1. Outline of the Study A boom of baby hotels is taking place in Japan. Baby hotel means day care centers that renders services day and night for babies of working mothers. These baby hotels are thriving because many mothers welcome the system because of their needs. However, accidents occurred in a row recently and therefore baby hotel has suddenly become a social issue. According to the ministry of health welfare, there are 587 baby hotels in Japan accommodating about 10,000 children and they are mostly located around amusement centers. The reasons that these baby hotels thrive in spite of the fact that there are 22,000 day care centers in Japan are : (1) shortage of day care centers compared to the needs (2) most centers do not take in babies below 1 year. This study aims to describe the present status of the baby hotels and the background of the phenomena that made it possible for them to thrive with no permission from the government. This study mostly deals with the phenomena in Tokyo. 2. Day Care Policy in Japan and the Problems of Baby Hotels The present review deals with the problems from the following 6 dementions. (1) the shortage of day care centers (2) inadequate system for the care of babies (3) inadequate daily hours of day care centers (4) Unflexable enrollment system of day care centers (5) imperfect enfollment process & guidelines (6) lack of alternative institutions 3. Result The Ministry of Health & Welfare affered the following ways to cape with the problems of baby hotels : (1) restraint of the baby hotels (2) utilization of existing day care centers for the care of babies. In my opinion, these suggestions seem too superficial in solving the problems. I would rather suggest that the Japanese government review the whole system of child welfare administration. The Child welfare Law of Japan made a clear statement in its article 24 that, "if day care centers are not available, alternative institution for proper care of children must be sought for." My suggestions for the alternative care are : (1) public nursing rooms (2) family day care (3) extention of kindergarten hours (4) foster family care.
PDF Links
Full text via DOI 
Download Citation 
