Kids Support Hakata Chuo Hoikuen, a daycare center in Nakasu, Fukuoka's entertainment district, is a one-of-kind daycare. This center in the Hakata Ward in a city in southwestern Japan offers 24-hour daycare services to children and supports single mothers.
This daycare center, located close to the Kyushu region's entertainment district, offers help to mothers who work in Nakasu's restaurants, bars, beauty shops, pubs, and other businesses. Nakasu is the amusement district in Fukuoka, where over 3,500 bars and restaurants are located in a tiny area.
Support for single parents
Since the entertainment district is busiest at night, moms can be seen dropping their children in the daycare before setting out to their bustling nightlife jobs in Nakasu. According to the Mainichi Shimbun, 80 percent of the mothers who drop their children in the daycare center are single parents. They can be heard giving their requests to the daycare staff in charge, such as feeding or bathing the kids.
The daycare's head, Satoko Kamitakehara, established the business in 2006, and she is a single mother herself who worked in an eatery in Nakasu. Now 57 years old, she used to struggle because she had nowhere to leave her kids before reporting to her work. This experience led her to open Kids Support Hakata Chuo Hoikuen in her desire to help mothers like her who had a similar struggle.
To help Nakasu's workers, the daycare is not just "day" care but is open 24 hours a day and even accepts childcare for the night. Depending on what is asked by the parents, they also feed and even bathe kids. As an "after-school" daycare, Kids Support Hakata Chuo Hoikuen accepts not just pre-school kids but young elementary school children as well.
The daycare also wants mothers, parents, and children to feel at home with them. That is why they make sure not just to provide after-school care or boarding, but they also update parents on how the kids are doing or performing.
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Pandemic challenges
However, one of the biggest challenges to the center was the pandemic. The daycare center was able to cater to 65 children pre-pandemic, but at present, the number of enrollees is not even half of its original capacity.
Due to the coronavirus precautions and preventive measures, several businesses in Nakasu had to close down, thus reducing significantly the number of children enrolling or availing of the services of the daycare center. The daycare has also learned that some mothers have had an even harder time due to losing jobs and the closing of businesses in Nakasu.
Several stores have lessened the number of employees or have more irregular working hours, affecting parents, and the Kids Support Hakata Chuo Hoikuen daycare.
Despite the challenging situation, Kamitakehara is very much willing to keep the center open to respond to the needs of mothers who might need to drop off their kids. She hopes that society can be a place of growth for the kids and that the community can work together in watching over children. One mom who has been with the center for several years has expressed gratitude that despite her now-irregular work schedules due to COVID, the daycare center still responds when there are sudden requests for childcare.
