Japan Press Weekly

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2019 May 8 - 14 [SOCIAL ISSUES]

10% of company-led childcare centers withdrew from nursery business after receiving state subsidies

About 10% or 252 facilities among the company-led childcare centers to which the government in fiscal 2016 and 2017 decided to grant subsidies were found to have pulled out of the nursery business.

According to a Cabinet Office survey, 214 out of the 252 corporate childcare providers did not even open their facilities, and seven providers are yet to return the money to the state coffer.

The sudden closure or withdrawal from the nursery business is becoming a serious issue in many cities in Japan, highlighting the companies' naive planning and revealing the sloppy screening process for the granting of state subsidies.

Regarding the reasons for the cancellation of their childcare business projects, due to "their own convenience" was the case for 110 entities, "no prospect for the start of construction within the given fiscal years" was for 43 entities, and "short of the required number of children" for 34 entities.

The business-led childcare centers look after children of employees and children in neighborhoods. This service started in FY2016 as non-authorized nurseries which do not have to meet the strict national standards as required for authorized facilities. Childcare workers in authorized facilities must all be certified. However, as for unauthorized centers run by for-profit business entities, only half of staff are required to have a childcare certificate.

Past related article:
> JCP Tamura: Build more authorized childcare centers instead of subsidizing for-profit corporate-led facilities [March 24, 2019]