Plans for daycare center scrapped after residents complain of possible noise

So, there it is folks! Everybody complains about not enough daycare facilities, but these same people say, "not in out neighbourhood." It's no different to nuclear power. Many people want it, but not in their neighbourhood. Ichikawa is one of the worst areas for waiting lists at daycare centers and desperately needs more facilities, but with this kind of attitude it will never change.

Unbelievable. Shame on them ! If they want peace they should move in the countryside.

I'm sure they wouldn't have objected to a senior centre opening up, though.

Get used to it folks, the elderly will be sucking up everything they can and demand they get it all. Right now they get anything they demand while children get waiting lists. Young mothers get no prenatal or postpartum care. Typical of their generation, they sucked up all for themselves and left their grandchildren all their debts.

I once thought that the declining birth rates in Japan has to do with government’s unwillingness to deal with the root causes. Now i know that the general public is to be blame as well. Since they dont like the noise of children, then they shall have none.

NIMB! And yet how many are clamoring for such facilities!? The parents of 373 children. This would have lessened the demand by about 1/3.

"It goes round in circles..." Then: We need more daycare centers for the younger families and their kids. Now: We don't want new daycare centers because too noisy. Near Future: Over 50% of town is over 65 y/o. We need to attract younger families.

This is pretty depressing to read. Old busybodies torpedoing a much needed facility because hey, they don`t have kids that need caring for anymore.

Would love to see their reaction if the same logic was applied to elderly care facilities.

Evolutionary speaking, the sound of children laughing and playing indicates "safety" zone. If you find them disturbing, YOU are the problem, I strongly suggest you visit a psychiatrist.

Fine. Just tell those residents that when cuts start because of revenue problems and a lack of pension money, the city will start with them.

Seriously, though, it should not be their choice. The land that would have been used is not theirs. They have no say in who occupies it, so long as no laws are broken. They certainly didn't take into account resident's opinion when they dug up the park, sat on it for two years, then put a large tank for sewage under it. Why would they suddenly not do this when its for the benefit of the people in the long run?

Where are these quiet neighborhoods in Japan? I've been all over Japan for the better part of 15 years and I've lived here for 5 and I don't know if I've ever been in a neighborhood you could describe as being quiet. Even way out in Yamaguchi prefecture where I studied once in a teensy tiny town, every Saturday and Sunday morning they would play loud instrumental music over dozens of speakers all throughout the town to encourage the residents to get out and exercise together. I would rather hear the endearing laughter and play of children than that crazy crap ever again, that's for sure.

A new eldercare center is opening in our neighborhood. There are a lot of families with kids in our neighborhood, maybe we should stage a protest against it stating that if we let elderly in they will create meiwaku by complaining about the noise of families already living here.

The organization suggested installing sound-proof windows and other means to block noise from the facility, but none of the suggestions were accepted.

Wonderful, how stubborn of them.

So there was a massive hoo-ha a few weeks ago about working mothers and the lack of childcare availability, and how this was forcing mothers out of work and essentially ruining the economy, the population levels, and the country as a (distant) result. Hear hear, everyone agrees, Abe steps up and promises more facilities etc.

And then you see articles like this (yet again) and can't help but be amazed. I'm sorry, I thought Japanese people (or so they always tell you) are the most selfless, kindest, most warm-hearted people on Earth? But they don't want a childcare facility in their area because it's noisy - and somehow all the other noisy shit that's somehow allowed (political trucks, 2nd-hand goods trucks, goddamn yaki-imo trucks) is tolerated just fine?

Japan will be it's own downfall.

It's like Japan is committing suicide on a societal level too.

Quite the irony!

why in the world does the city need to get the community's approval? just build the damn thing. what are they going to do? form a human chain on the lot so construction can't begin? the good of the oyajis and obachans outweigh the good of families. smh...

This is a country by old people for old people.

Ahaha this article does not surprise me in the least. Very typical of Japan. We want more day care but not near us. The sound of children disgusts us. You reap what you sow Japan.

It's reminding me of my upcoming trip to my in-laws in Japan. We can't stay at their house(which has 2 extra rooms not being used) because our infant's crying will be bothersome to the neighbors (despite the fact that there is an elementary school 1 block away).

Those elderly babas and jijis in Ichikawa who objected to the day care are too detached from daily life in modern Japan.

We have 3 schools, and 2 kindergartens in our neighbourhood, and there is hardly any noise from them, even on sports days. Mums usually drop kids off and pick them up by bike (mamachari) or walk with them.

There is far more noise from bosozoku on the nearby main road, military helicopters flying low between airbases in Kanagawa, jingles from the clothes line salesman and sweet potato sellers in their kei trucks, and booming stereo systems in cars.

These people are pathetic. What could be more delightful than the happy sound of children laughing and calling to each other as they play?

Wow, town planning in Japan? Who knew? Pachinko in beauty spots (actually, pachinko allowed anywhere - what ugly, noisy carbuncles), migraine inducing flashing neon, retina destroying lighting in shops and stations, 10 story buildings a metre apart so the lower 9 floors never get any sun. All ok. Nursey to alleviate the chronic shortage of spaces. Not so much. And as a resident of Ichikawa with a 1 year old who failed to get into a resistered facility, this really gets my goat.

This is just plain selfishness and self-centered thinking on the part of the residents. Unbelievable.

The city shouldn't have listened or given in to the demands of this resident group. Talk about a lack of backbone.

Re: The assorted, "How do we know the complaints are/were from elderly residents?"

Answer: An educated guess, considering we're talking about people who are b!#ching about noise for a facility that is active from, at its busiest, 8:00AM to 4:00PM.

Who tends to be home during these particular hours in established neighborhoods in modern Japan? Certainly not childless housewives or IT guys working the night shift. It's largely retirees. Who possesses the largest chunk of the economic savings pie, and is the most influential constituency for a political structure that regularly caves in to the demands of conservative Japan? Retirees. Sure, there are likely to be folks in their 50s, 40s, or even 30s 40s in the mix of complainers. But the most shrill voices here? Every time a story like this comes up, the principle complainers are almost invariably... Yup, retirees.

These obnoxious, selfish twits personify the kind of myopic stupidity that allowed the Bubble to occur -- and then burst. An entire generation of workers, interestingly concentrated near large urban areas, who not only demanded society build an education structure that put the raising of their children, physically, intellectually, and emotionally, into the hands of others, but they reaped huge financial rewards for it as well.

While their kids were stuck in a school system that began with early morning club activities at 7:00AM, then a full day of both academic and moral instruction (because the grown-ups were too busy making money for Japan, Inc. to teach their own children not to be amoral asshats), followed by another bout with those damned club activities, and then wrapped up in a nice spirit-crushing bow called "Cram School," a child-developmental abomination that can potentially keep a child occupied until 11:00 at night, dad was a slave to the corporate grist mill and mom made sure she did her part to keep him there in tip-top shape, armed with lunch boxes, fresh suits, pocket change, and limitless patience every time he rolled into the house at midnight after yet another night of drinking with coworkers or clients, while she squirreled away any and all spare income for a rainy day almost entirely predicated on PTSD fear of a return to the poverty that followed the War.

Club activities, cram school, "moral" education, sports festivals, "examination hell," the diversification and ranking of high schools and colleges based on those same exam scores in a system where a child could potentially be finished before he or she began as early as elementary school, an education system that neither forgives nor forgets as it churns out the next batch of grist for the machine -- ALL of this was brought to us by the Baby Boomer generation.

This is the very same bunch that is now pissing and moaning about daycare centers disrupting the peace and tranquility of their neighborhoods, neighborhoods that didn't have a problem with kids rolling into school at 7:00 and leaving after 1, 2, or even 3 hours of after-school club practice of an almost martial nature on the school grounds throughout the 80s or 90s, when they were grabbing the brass ring.

Now that another generation of Japanese families needs society's help in creating an environment that will foster but a fraction of the success Boomers seem to have taken entirely for granted, these obnoxious asses have the audacity to say, "Not in MY neighborhood?"

Payback is gonna' be a mindboggling for some of these folks.

I live in a two story duplex. The couple next door are grandparents. They own a construction company and were able to buy new houses for their two daughters just down the street. The grand kids would often be with the grandmother next door. Verbal noise was never a problem but the kids would often run up and down the stairs for hours, all afternoon and early evening. Never annoyed me. Kids are kids, plus I knew it would only last a couple of years at the most. It's gone now. What really gets me still, is when the grandmother starts jibber-jabbing outside my front window with the neighbors cackling on and on for more than an hour. Can't even keep my window open and have to play youtube songs just to cover the NOISE! UGH!

Where are these quiet neighborhoods in Japan?

I live in one. No speakers, no music, no announcements. It's very nice.

The mil lives in another. She's got a daycare right outside her window, the neighbourhood was up in arms when the plans were announced, now she says it's no problem at all as far as noise goes, the kids are quiet most of the time.

Disillusioned,

Everybody complains about not enough daycare facilities, but these same people say, "not in my neighborhood..."

I agree with your frustration, but respectfully disagree with the above.

The people asking for more day cares and the people opposed to them are distinctly different groups. People needing daycare are typically young couples trying to start lives and families while those opposed almost invariably tend to be those who already got their "piece of the pie," and couldn't care less what happens to anyone coming afterwards.

”Negative impact on the peace and quiet in the area..." Seriously?! As others here have noted, those opposed to the pressing need to provide daycare for Japan's future generation of citizens for something as petty and myopic as "neighborhood tranquility" should be ashamed of their blatant and utterly gut-churning selfishness. I wonder how these asshats will feel when there aren't enough workers left in Japan to keep their pension payments coming.

This really Ps me off.The local authorities should announce that they are going to convert the facility to a halfway house for people coming out of prison or the nut house.Let's see how the locals feel about that.

I saw this on tv and the access road they showed was very narrow. They said it was three meters wide and it and had utility poles jutting into it. The block looked completely residential. The program presenter suggested banning parents from coming by car as a solution for this kind of situation, but that may or may not be workable.

That said, I think some of the protesting neighbours they interviewed on the programme would have still been protesting had it had a 10m road and a huge carpark. One of them was an old man who is from a generation where people would have big families and neighbourhoods would have been full of playing kids. Before the 1960s, there were few cars and kids could play anywhere, not just in places where their parents take them like today. People like that should be ashamed of themselves for denying the same simple rights to others.

Yet more proof - if any were actually needed! - that Japan is not a child friendly country. No children, ultimately no future. Oblivion beckons, Nippon....

Selfish old biddies. Bet when they were young with little kids, they howled and demanded daycare facilities in their communities. Who do you think is paying your old age pensions? The poor moms and dads working their tails off to retire the national debt that you all demanded from the politicians 40, 50 years ago to pay for your pensions.

Shame on these complainers! A society that considers the sound of playing children as noise pollution has truly lost its way. What do these miserable people want? A graveyard as their neighbourhood?

The Old vs. (against is more like it...) The Young.... Seniors will soon realize that they too could end up at caregiving centers and subjected to rejection. What goes around - comes around.

Aren't the kids inside most of the time at day care centres?

This city went about it in the wrong way. Get the community involved, let them see the benefits, make them a part of the facility and the BGM will fade away.

You get what you breed when you have an aging society that is unafraid of shooting off their mouths and complaining nothing will get done. Parks where children can't play, old folks complaining about noise, THIS and who knows how many other things that never get reported.

Idiots for listening to the complaints, and not working out a better way to fix it!

No idea about how the children will be dropped off and picked up, but they showed the site on the TV news. The road is in a typical walled housing grid, very narrow, hardly wide enough for one car, with little extra room for a pedestrian or bicycle to be overtaken safely. They would need special traffic regulations, eg no cars at all, if such a thing were possible.

No wonder the birthrate is dropping. What sort of grandparents would these people make?

If they are pensioners, I wish they would get a cut in their pensions. They want to have their cake and eat it too.

The city's not the one trying to build it. It was a private daycare facility.

It's the city that gives the approval. They don't have to ask neighbors...but probably the mayor and his/her team fears them.

the noise from children would spoil the neighborhood tranquility and cause possible traffic safety problems in the area.

I guess the same people never found the jingles of all those talking trucks or the grandpas singing No arias at 6 am were a problem, and they consider geriatric drivers are not a traffic safety issue...

how do you know that the opponents were old

They are not one case. Most of us have seen similar attitudes in our neighborhood in Japan. In my town, they wanted the parks to be closed except for grannies playing tennis and grandpas jogging with a dog as other younger people playing ball games were said "dangerous and noisy". The opponents are retired ppl mostly, because people in active years would never get a chance to hear the kids, they are rarely at home on weekdays to do the siesta.... Then only the oldies have the guts to complain and obtain whatever they demand.

This regional groups have great strength here. I was very disturbed from the rules of a soccer ground my son sometimes had a match. Cars were not allowed up a road and they even asked people to push the bicycles instead of riding. It was beyond my imagination how private owners can impose such a rules on a public street? It's like if the residents on the main road a block down can say - no cars passing etc. Just thinking of it makes me angry and the case with the nursery is quite similar (except they even don't let them build it).

All of those old men and old women causing trouble again and being selfish!

Let the old live in Japan and send the precious children to the foreign land so they can live naturally as a child ... Using their tax money ... children has to live as a children ... even adult too making noise ... why complaint

I actually like the noise that small children make...

Yet more proof - if any were actually needed! - that Japan is not a child friendly country. No children, ultimately no future. Oblivion beckons, Nippon....

I second that!

Sad to see the NIMBY disease spreading to Japan. I have no sympathy for these whiners who are ready to screw over the parents who raise the future of their community just so they don't hear children playing at 2 PM.

More than that, I'm sure that the majority of people living in the area weren't opposed to it. I know well the dynamic, it's only a very vocal and hysterical minority who opposes this kind of project. The majority of people don't really care, but because they don't care, they don't make their voices heard, giving a false impression that the opponents are the majority. This is not democracy, this is a tyranny by a minority of professional authoritarian whiners.

Just build them I say. What's wrong with people? Japan has a serious aging population. The government wants to boost the child birth rates, yet news like this probably puts off parents wanting to have kids or more than one. Some women I guess don't want to be full time housewives and give up on a job they studied hard for at Uni at a great cost.

Why doesn't the government make Pension payout reform for example: cities that agree to build daycare will be getting grant from government which will be equally distributed to retired seniors in that particular city. This way seniors can get another 200 yen or more a month (or whatever the amount) for putting up with day cares inconveniences, while those that reject day care gets none. Those that are not yet seniors of these cooperating cities can earn future monetary credits to be included in the government pension that they will receive when they retire. One must be at least 50 yrs old to start accumulating inconvenience credits. Needless to say studies need to be done and that there will be regulations as to how many day cares could be build in proportion to young families and seniors living in a particular city. People against building day cares need to understand that having kids in their community has a direct impact on their retirement and their cooperative behavior should be reinforced with positive rewards.

Someone going to send a tweet directly to Abe about this one and force his government to pay attention to this problem again?

He goes on a sudden offensive about building more daycares after the anonymous woman complains, and then lets this happen?

SHAME SHAME SHAME

Ichikawa city and the government should step in and not listen to these residents. People's ability to choose imo stops when the superior interest of the nation commands it. No brainer here, the country and Ichikawa itself needs a daycare. Governing bodies have to flex their muscles sometimes. Unbelievable

Interesting that every most comments are about oldies complaining but that is not actually written here. Most are not interested in the zoning issues. No one has commented that they realize moms picking up kids do drive with less regard to others when thinking of their kids. Does any one commenting on this actually know the area to be able to make a real assessment. Looks to me like most have just made their decision emotively based on sketchy information fed to us by this article. Has any one considered that these day care operators are not actually thinking about the kids they are going care for except for how much money they are going to make. Its all a bit hard to tell with such little info, maybe the residents who bought into this peaceful area have very valid claims. I don't know so I can't say yay or nay

this is just another reason why Im glad i dont live in the city, my kids daycare has 80 students 20 in his class with two teachers, there playground is huge compared to many ive seen, had no problem getting a space in fact theyve still got places for more kids available. with a temple on one side and farmland on the other it doesnt annoy anybody, not that it should anyway. Always gets me angry when people complain of the noise of children, if you dont like it then fine dont expect any pensions which they be paying for in the future

Scoobydoo, who drive cars to drop-off and pick-up their kids from daycare. Most times I see the mothers on mamachari, and those bicycles doesn't make much noise or traffic.

These people are the worst. It'snot like they're putting in a halfway house,it's only a daycare.

You can't have your cake and eat it too. Do these people think that quiet construction is a thing?

why in the world does the city need to get the community's approval? just build the damn thing. what are they going to do?

The city's not the one trying to build it. It was a private daycare facility.

OMG! Not this again.

Shame on these complainers! A society that considers the sound of playing children as noise pollution has truly lost its way. What do these miserable people want? A graveyard as their neighbourhood?

Good points. I think Japan, with its ever growing, grumpy old population has lost focus on what matters. I see these hopeless people everyday, scolding kids, riding their bicycles like they're the only person in the world, and generally looking down on anything/anyone they don't approve of. Thay want to sit around and talk about the old days and remember how much better everything was back then.

The city ought to run these people over and put up daycare centers wherever is best for the people in need of them.

I know one of the people opposing it was an old man because he was interviewed with his face showing on tv. They also interviewed a couple of women from the neck down who I'd guess were in the 40-50 range. In a questionnaire about kids being "urusai" quoted on a Japanese blog I saw, old people, esp. men, came out very well and it was women in their forties who were most likely to say kids were noisy. Anecdotally I know, but many old people will soon say "kawaii" when they see kids out and about. Even when your kids are acting up in the supermarket and being a nuisance.

It should be common sense for anyone in Japan, but a hoikuen will have all manner of events like a sports day, at least three parents' days during the year, maybe a grandparents day, maybe a music or drama festival, PTA meetings, and various other things where all the parents turn up at the same time. Maybe grandparents too. Unlike a "daycare" in the West, hoikuen turns into a nursery school from 3yo onwards so the kids are in classes that ostensibly finish at the same time. So parents who don't need or want to pay for after school care will turn up together to collect their kids. For a site with poor access, that can mean a lot of disruption. From the parents that is, not the kids. My kid's hoikuen has a rule where its 200 yen extra if you don't book after school and fail to collect your kid by 4:30pm. Her hoikuen has a big carpark, but on a site with bad access, you are going to get people dashing in at 4:29 with their car left in the street.

I'm guessing the local government could just say "to hell with you shortsighted idiots" and let them build it there. Its just a matter of: do you really need/want it.

The problem is that the local government is elected. Everyone in politics or that follows it knows, a politician can say YES 10 times to a voter, and that voter will have a 50% chance of turning out to vote for him, but if the politician says NO just once to a voter, that voter has a 90% chance of not just turning out to vote against him, but volunteering for his opponent.

That can be a killer, especially in local elections with low turnout rates.

I have to agree. The older people in Japan are milking the country dry for themselves and leaving nothing for future generations. Like grandparents eating out at fine restaurants every night while their grandchildren suffer at home with not enough to eat.

Can't put too much hope in karma, as most of these old folks will pass away peacefully in their comfortable beds without a care in the world. But there will be a turning point as younger generations start to vote.

I'm guessing the local government could just say "to hell with you shortsighted idiots" and let them build it there. Its just a matter of: do you really need/want it.

omg... the mere sight of small kids n their innocent voices r heaven to me

Make a new law. Any company with 75? or more workers must provide daycare within the building.

why in the world does the city need to get the community's approval?

Ichikawa city and the government should step in and not listen to these residents.

The city shouldn't have listened or given in to the demands of this resident group.

Right. Ichikawa should follow the model used in communist China. No one argues with government decisions in communist China.

Where are these quiet neighborhoods in Japan? I've been all over Japan for the better part of 15 years and I've lived here for 5 and I don't know if I've ever been in a neighborhood you could describe as being quiet.

I live in one in Kita-ku. Brit friends marvel how quiet it is.

Ahaha this article does not surprise me in the least. Very typical of Japan. We want more day care but not near us. The sound of children disgusts us. You reap what you sow Japan.

Do a search on "daycare noise." You will find that suits to stop or close daycare centers also occur in the US.

The residents protested a private business in a very populated residential area. Usually, some businesses buy cheap residential lands and tries to convert it for commercial usage. Tokyo has these rules. Maybe Chiba needs to look into it too.

As these oldies approach say around 70 lets take them to a path that leads up a hill or mountain & give them a ONE-WAY ticket, SUTERU!

How do you people know it's older residents who opposed it? Where in the article does it say that? Oh, you just "know" it because you're psychic.

Matsudo (and Chiba in general) is yanki country, as well as damn close to them clowns known as bozozoku, so what are these residents thinking when they talk of peace and quiet? Japan is getting to old for its own good.

And just how do you know that the opponents were old, Tom Webb?

I don't want to hear screaming little monsters either. Arrrrgh.

They live in a quiet area, they want it to stay that way. It would be different when moving to a new are, they are right to complain. Find a noisy area for this facility. My criteria of looking for a home in Japan is no schools or the like nearby!

I'm going to be a little contrarian today. I support the residents' resistance.

Consider a nurse, or policeman, or firefighter, or IT worker, or convenience store staffer, who works night shifts and needs to sleep during the day. Such a person is going to go out of the way to buy a home in a neighborhood that they know meets their needs, and then suddenly some welfare organization decides to ruin their quality of life and the value of the home they have invested their life's savings in?

Because where does this stop? How about allowing a noisy pachinko parlor with neon lights and blaring noise right next to your house? Those places bring in tax revenue, which is for the good of the nation, just like kids are, so the people should just grin and bear it, right?

The government should have insisted that the facility be put in a zone where noise is already present, such as enar a school, on the outskirts of a shopping area, or in the vicinity of a train station. Such areas would be convenient for people picking their kids up from the facility as well. This is the kind of thing that land use laws are made for.

Unless this neighborhood's zoning did in fact allow for the building of daycare facilities -- in that case, I would say that the residents should have been aware that something like this might happen.

(Incidentally, my neighborhood has a great kids' facility, and it's perfectly placed: right next to the elementary school. If mid-day noise is a problem for you, you know just where not to buy a home!)