Abstract
It is evident that the present framework of kindergartens and nurseries are not capable of coping with the increasingly diversified needs of early childhood education and childcare facilities. Under such circumstances, there have been cases of combining kindergarten and nursery into a single facility aiming at prompting early childhood education, supporting parents in childcare, and solving various problems involving kindergartens and nurseries including helping decrease the number of those working parents in the waiting list of the nurseries of their choice. An overall pattern of how the kindergarten and the nursery are unified into one institution and how it is operated was studies. The subject of this study was those public institutions which have been established and managed at various places in this country. As a result of the unification, the stuff are positive about the advantage of diversification of functions and expansion of activities thanks to an increase of children in their facilities. The expanded facility has brought about, on the other hand, the difficulty in personnel and institution management.
