Japan Press Weekly

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2012 May 23 - 29 [WELFARE]

Deregulation of nursery operations leads to more children’s deaths

“The new childcare system will be ineffective in preventing fatal accidents from happening at childcare centers,” Japanese Communist Party lawmaker Miyamoto Takeshi said in a House of Representatives special committee meeting on a unified reform of tax and social welfare systems on May 28.

The committee is discussing three bills related to the new system as part of a reform of social welfare programs.

Pointing out that the number of fatal accidents involving children at childcare centers reached more than 100 in the 10 years since 2001, Miyamoto said that the deregulation policy launched by the Koizumi government in 2001 undermined safe operations of childcare centers because the policy encouraged for-profit corporations to enter the childcare industry, promoted the privatization of public childcare services, and forced authorized childcare centers to accept children above their capacity.

Citing a fatal accident at a nursery in Aichi Prefecture which accepted more children than their fixed number, Miyamoto urged the welfare minister to tighten standards on the operations of nursery.

Welfare Minister Komiyama Yoko, however, took a so-what attitude and said, “Children’s safety is our priority. However, we can also see the good side of deregulation.”

Miyamoto requested the minister to retract the three bills by stating, “Under the new system, children’s safety will not be secured because the government will abandon its responsibility to provide childcare services.”