1. Purpose
A labor reform law sets stricter restrictions on overtime work to balance work and child-rearing. The law also includes the flextime jobs and the white collar overtime exemption system to let employees embrace a variety of work styles. Nursery schools need to remain open for long hours in response to the diversification of work styles.
Each municipal plan for supporting children and childcare responds, according to parents' wishes, to the number of children seeking to enter nursery schools. However, such planning fails to consider the demand for extended opening hours. A mismatch between the supply and demand for nursery schools with long opening hours is likely to appear in the near future.
To contribute to the equitable provision of nursery schools, this paper examines the factors that influence variations in opening hours. Our study region is the wards of Tokyo. The nursery schools included in the study had different founders and different authorizations. The founders were a ward, a social welfare corporation, a medical corporation, a religious corporation, a corporate juridical person, a shareholder-owned company, a incorporated school, an individual, a volunteer organization, or CO-OP. The authorizations were authorized nursery schools, certified centers for early childhood education and care, nursery schools certified by the Tokyo Metropolitan Government, small-scale childcare services, and nonregistered day-care facilities.
2. Methods and Results
Fig. 1 and Fig. 2 show opening and closing times of nursery schools, respectively. Because opening time has a significant negative correlation with closing time, the variable examined here is the duration (hours) from opening until closing time.
We used stepwise multiple regression analysis in which the dependent variable was opening duration. The most effective independent variables were dummy variables based on whether the authorization was ‘small-scale childcare service’ and whether the founder was the ward. The founder of a nursery school and the type of authorization influenced the opening duration more strongly than the location did.
The opening duration was positively influenced by land value, the number of offices within 800 m, and the number of commuters using the nearest railway station, and was negatively influenced by having the status as a small-scale childcare service, a ward-funded nursery, or an authorized nursery school, as well as by the road distance between the nursery school and the nearest railway station. The opening duration of small-scale childcare services is typically shorter than that of other kinds of authorized facilities
3. Conclusion
To reduce number of children on waiting lists, the Japanese government is attempting to increase the number of small-scale childcare services by encouraging the participation of private companies. However, an increase in the number of small-scale childcare services may not lead to a greater provision of long opening hours.
The opening durations of ward-funded nurseries are also short. It is desirable that they extend their opening hours, especially in areas where private nursery schools are sparsely located.
Opening durations were found to be short in residential areas or in areas located far from a railway station. Parents living in these areas have to take their children to a nursery school far from their homes.
Removing influences of the independent variables except of wards reveals that opening durations vary among wards. Wards should be accountable for not only the number of children requiring a nursery school, but also the need for nursery schools to plan for extended opening hours.
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