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The Number of Waitlisted children for Nursery Schools Drops to over half

By on August 27, 2021

The number of children waiting for a slot at Japan’s public nursery drops by 6,805 or 54.7 % as of April according to a survey by Japan’s Health and Welfare Ministry. The number of  waitlisted children is down to a record low of 5,634 for the fourth straight year, the highest since the survey began in 1994.

The decline was mostly attributed to a combined increase in the number of available slots and a decrease in applicants amid the novel coronavirus crisis .

As of April this year, the maximum number of children that can be accepted at authorized nurseries and other facilities for preschoolers (such as “kodomoen” kindergarten-nursery hybrids), was ramped up by 58,000 from the previous year’s 3,194,000.  However, the number of applicants in the same month dropped by 14,000 to about 2,828,000.

By early April of this year, no one was on waiting list in 1,429 of Japan’s 1,741 municipalities.

Sixty percent of those waitlisted are in the Tokyo metropolitan area and other densely populated regions. In municipalities with 100 or more children on the list significantly dropped from 22 to four.

The survey was made on 180 municipalities where the decline was 10 or more. Asked about what they attribute the drop to, 43.3 % of these nurseries reported there were fewer applicants than expected while 74% said a growing number of parents have avoided sending their children to nurseries out of fear for covid transmission.

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