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Prime Minister Shinzo Abe visited two childcare facilities in Yokohama City, Kanagawa Prefecture.

Arriving at a Yokohama nursery room certified by Yokohama City, the Prime Minister received an explanation of the general situation and exchanged views, and then observed children learning about food education taught by a nutritionist.

The Prime Minister said during the exchange of views,

"Yokohama City originally had a very high number of children on childcare waiting lists, which is still the case in other regions. Although many communities believe that this (reducing the number of children on waiting lists to zero) is quite impossible to accomplish, I believe Yokohama has demonstrated that this is doable if you put your mind to it.
The Abe administration too will quickly press ahead with the plan to accelerate the elimination of childcare waiting lists and, like Yokohama, have zero waiting lists throughout Japan within the next five years. To accomplish this, we will scale up Yokohama's initiatives to other areas of Japan with a view to eliminating waiting lists, by increasing the capacity of childcare facilities by 200,000 over one year by next year and then extending the increased capacity to 400,000. We will offer full support to facilities which are not certified but are working hard to obtain certification."

The Prime Minister then moved to a certified nursery school run by a private railway company. He exchanged views on the theme of 'childcare or nursery school' and then observed the childcare situation.

The Prime Minister said during the exchange of views,

"The Abe administration will fully support those who are raising children. We will create a society in which women, and men too, can balance childcare and work. I believe it is absolutely essential that, like this case, private companies with no previous experience in childcare services actively enter this sector.
The entry of private companies evokes various debates. However, if the companies are capable business entities and have high aspirations, then I believe there are also superior aspects in terms of services to having private companies understand the needs thoroughly and provide services which are in line with the needs."