Children on nursery waiting lists rise for third year

September 1, 2017

TOKYO- The number of children waiting to enter nursery schools in Japan as of April 1 increased by 2,528 from a year before to 26,081, growing for the third straight year, the welfare ministry said Friday.

The increase is believed to reflect a revision of the definition of such children, ministry officials said. Nursery schools were in short supply amid faster-than-expected growth in demand attributed to a rise in women's labor force participation rate, the officials also said.

The number of children on "hidden" nursery waiting lists stood at 69,224, up 1,870.

Such children are not included in the official tallies of municipal governments due to reasons, including entry applications submitted only for specific child care facilities.

Revising its definition of children on the waiting lists for admission to nursery schools, the ministry decided last March that the lists include children whose parents extended their child care leave due to failure to find vacancies at nurseries, mainly certified facilities.

From the latest survey, municipal governments were requested to estimate the number of children waiting to nursery schools based on the new definition.

The survey showed that 72.1 percent of all children on the nursery waiting lists in Japan concentrated in urban areas, including the Tokyo metropolitan area.

Tokyo had the largest number of such children among the country's 47 prefectures, with 8,586, followed by Okinawa, with 2,247, and Chiba, with 1,787.

Children up to two years old totaled 23,114, accounting for 88.6 percent of the total. Of them, those aged one and two came to 18,712, reflecting strong nursery demand from mothers who returned to work. Jiji Press