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Welfare ministry intends to remove national safety standards at public childcare centers

Akahata has learned that the Labor, Welfare, and Health Ministry intends to remove the national safety standards at authorized day-care centers for children so that local governments can implement their own inferior safety standards.

In addition to Welfare Minister Nagatsuma Akira’s decision to deregulate the minimum standards for the size of childcare centers in major cities like Tokyo, this welfare ministry’s attempt will further threaten children’s lives throughout the nation.

Under the current national safety standards, if a building contains a nursery room on its second floor, the building should be fireproof or semi-fireproof and have two evacuation routes, and if a nursery room is located on the four or higher floors of a building, the building should have an exterior stairway for evacuation.

A welfare ministry official said, “Up until now, we have not given enough consideration to opening day-care centers at higher-story buildings. If the standards are set by a local government ordinance, it will be possible for a local government to decide that ‘even high-story buildings are safe to locate a childcare centers’.”

In Tokyo, the Metropolitan government gave permission to a private owner to open a child-care center on an upper floor of a multi-tenant building which includes restaurants without regard for fire safety concerns for children.

National Liaison Committee of Childcare Organizations Vice President Ueno Satoko stated, “Eliminating the national safety standards means that the government will abandon its responsibility for protecting children’s lives and ensuring their safety. The current safety standards are actually substandard themselves and need to be improved.”

- Akahata, November 13, 2009

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