Japan’s nursery school waiting lists grow for first time in nine years

The number of children on nursery school waiting lists in the nation as of April 1 rose by 181 from a year earlier to 2,435, up for the first time in nine years due largely to a sharp increase in Tokyo, the Children and Families Agency said Friday.

The figure had been declining since peaking in 2017 at 26,081.

Children on waiting lists in Tokyo totaled 1,113 as of April 1, more than tripling from 339 a year earlier.

The agency sees the increase as having been driven by a concentration of demand following Tokyo’s introduction of free child care for first-born children in 2025, as well as an increase in households raising children partly due to cash handouts for those age 18 and under.

By municipality across the country, Tokyo’s Setagaya Ward had the largest number of children waiting for nursery school places, at 166. Six other wards in the capital also ranked among the top 10, including Adachi Ward with 106 and Kita Ward with 103.

About 75.5% of waiting-list children were concentrated in urban areas, including the Tokyo and Kansai metropolitan areas and ordinance-designated major cities in other parts of the country.

Meanwhile, 1,552 municipalities, or 89.1% of the total, had no such children.

By age group, 86.9% of children on waiting lists were 1 or 2.

Nurseries, nintei kodomoen certified nursery-kindergarten hybrids and similar facilities across Japan were capable of accommodating 3,016,417 children as of April 1, while 2,646,756 children were using such facilities.

The national average capacity utilization rate was 87.7%, showing a declining trend, while urban areas marked a higher rate of 90.9%.

Total nursery capacity, including facilities set up by companies mainly for their employees, stood at around 3,189,000, down by 15,000, while the number of applicants stood at some 2.73 million.