A plan to open a day care center for children in the metropolitan Shioiri Park in Arakawa Ward, Tokyo, was approved in late November at a committee meeting of the special zone for the metropolitan area.
The establishment of day care centers for children in parks has become possible as regulations have been eased by the government’s National Strategic Special Zone initiative.
Setagaya and Shinagawa wards in Tokyo are also preparing to establish child care centers in parks. The three ward governments aim to open them in April 2017. According to the metropolitan government, 400 more children will be accepted at child care centers with their completion.
According to the urban park law, facilities that can be built in parks are generally limited to stalls and lavatories. The government revised the National Strategic Special Zone law in July this year to allow the establishment of day care centers in urban parks.
The Arakawa ward government plans to establish a day care center with the capacity for 162 children up to 5 years old on a multipurpose field of about 1,500 square meters in Shioiri Park. Currently, the multipurpose field is used by the elderly to play gateball and for other purposes. The ward government plans to develop the rooftop of the child care center for similar functions, and to have children at the center and elderly people interact with each other.
Source and image: Yomiuri
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