TLDR: Neither my Japanese wife nor I are employed. We have two toddlers and want to put them into a nursery school. City hall says that we cannot get financial support due to being unemployed.
Long version: My Japanese spouse is a housewife. I derive my income from ad revenue, overseas. I heard that nursery school is free as of last April, but upon calling city hall (Abeno-ku, Osaka) found that we are ineligible because we do not have jobs.
I want to confirm with anyone here who might be in a similar situation: Is it true that we are excluded from these financial support protocols?
I suspect that city hall might have misspoken, as this would imply that people who need the financial support for their children the most – e.g., two job-seeking parents – get none, while those who need it less – e.g., a two-income family – get free schooling for their children. How are unemployed people meant to seek work under such circumstances?
Thanks.
22 comments
How about part time work?
Having completely zero activity is very strange, don’t you think?
Is yochien Ok with you? If so, public yochien can be your option. Once you find a job you can enroll your children into hoikuen.
Not sure how different it is in your city and mine. My due date is in a couple of months so I’ve been asking the city hall for information. They basically have a list of daycare centers under 認可 and 認可外. And then it will depend on your income, the lower the income the lower the cost for 認可.
From what I understand both mom and dad have to be working to get under the ninka list. I think it was 60+ hours a month at least? But that could just be my city. I don’t know if it’s the same everywhere else.
From what was explained to me, the ninkagai schools might be less or more expensive than the ninka schools but the city hall can’t confirm that and I was advised to call them myself.
Two working parents need child care because they are not home to take care of the child. They pay taxes that then provides them with childcare.
One housewife and one working parent doesn’t need childcare because by definition the housewife is doing it. They are paying less taxes and therefore get fewer benefits.
Two parents who are actively seeking work get other benefits like unemployment insurance and help finding a job and if and when they both find work they can qualify for daycare. In the meantime someone is home to mind the kid.
Your case is neither of those. You have enough income that your wife doesn’t have to work so why do you deserve day care?
From what I gather from this post neither you and your wife are “job seeking parents.” So I don’t know why you think you deserve a free spot in public nursery over two working parents with no one to look after their children while they work.
What exactly is the financial support you are talking about? If you’re talking about admission to hoikuen, it’s simply not possible if both you and your wife are not working (there are exceptions but they are rare).
Are you even paying Japanese taxes?
You can put them in yochien when they are old enough, but since neither of you are working you are ineligible for hoikuen (0-2 years old).
>My Japanese spouse is a housewife.
>want to put them into a nursery
A big contradictory here if a housewife doesn’t want to do housewife stuff. Wouldn’t call her a housewife if she doesn’t wish to actually do the job description lol.
Both of you are at home. You have time AND money to take care of your children so there’s really no excuse for you not to. Especially no excuse to take a spot from parents who are both working to support their child and do not have the time due to working and wouldn’t have the money if they didn’t work.
Either fork up the money with your own income to put them in a program (because you both are ABLE to care for the child at home, you just don’t wanna) or both go get jobs to qualify for these programs meant for people who aren’t able to stay home to care for the child.
>How are unemployed people meant to seek work under such circumstances?
You aren’t unemployed. You have income. Your wife is a housewife. Being a housewife is a JOB. You save on childcare costs and get to spend time raising your child.
Either pay or go get jobs dude. You can’t have the best of both worlds where you sit at home and do nothing- treating parenthood like retirement and expect the government to pay for your childcare instead. Like ???? WHAT?
If you’re actively job seeking you have a shot, though two non-working parents is going to put you waaaay down the list of priority.
Just put them in a private daycare if you really need it.
The daycare that your two kids can attend for free is called “your living room”.
Nursery schools working with the governement work with a priority system, 2 working parents over 1 working parent and a job seeking one, if you have live-in grandparents etc..
If you’re ineligible, try private nurseries, they’ll be quite a bit more expensive, but maybe your only option.
And from what I understand, Yochien, starting from 3 years old, is free. Hoikuen for a children of 0-3 years old is not free, but if it’s from the governement, the fee is based on your income.
Most young families would treasure the opportunity to spend time with their kids rather than both having to work to get by.
Sounds silly doesn’t it, asking if you can get local financial and government support when you choose to spend your time not contributing to the society you live in. Do trust fund kids ask for government handouts? No, I doubt it.
You asking for government financial support is clearly greedy, and also means you don’t understand the concept of financial support (hint: it’s given to people that has no resources, not people living in a country with resources obtained in another country, and without contributing anything to their country of residence).
But people telling you your children shouldn’t go to houchien/youchien just because neither of you work, I think are also missing an important point: in those first years children in Japan learn a lot of skills and norms that will be extremely helpful later on if they are integrated in the Japanese Education system (you can always tell if a child has gone to youchien or even an international school, or just stayed at home with his parents judging by just how independently they can complete tasks like dressing, eating, taking turns, waiting in a queue, etc). So even if you have all the time in the world, in terms of socialization and learning skills, it’s always good for children to at least expend some time outside of home in a classroom environment.
Gotta pay taxes on those true crime YouTube vids bud
If your wife is a housewife but don’t wanna take care of the kids, then what on earth is she doing with her day?
Basically shadowing what everyone else is saying. Sounds like you’re not even reporting your income in Japan despite receiving and spending it here. Think both you and your wife have a lot of issues to work out.
Just be wary that even if you put into kindergarten, you won’t qualify for 無償化 benefits either since your wife doesn’t work. You’re choosing to put your children into children, rather than needing to
On top of everything else, good luck on getting a visa renewal if you don’t pay taxes here. Are you paying into national health insurance?
Two working parents here that still can’t get into hoikuen yet and have to do work from home on alternating days and sneakily take care of our kid instead of working.
If you could get a hoikuen spot in your situation I would riot.
While you seek work, it sounds like at least one parent can be home.
There are private daycare places. International daycare is private for example.
There are also part time daycare options for payment. You can check around for that. We had to use a daycare ad-hoc a couple of times for the day when my child was little.
OP, you and your wife cripped? disabled? retarded?
Hoikuen is not free unless your income is so low that you’re not paying residence tax, or your children are 3+. Yochien is free (again, for 3-5 years old)
You’re supposed to be paying taxes in Japan. Enjoy 1 year visas forever if the government sees you as both unemployed, they don’t want foreigners mooching off social services. You’re supposed to have a household income enough to support the number of people who are dependent on you.
You would not be eligible for public hoikuen since both of you don’t have jobs. You ARE the childcare. As somebody who is in a situation where my husband and I both have to work it makes me so sad to hear somebody can spend time with their children but they would rather send them to daycare full time. Doesn’t make sense to me at all. I wish I could spend more time with my daughter and together as a family as well. You could join a private daycare and pay a lot more, or send your kids sometimes to Ichiji hoiku (also pricey generally) to get a break, because I do understand stay at home parents needing a break sometimes from childcare, or you could move to live closer to your wife’s parents if they don’t work and they could take care of your kids sometimes, but full time public childcare on the taxpayers dime? No.
There’s too little spots for working parents already. I would understand your frustration if one of you were actually looking for a job and not having a secured spot at daycare would make that harder but that doesn’t seem to be the case here. Why don’t you look for alternatives like the city hall programs that get parents who need a break in touch with seniors trying to make some extra money trough babysitting? I totally understand your wife’s need to have a break but there’s only so much daycare places available and people who work take priority.