The Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry has decided to provide financial aid to municipalities which have officials exclusively working as coordinators between local residents and operators of nursery schools for the opening of new child care facilities, it has been learned.

The decision comes as many operators have been forced to scrap plans to open nursery schools due chiefly to local residents' complaints about possible noise increases and traffic jams around such new facilities, informed sources said.

According to the sources, the ministry plans to basically shoulder half of costs up to around ¥4 million a year, such as business trip expenses and daily allowances, for a municipality to keep a coordinator. The rest of the costs will be covered evenly by local governments and businesses.

But for municipalities participating in a state initiative to enhance efforts to eliminate children on waiting lists for nursery schools, the ministry is considering covering two-thirds of the costs.

The subsidy program is part of emergency measures the government plans to implement, after an anonymous blog posting raised public awareness of the issue of nursery school shortages.

Subject to the program will be 114 municipalities with 50 or more children on the waiting lists as of April 1, 2015.

Coordinators, who have careers in construction-related departments, are tasked to hear from nursery school operators about outlines of planned facilities and explain to residents about plans to take measures to soothe their anxieties over noise and risks associated with heavier traffic congestion, such as installment of noise barriers and placement of crossing guards.