Use of diaper subscription expands at Hiroshima public day care centers
In addition to the cities of Kure and Akitakata, as well as the town of Kaita — all in the prefecture — the service became available at all 86 public day care centers in the city of Hiroshima, starting in April.
The service is helping reduce the burdens of parents, who had to bring in diapers for their children, and day care teachers, who had been managing each child's diapers.
The Hiroshima Municipal Government tied up with Osaka-based firm Baby Job, which provides the service of delivering diapers and wipes directly to day care facilities. Parents who wish to subscribe pay ¥2,180 a month.
The service is available for 1-year-olds and younger. In April, parents of 1,221 such children enrolled at public day care facilities in the city, or roughly 80% of the total of 1,512, applied for the service.
Each child uses around five diapers a day while at day care centers. Before the facilities introduced the service, parents brought diapers each day after writing their child's name on each one.
'When I was taking my older daughters to day care, I purchased name stamps so that I could stamp their names on diapers every day,' said Satsuki Tani, 29, a company worker of the city of Hiroshima who subscribed to the service for her 8-month-old third daughter.
'The service really helps because it saves me the trouble of doing this extra work during hectic mornings,' she said, adding she now feels more at ease.
The service has been spreading since around five years ago, mainly among private nurseries.
Municipalities have been showing interest in the service, as public funds are not needed to adopt it considering the subscription is optional, and parents sign a contract with service providers and not facilities.
The city of Hatsukaichi in the prefecture is also planning to adopt the service as early as in September.
At the Honkawa day care center in the city of Hiroshima's Naka Ward, the parents of 11 out of 12 children in a class for 1-year-olds use the service.
Ayaka Matsuda, 27, a teacher at the day care center, puts away newly delivered diapers while children are taking a nap.
'We no longer have to sort out diapers by checking the names written on them after children arrive at the day care center,' Matsuda said. 'We can also use wipes without having to care about how many we use.'
The city of Akitakata tied up with Tokyo-based firm BridgeWell and adopted subscription services not only for diapers, but also for disposable paper aprons, and hand and mouth wipes, for all the children enrolled at all three public day care centers in the city. The municipal government offers subsidies so that parents only have to pay ¥1,000 a month.
It is believed that about 10 companies offer diaper subscription services in Japan.
In the Chugoku region, according to Baby Job, such services have been adopted by roughly 240 public and private day care facilities in Hiroshima Prefecture, around 80 facilities each in Yamaguchi and Okayama prefectures, and about 20 each in Shimane and Tottori prefectures, as of May.
This section features topics and issues covered by the Chugoku Shimbun, the largest newspaper in the Chugoku region. The original article was published May 21.
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