Finding suitable child care facilities is a daunting task for most working families in Japan, but when it comes to children with severe medical problems and disabilities, the options are virtually nil.
With a growing number of mothers working full time, the Tokyo-based nonprofit organization Florence has for the last decade offered a helping hand to parents who can't take their children to a regular day care center.
But last September, Florence went a step further by establishing a specialized day care center that accepts children with disabilities and medical problems with special needs, becoming the first such institution using the national public child care benefit system.