unqualified caregiver. All workers at the facility failed to check on the sleeping baby for more than two hours.
The central government guideline states that infants should not be laid face down to prevent them from suffocating. The Tokyo Metropolitan government guideline also requires childcare providers to confirm children’s breathing every 10 minutes while they are napping.
The personnel of the private day nursery, including the director, have only a few years of experience in caring for infants. It seems that they had not received adequate job training based on these official guidelines.
* * *
When a child is found dead in a childcare center and the cause of the death is not immediately identifiable, the facility operator often explains that it was due to sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS). If this explanation goes unchallenged, no investigation into the case will follow because SIDS is a disease, not an accident.
A mother in Osaka City received such an explanation after her son died in November 2009 in an un-authorized childcare center run by a private company. The company denied its responsibility for the death of the then four-month-old boy by arguing that he had died from SIDS. Being unconvinced by this argument, the mother sued the company and the Osaka City government which was in a position to oversee the child care center.
In November 2015, the Osaka High Court acknowledged that the boy died from suffocation as he had been laid face down for a long time. In the court battle, the mother and her lawyers revealed how sloppily children were treated in the day-care center: at the time the fatal accident occurred, only two workers, neither of whom had a childcare qualification, took care of 17 children; there were usually no more than two caregivers at the facility, in other words, when one of the two prepared meals, the other looked after all the children; and these workers did not regularly supervise sleeping children for SIDS symptoms with due care. The case in question was the second fatal accident in facilities operated by the defendant company.
The Osaka City government neglected to give appropriate instructions to the facility although they were aware that qualified workers had been short-staffed there.
Lawyer Teramachi Toko, who has worked to help parents who lost their children in accidents in childcare centers for more than 15 years, pointed out that the operators’ negligence is hard to prove because these cases tend to occur behind closed doors. She explained that these companies often use SIDS as an excuse to conceal the facts.
The number of fatal accidents per child is estimated to be 60 times higher in un-authorized facilities than in authorized ones. The minimum required number of workers with qualifications in the former is one-third of that in the latter. Facilities with death records are known for their shortages of workers, especially experienced, skilled workers.
Teramachi said that seven in ten fatal accidents occur during nap times. She went on to say that without sufficient caregivers, childcare workers cannot spare enough time for keeping a close eye on the children and that unqualified workers are not able to handle several crying children at once.
Regarding the government plan to allow operators to use more unqualified workers and accept more children in facilities, Teramachi said, “This will further endanger children’s lives. The government should tighten regulations and not relax them.”
* * *
Why so many “fatal accidents” occurred at childcare centers?
A civil organization, Infant Safety Alliance (ISA), consisting of parents who lost their babies during childcare operations and their supporters, examined 240 cases of children’s deaths at daycare centers which were reported to the Welfare Ministry. Based on the examination, ISA Vice President Koyama Yoshio said that childcare deregulation promoted by the Liberal Democratic Party government underlies infant deaths at childcare facilities.
Since 2000, under the name of decreasing the number of children waiting to enter authorized day nurseries, the LDP-led government has implemented deregulatory measures which, for example, force daycare centers to accept more children than their capacity and replace full-time childcare workers with part-time/unqualified workers. In addition, the government has encouraged more and more businesses to enter into childcare services. Meanwhile, in 2015, Japan’s ratio of government spending on childcare and pre-school education to its GDP stood only at 0.45%, the lowest among OECD member states.
Sakasai Naoki of a private research organization for early childhood education said, “It’s an illusion that the relaxation of regulations and the promotion of free competition in the childcare industry will contribute to better childcare services.” He went on to say that the government neglect of its financial responsibility has brought about the deterioration of childcare services, which jeopardizes children’s lives.
A journalist specializing in childcare issues, Kobayashi Miki, said, “In order to provide adequate care services to children, it is normal that personnel expenses represent 70-80% of the total costs of a childcare facility. However, companies entering in the childcare market are trying to increase their profits by reducing labor costs. So, they use childcare workers willing to work for less under harsh working conditions.”
Kobayashi stressed that the improvement of childcare workers’ working conditions is vital to solve the issue of children on waiting lists for admission to authorized day care centers.
The Japanese Communist Party and three other opposition parties together submitted to the latest Diet session a bill to offer higher wages and better working conditions for childcare workers in response to demands from parents and workers. A drastic change in the government policies on childcare services is necessary to protect children’s lives.
Past related articles:
> Welfare Ministry intends to make childcare centers accept children beyond their capacity [March 29, 2016]
> Opposition alliance proposes measures to increase childcare workers’ wages [March 25, 2016]
> Half of public childcare staff in Tokyo work under non-regular contracts [January 15, 2015]
> Deregulation of nursery operations leads to more children’s death [May 29, 2012]
