At two nursery schools operated by a social welfare corporation in Yaita City, Tochigi Prefecture, the prefectural government has recommended improvements to the corporation as suspicions of inappropriate childcare have been strengthened.
This corporation was suspected of inappropriate childcare at one of the kindergartens and had received guidance from the prefecture requesting improvements.
The recommendation for improvement was received by the Ganbari Welfare Association, a social welfare corporation that operates two licensed nursery schools in Yaita City.
According to Tochigi Prefecture, at the "Children's Forest Kokoro Nursery School" that is operated
, a nursery teacher held the child's feet and hung it in the air,
and at the "Children's Forest Nursery School", it was confirmed that the nursery teacher poured sand on another child and dragged him to the washing area.
At the Children's Forest Kokoro Nursery School, the prefectural government was quieting down the suspicion that the nursery teacher had verbally abused the children, and asked the corporation to make improvements.
In December last year, the kindergarten officials reported again that there was no improvement, and during the periodic audit, the investigation conducted by nursery teachers and operation managers strengthened the suspicion that inappropriate childcare had been carried out even after that.
The prefectural government issued administrative guidance to corporations on March 2 recommending improvement and prevention of recurrence.
The Prefectural Children's Policy Division said, "It is unfortunate that we have reached the guidance again, and we will continue to work on guidance and supervision so that improvements can be made as soon as possible."
The social welfare corporation says that it "leaves the response to the corporate lawyer to deal with this."