Our Mission
Childcare in Japan was created to bridge the information gap that many international residents face when raising children in Japan. Navigating the Japanese healthcare system, school enrollment processes, and government benefits can be overwhelming — especially without clear English-language resources.
We publish practical, accurate, and easy-to-understand guides so that international parents can make informed decisions with confidence.
Who's Behind This Site
Hi, I'm Susumu — a Japanese national with a deep appreciation for what it means to live and navigate life in a foreign country.
I spent a year in Canada on a working holiday, and that experience gave me a real sense of how challenging it can be to find reliable, easy-to-understand information in your own language. When I returned to Japan, I began volunteering to teach Japanese to international residents — and time and again, I heard the same frustration: "I just can't find clear information in English about how things work here."
Whether it was registering a newborn, finding a nursery, or understanding Japan's vaccination schedule, the information existed — but it was buried in Japanese-only resources. That's what inspired me to create Childcare in Japan: a practical, plain-English guide for the international families who call Japan home.
Background
- IT Engineer — built and maintains this site independently
- Licensed Hairdresser — National Qualification, Japan
- Passed the 登録販売者試験 (retail medicine sales exam)
- Working holiday experience in Canada
- Volunteer Japanese language instructor for international residents in Japan
How These Guides Are Written
Every guide is checked against the source that actually sets the rule — a ministry page, a municipal handbook, or the law itself — rather than against other English-language sites. Copying a translation of a translation is how errors spread, and there are plenty of them out there.
Where a figure comes from a government survey, the year of that survey is stated in the text. A 2022 number is still worth knowing, but you should be told it is from 2022 rather than left to assume it describes today.
Rules change. Vaccination schedules are revised, allowances are restructured, forms stop requiring a personal seal. When something changes, the affected guides are corrected rather than left standing.
Some of what parents need is not written down anywhere. How much of a workday a 授業参観 actually takes, what other families bring, which notices matter and which can wait — that comes from growing up inside the system. I was born and raised in Japan and went through these schools myself. It is the part that is hardest to research from the outside, and the part I can give you directly.
You will not find product recommendations or sponsored placements here. Where a guide mentions what to buy, it describes what the item needs to do, not which brand to get.
If you find something on this site that is wrong or out of date, please tell me. Corrections are welcome and they get made.
What We Cover
Maternity
Prenatal care, hospital visits, the Boshi Techo
Birth
Giving birth in Japan, delivery costs, postnatal care
Baby & Toddler
Child allowance, newborn care, baby products
Preschool
Hoikuen, yochien, application processes
Primary School
Public schools, enrollment, school life in Japan
Vaccines
Japan's vaccination schedule, mandatory vs. optional
Get in Touch
Have a suggestion, correction, or question? We'd love to hear from you.
Contact Us