This paper describes the backgrounds of child-nurturing support services in communities, reviews the history of child day care services in Japan after the postwar period and discusses who and what should be the targets of the services. Child-nurturing support service is commonly thought to be the most promising way for the advancement of an aging society with fewer children. Child-nurturing support services in communities appear to have four targets; (1) to support children's development, (2) to reinforce each parent's way of living as an individual, (3) to encourage the promotion of an interactive parent-child relationship, and (4) to assist each parent and child as members of their community. Considering these targets, we must examine now each of these services might be provided as well as the correlating roles of principal organizations such as nursery centers, kindergartens, nintei kodomoen (approved facilities for children), community councils, and non-profit organizations.
