○ Rapid progress in declining birthrate (Total fertility rate in 2011: 1.39)

○ The current situation that disrupts people's desire to be married, have children, and raise them

• Approximately 90% of single males/females intend to get married, with the number of children they wish to have being 2 or more.

• Environment surrounding children and childcare, including families, communities, and employment, etc. has been changing.

o Support for child and childcare is inadequate in terms of both quality and quantity

• The percentage of family-related social expenditure of GDP is low (Japan: 1.04%, France: 3.00%, U.K.: 3.27%, and Sweden: 3.35%)

☐ Increased sense of isolation and burden of childcare

☐ Serious issue of wait-listed children

○ Shortage of after school children's clubs or “barriers to the first grade of elementary school”

○ M-shaped curve (percentage of females in their 30s in the labour force)

○ Importance of promotion of high quality school education at infancy

o Vertically segmented systems/financial resources for childcare support

○ Insufficient measures in providing support according to the actual situation of a region

Provision of high quality school education/day-care services at infancy in a comprehensive manner

Quantitative expansion/security of

day-care services, quality improve-

ment of education/day-care services

• Elimination of wait-listed children

• Support for community-based day-care services

• Quality improvement of education/day-care services

Enhancement of community-based child and childcare support

* “School education” denotes education for children before entering elementary school, as stipulated in the School Education Act (school education at infancy), whereas “day-care services” denotes day-care for infants, as stipulated in the Child Welfare Act. Hereinafter the same.

## Purpose and Main Points of the 3 Acts related to Child and Childcare (approved in August 2012)

## ■ Purpose of the 3 Acts

With the basic understanding that parents or guardians are primarily responsibility for childcare and in consideration of the three-party agreement between Liberal Democratic Party, Komeito, and Democratic Socialist Party, promotion of school education/day-care services at infancy and community-based child and childcare support in an comprehensive manner

## ■ Main points

○ Creation of common benefits across certified child care centers, kindergartens, and day-care centers (“facility type benefits”) and benefits for small-scale day-care services, etc. (“community-based day-care benefits”

$ ^{*} $ Community-based day-care benefits are used for eliminating waitlisted children and securing day-care functions in regions where the number of children is decreasing

○ Improvement of the certified child care center system (improvement of kindergarten and day-care center cooperation type certified child care centers, etc.)

• Kindergarten and day-care center cooperation type certified child care centers will involve unification of their certification and guidance/supervision and legal establishment as a school and child welfare facility

• Transition from existing kindergartens and day-care centers is not an obligation but will be politically promoted

• Establishing entities of kindergarten and day-care center cooperation type certified child care centers shall be limited to the government, local governments, educational institutions, and social welfare juridical persons (entry of joint-stock corporations, etc. disallowed)

• Financial measures for certified child care centers are unified into “facility type benefits”

○ Enhancement of child and childcare support according to the actual situation in the individual regions (“community-based child and childcare support projects”, including user support, community child care support centers, and after school children’s clubs)

## Common mechanisms for school education/day-care services at infancy and community-based child and childcare support

○ Basic local government units (municipalities) shall be the primary implementers

• Municipalities formulate implementation plans according to local needs and provide benefits/services

• The government and prefectures shall provide multi-layered support to the primary implementers of municipalities

☐ Financial support from all of society

• Assumes that permanent financial resources will be secured by the government and local governments through the increase in consumption tax

(Quantitative expansion/quality improvement of early childhood education/day-care services/childcare support will require additional financial resources of approximately ¥1 trillion, including approximately ¥0.7 trillion secured by raising the consumption tax rate)

☐ Promotion system of the government

• Unification of promotion systems of the government that differ across different systems (establish child/childcare headquarters within the Cabinet Office)

☐ Establishment of Child and Childcare Conferences

• Establishment of Child and Childcare Conferences as a system in which experts, local governments, representatives of business operators, representatives of workers, those actually engaged in childcare and childcare support, etc. (those engaged in child and childcare support related businesses) can participate in the government process of making childcare support policies, etc.

• Obligating municipalities, etc. to make the effort to establish a council system (local version of Child and Childcare Conference)