Japan eyes no waiting kids for after-school care in FY 2021
Jiji -- Sep 15
The Japanese government set on Friday the new goal of cutting to zero the number of elementary school children waiting for receiving after-school care services by the end of fiscal 2021.

To this end, the government plans to provide municipal governments with financial assistance to expand the total capacity of care facilities across Japan by 250,000 children from fiscal 2019 starting next April to 1.47 million, officials said.

After fully meeting demand for the care as of the end of March 2022, the government aims to add 50,000 children to the capacity in the following two years to cope with an expected increase in the demand, mostly from single parents and two-income families, they also said.

The new zero-waiting-list program is based the assumption that the employment rate for women aged between 25 and 44 will rise to 80 pct, from 72.7 pct in 2016.

After-school care services are provided chiefly by local municipalities, consigned groups and welfare organizations. As of May 2017, 1.17 million children were using the services while 17,000 children were on waiting lists.

News source: Jiji