2021 Volume 67 Issue 3 Pages 149-171
This study examines the changing roles of training schools for nursery school childcare workers, focusing on childcare freshmenʼs working conditions and employment trends of new childcare workers in Aomori and Miyagi Prefectures.
Before the deregulation of the nursery school system, childcare workers were recruited if their commute to the workplace was short. When the demand for nursery childcare in Greater Tokyo increased, the region from which childcare workers are recruited expanded to the peripheries.
This development resulted in many childcare workers moving from Miyagi to Greater Tokyo, which improved the working conditions of the childcare workers left in Miyagi as local nursery schools had to compete with those in Greater Tokyo.
Thus, childcare workers from Miyagi gained independence and were able to choose between local nursery schools or those in Greater Tokyo, based on personal preferences. However, the demand for childcare in Greater Tokyoʼs nursery schools has recently further increased, and childcare workers from Aomori Prefecture as well now strive to leave their home region to work in the metropolitan area.
In contrast to the case of Miyagi Prefecture, nursery schools in Aomori could not competitively improve their working standards. Consequently, more childcare workers recently moved from Aomori to Greater Tokyo than the earlier relocations from Miyagi. Accordingly, nursery schools in Aomori Prefecture have negotiated special funding opportunities with a city council, which could sustain some nursery schools.
Hitherto, childcare workers were locally trained and hired in regional nursery schools. However, over the last decade, the increased demand from Greater Tokyo transformed the education and job situation of childcare workers in the Tohoku region. To summarise, the deregulation of the nursery school system tremendously affected the labour market for childcare workers; this influence was stronger in Aomori than in Miyagi. Henceforward, this development might also lead to a decreasing number of childcare students in Aomori Prefecture.
