TOKYO: The Japanese government plans to survey child-rearing support programs offered by the country’s 1,741 municipalities to compile a database by the end of fiscal 2024.

It will also build a system to provide collected data to child-rearing support apps of private companies and inform parents and other guardians of such information.

The effort is aimed at preventing guardians from failing to receive various benefits and forgetting to have children receive medical examinations.

Child-rearing support services and ways to receive such services differ depending on the municipality, and it often takes time and effort for guardians to acquire the information they need by themselves. The government hopes to reduce such burdens by aggregating information and distributing it to guardians ahead of time.

The new database is expected to contain a wide range of information, including on lump-sum payments for childbirth and child-rearing, subsidies for babysitter fees, when and where baby food classes are held, and encouragement payments for orphans.

The Tokyo metropolitan government is already running a demonstration project to create a similar database. The central government hopes to develop its own database by reference to Tokyo’s efforts.

The database will be linked with apps for maternal and child health handbooks and nursery school communication books provided by private companies so that parents and others can be notified of necessary information.

The government plans to leave to each municipality the task of data update after completing the creation of the database before fiscal 2024 ends in March next year. It plans to encourage municipalities to update information at least once a year so that guardians can obtain accurate information.

JIJI Press