More and more companies are offering in-house childcare facilities mainly for the children of employees. The government started this system in fiscal 2016 under the Child Education and Childcare Support Law, providing large subsidies. Subsidies had been decided for 2,365 in-house childcare facilities as of the end of February, with a capacity of approximately 55,000 children.
The government plans to increase this capacity by another 20,000 in fiscal 2018 as a leading measure to tackle the issue of children who are on waiting lists for admission to childcare centers.
Reasonable childcare fees
Childcare facilities are largely classified into two groups: One is "certified childcare facilities," which meet government criteria; the other is "non-certified childcare facilities," which do not.
Certified childcare facilities are run based on municipal plans, but company-initiated facilities are categorized as non-certified and are not subject to these plans. They can be established using support from the Foundation for Child Well-being, a public interest incorporated foundation based in Shibuya Ward, Tokyo.
As long as company-initiated facilities meet the required number of staff, facility size and other criteria, they can receive the same level of generous support as licensed childcare facilities. As a general rule, they are also expected to cap their standard monthly fees at around 30,000 yen. They will fall under the government's plan to make preschool and childcare free of charge, starting partly in fiscal 2019.
In June 2017, Bic Camera Inc. opened a company-run, 30-child capacity facility called "Bic Kids" on the first floor of a condominium building in the Ikebukuro district of Toshima Ward, Tokyo, where their headquarters and other facilities are located. They aim to reduce the number of female employees who leave the firm as a result of giving birth or childcare commitments.
Part-time employee Satoko Koja has been sending her 2-year-old daughter to the facility since it opened. She planned to return to work after giving birth, but when she applied to a licensed childcare center near her home in Kita Ward, Tokyo, her daughter could not get in. She did not know what to do, but then she heard about the opening of Bic Kids. "There's no extra charge for employees, even if we pick up our children late because of work. That's a big help," she said.
Local children allowed
One characteristic of company-initiated facilities is they can flexibly choose who can use their services. They provide childcare for not only their own employees, but also employees of partner companies that have concluded a usage contract with the company that owns the facility.
The facility can also allocate slots for children from local neighborhoods. This was originally limited to 50 percent of the total capacity, but the Cabinet Office relaxed the regulation in March. Now the majority of the slots can go to local children, provided they are on waiting lists for other facilities.
The Stellar Education Garden nursery in front of the Tokyo Metro Kasai Station in Edogawa Ward, Tokyo, opened in November 2017 with a capacity of 27 children. It now accepts 13 local children, 12 children of employees from partner companies and only two of the children of employees of the owner company.
Haruhisa Arita, an executive of the owner company, said: "We opened the facility because there are so many children on waiting lists in the neighborhood. We want to create a high-quality educational service where, for example, children can learn English from native teachers."
National expectations
Company-initiated childcare facilities are funded by contributions under the Child Education and Childcare Support Law, which employers pay to the government together with social insurance premiums.
Hosei University Prof. Kazumasa Oguro, who specializes in public economics, said: "Because the contribution comes out of what would normally be distributed to workers, it's essentially the same as having the workers shoulder the costs. Like a tax, this is a system where the entire working generation, including those without children, provides support for people raising children. That system may help prevent the birthrate from falling further."
The Child Welfare Law stipulates that municipal governments are responsible for ensuring adequate childcare facilities. However, some local governments are reluctant, thinking: "If we make more certified childcare centers, more parents will want to leave their children there while they work, and the waiting lists won't get any shorter. We don't have the budget, either."
In some cases, local governments have even made concessions for existing childcare facilities who wanted to avoid fierce competition from newcomers.
As of April 2017, roughly 26,000 children were on waiting lists for childcare nationwide. The central government has high hopes for company-initiated childcare centers as a way to secure capacity for childcare without being influenced by intentions of local governments.
Safety issues and cooperation
Securing safety can be a concern at company-initiated childcare facilities. Aki Fukoin, representative of Parents Concerned with Nursery Schools, worries about the management structure at these facilities. In many cases, multiple partner companies that concluded contracts with an owner company have their employees leave their children at the company-initiated facilities.
While there have been no confirmed major accidents at company-initiated facilities, there was an accident in March 2016 at a non-certified childcare facility in Chuo Ward, Tokyo, that contracted with multiple companies. A 14-month-old boy died after he was left sleeping face-down.
Fukoin said, "It can be hard to tell who's responsible in a case like this. It's also worrying that non-certified facilities don't get the same regular engagement and support from the administration that certified facilities do."
The Foundation for Child Well-being has begun yearly on-site inspections of company-initiated facilities since May 2017. The foundation makes unannounced inspections to check if children nap with their faces down, and how the facilities supervise the children.
At the prefectural level, company-initiated facilities are checked as part of the guidance and audits for unlicensed facilities under the Child Welfare Law. In case of emergencies,prefectural governments can order the suspension or closure of facilities. The central government has given written instructions urging municipalities to work with the foundation, and some prefectures and cities have just begun audits.
Yasuko Matoba, a senior chief researcher at the Dai-ichi Life Research Institute Inc., said: "With the looser limits on capacity for children from neighborhoods, even more children will be using these facilities. The central government should work harder to encourage cooperation between the foundation and local governments."
It is also necessary to discuss revising the law to make such cooperation mandatory.
(From The Yomiuri Shimbun, March 17, 2018)
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