Some Serious Accidents at Child Care Facilities Unreported in Japan

November 9, 2018

Tokyo--Some nursery facilities and municipalities in Japan failed to report serious accidents involving children at such facilities to authorities, the internal affairs ministry said in a survey released Friday.

Such serious accidents as bone fractures that occur at child care facilities must be reported to the state if they require 30 days or more for full recovery.

The ministry believes that some of those cases were unreported as the scope of serious accidents requiring mandatory reporting is unclear. It recommended the Cabinet Office and the welfare ministry to fix the problem.

The internal affairs ministry randomly selected 148 child care facilities across the country to examine accident records for fiscal 2015 and fiscal 2016.

The ministry found that nine facilities, or 6 pct of the total, failed to report a total of 11 serious accidents, such as bone fractures and dislocations, to municipalities. All fatal accidents were reported properly.

The ministry also investigated 44 municipalities and found that four, or 9 pct of them, did not report 15 cases, such as an asthma attack, to the central government, among serious accidents reported by child care facilities.

In February 2015, the Cabinet Office and the welfare ministry expanded the scope of the mandatory reporting to all serious accidents requiring at least 30 days to heal.

But some municipalities and nursery facilities were following old reporting standards that only covered a limited scope of cases such as those in which children became unconscious, the internal affairs ministry said.

The internal affairs ministry said municipalities and child care facilities have yet to be well informed of the new reporting standards. Jiji Press