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Families worry about daycare shortage in Japan

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Not only do i worry about finding daycare for my kids i worry about the quality of the day care.

9 ( +9 / -0 )

If there is truly a help needed I propose I extend my hand to such families. While they go on with their daily routine, I can babysit their young, beautiful children, preparing the for the adult life. That I can!

-4 ( +2 / -6 )

Aww. That's really worry some, especially these days that parents are both working to meet their daily needs.

5 ( +5 / -0 )

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe had previously pledged to slash the number of children on daycare waiting lists to zero 

The government also controls the supply of butter in this country.

Is it a good idea for government to be trying to run such operations, rather than just governing?

"Demand for daycare is rising."

The free market is a better mechanism for ensuring that demand is satisfied than government.

The CEO of a major nursery operator has called for the government to "ease regulations and stop controlling pay rates", as per a Bloomberg article a year ago. Abe wants to run the show instead though.

A major obstacle to increasing daycare capacity is a shortage of daycare workers.

Deregulate pay rates for workers and see what happens.

Konan University's Maeda said, "Substantial amounts of tax money must be injected to raise the wages for daycare workers. Taxpayers should also be braced for a burden."

I disagree that this is how the system should be designed. I don't think it makes sense that I pay tax, which goes to the national coffers, gets churned through the beaureacracy, and then a slice comes back to me indirectly by subsidising daycare workers.

How about government gets out of this business, and I just pay market rates for daycare workers who provide me with daycare services of a type and quality that I am satisfied with?

Another option is to add (yet another) deduction to the tax code. We already have housing loan tax deductions, life insurance premium deductions - why not add a "child deduction" so that people with kids to raise pay less tax in the first place?

7 ( +8 / -1 )

This is a problem that could be solved with money which means that it isn't a problem. Consider two related issues:

Japan has the lowest female labor participation rate of OECD countries even though more women say in surveys they want to work.

Also, JAPAN has a pitifully low birth rate. Women who delay having more (or any) children commonly site a lack of daycare because they either need or want to work.

The common denominator is a lack of child care. This is unconscionably bad governance.

Build more facilities. Not enough licensed providers you say? Pay them more money. The extra costs should be more than made up for by additional tax revenues both now (more working mothers paying more taxes) and in the future (a larger or at least less small pool of workers).

I guess the fact that is so blindingly obvious is one reason the old men running this society cannot see the solution. We definitely need more women in politics.

4 ( +4 / -0 )

This problem has been going on for many years and through many of successive Prime Ministers (17 in 20 years). The latest, Abe, had promised to address this issue when he first took office. It was part of his three arrows (of BS) plan, including getting mothers back into the workforce. Now, he has postponed it until 2020, which I am sure is more BS. This problem could be fixed within a year if they were serious. They only need to throw some money it to provide more day centers. Have these stone-headed cronies not heard the phrase, "You have to spend money to make money"? By providing more day care centers more mothers will be able to work, which will increase the income for families and in turn, create more consumer spending spurring the stagnant economy. This should be main priority for these idiots!

6 ( +6 / -0 )

How about government gets out of this business, and I just pay market rates for daycare workers who provide me with daycare services of a type and quality that I am satisfied with?

Just pay market prices! Yeah that works a treat in Australia.

Long day care (child care centre)$70-$192 per day

Pre-school$45-$80 per day

Those rates are not applicable to inner city care,

$192 per day is $3840 for five days a week with NO EXTRAS.

The only problem is that only the wealthy can afford it.

https://www.careforkids.com.au/child-care-articles/article/77/cost-of-child-care

5 ( +5 / -0 )

Don't worry. Abe to the rescue.

0 ( +2 / -2 )

People, please remember that your local member is most likely a 70 year old man whose experience of child care was 50 years ago. He has absolutely no idea on this topic. Might be part of the problem? As he extinguishes his cigar in a pile of tax payers money, the last thing on his mind is what can be done to help those he should be supporting.

8 ( +8 / -0 )

And has vowed to deal with this twice.

3 ( +3 / -0 )

Those workers are t working overtime and then quitting.

Those workers are working UNPAID overtime and are being robbed and exploited and then they are quitting. Let's call a spade a spade.

5 ( +5 / -0 )

A need for child care should generate a cottage industry to satisfy the need.

2 ( +2 / -0 )

His goal was to raise the number or working woman but was couldn't think they need more daycare?

Also a massive problem is the fact nursing care homes are also totally full and have waiting lists.... Screwed on both events of the stick.

3 ( +3 / -0 )

Folks, the problems with this is OBVIOUS.

The solutions, much less so, these problems have been left since the 80s, with little real thought put into anything.

Here is the bottom line NOW! There is a need for daycare, HOWEVER, the costs where it is needed are HIGH, so the end result if a woman who wants to work makes lets say Y300,000 a month, perhaps less, likely less. ANOTHER woman makes Y240,000 to Y310,000 a month.......to do the daycare.........DO THE DAMNED MATH!!

 Bottom line is this WILL NOT WORK!

This has been left for decades & now it is really hard to make this work, bottom line is Japan has let this sit & fester for decades.

It is BEYOND FIXING in my opinion, it is too far broken, women who want to work after paying for daycare pocket what, Y10,000 to Y30,000 a month if they are lucky, maybe even in the red

Sadly it is likely beyond fixing at this point THAT IS THE SAD  TRUTH.....do the math people, it likely doesn't work for most families, but  neither are families OR  govt are paying attention to the MATH.....

And it will get worse!

2 ( +3 / -1 )

Abe has no difficulty in dishing out the cash to the dregs of Asia in his sad - and fruitless - little efforts to try to buy influence to counter China, but only hollow pledges with respect to rectifying the day care problem which gets worse and worse. Abe's the type of chap who would toss a child from a lifeboat if he thought doing so would free up some room to give his ego a little extra space to stretch its legs.

-2 ( +0 / -2 )

The government is honestly just praying that those who can't afford to put the elderly in overpriced homes will let them live with them, along with the kids who they can't afford to put in daycare. It's all on us, people... the government is not going to help.

2 ( +2 / -0 )

What about grandparents and pensioners? There are plenty of elderly in Japan who could watch a child or two with pay, regardless if its the govt or the patent paying. A simple background check should suffice.

As to the creepy comments, you do know women are capable of doing bad things too, right? Please don't demonize male daycare workers.

3 ( +3 / -0 )

@GW : Daycare does not cost that much in Japan for a government run center, maybe 1000 yen a day for a child. The government also covers part of it. If you actually know the system the government pays for a lot of stuff, including full coverage for child birth. We actually made some money from our kids (not our goal obviously).

1 ( +1 / -0 )

There is a need for daycare, HOWEVER, the costs where it is needed are HIGH, so the end result if a woman who wants to work makes lets say Y300,000 a month, perhaps less, likely less. ANOTHER woman makes Y240,000 to Y310,000 a month.......to do the daycare.........DO THE DAMNED MATH!!

Whether the long term value of being able to work, while the kids are small, justifies the short-term costs of day care, is up for each family to decide.

Even if one spouse's salary were entirely consumed by daycare costs in the short-term, the daycare costs typically go down when the kids get bigger, and by staying in work the spouse maintains a track record. This is all part of the equation. Some people also choose to work for reasons besides the salary.

If people can't afford to pay for services that they use and someone else is expected to pay instead to make it "free" (or cheaper), there is something wrong with that system.

In any case the current math, where your household pays tax to the government, and in thousands (how many thousands we don't know) of cases, you receive no daycare in return, doesn't add up at all. The current system is terribly broken as it is.

A new system that utilises the free market needs to be designed, and a transition plan put in place to move towards it, as soon as possible. One of the problems with this situation is that families are toughing it out but then their kids grow up and it becomes the next cohorts problem. The problem continues to fester, and holds the entire community back.

1 ( +1 / -0 )

If families are worried it means Abe has failed to do what he promised. But it should come as no surprise as Abe's Nippon Kaigi advocates women staying at home, rearing the next generation of soldiers ready to fight and die for the glory of a greater Nippon. Banzai!

2 ( +2 / -0 )

As if if it was an unsolvale problem: pay ALL mothers providing baby care with a salary.

Even in France, I always found it disgusting that women who stopped working would get a good part of their salary while women who were not before would get nothing.

It is too tiring to take care of babies for many so just pay the very benefitial social status of just new mother instead of spiting on them.

Then make it indeed totally unlawful to put age barrier to most jobs.

Personally, I believe the "social group" of women as mothers are not helping since they apply to themselves the rule of I have child so I need to forget about work. My Japanese sisters in law applied this stupid rule by their own will ! Ever never my French sister would have had this ludicrous idea.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

The problem will only get worse with the intransigence that is present in Japan.

Also, it is fine and doable for the Japanese government to send troops to Africa and build airports in Vietnam (to name a few) all with taxpayers money, it is not able to provide adequate daycare for its citizens?

0 ( +0 / -0 )

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