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Japanese parents prefer childcare centres near home for convenience

Every weekday, Ms Mayuko Fukasawa, 41, is always rushing from work to pick up her two young sons from the childcare centre near their home.

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TOKYO — Every weekday, Ms Mayuko Fukasawa, 41, is always rushing from work to pick up her two young sons from the childcare centre near their home.

But for the Yokohama resident, who takes a 30-minute train to her Tokyo office every day, she would rather not place her boys in a childcare facility near her workplace.

As parents in Singapore clamour for more childcare facilities near their workplace, the experience of their Japanese counterparts showed that the challenge of lugging children aboard public buses and trains during peak periods was a turn-off, among other considerations.

Ms Fukasawa said: “The train ride to work every day is very hectic and packed, it will be an even greater hassle if I have two children with me.” The Deputy Director of Strategic Communications at the Foreign Press Centre also prefers a childcare centre with sprawling space and an outdoors playground — features which childcare centres in the highly-urbanised city of Tokyo might not be able to offer.

She noted that if she has to work late, she could ask her parents — who live near the family — to help pick up her sons from the childcare centre.

Other Japanese parents interviewed also cited similar reasons for preferring to enrol their kids in childcare centres near their homes, instead of those in the vicinity of their offices in Tokyo.

Nevertheless, due to the childcare crunch in Japan — more than 18,000 children under two years old are on the waiting list for a childcare space — companies have taken it upon themselves to run childcare facilities for their employees. Latest available figures showed there are 376 company childcare centres.

In Singapore, the government also encourage workplace childcare facilities to alleviate the demand for childcare. From October last year, building owners have been able to benefit from government grants covering up to 50 per cent of the cost of setting up childcare centres.

However, Japanese employers such as cosmetics giant Shiseido cited the challenges of running a childcare facility. In the past few years, the high operating costs — including staffing costs — for the centre have meant that the company was making losses for it, said Shiseido Human Resource Manager Hideyuki Kanai. Most of the children enrolled in the centre are below the age of two due to the overall shortage of places for this group, said Mr Kanai, noting that most employees would opt for childcare centres near their homes.

Nevertheless, he said that since Shiseido started its childcare facility in 2003, there has been zero attrition among its female staff. NG JING YNG

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