Local governments have instructed 80 unauthorized day care facilities for the elderly to improve their conditions, the Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry said Thursday.
The 80 facilities in Tokyo and 13 other prefectures were deemed substandard for being too crowded and lacking qualified night staff and wheelchair access.
The welfare ministry issued a notice Thursday to 47 prefectural governments asking them to tell unauthorized day care facilities to register with local authorities.
The ministry told the prefectures to study the possibility of fining facilities that do not comply.
A welfare law was revised in 2006 to force day care facilities to register, but some are unwilling to do so to evade government surveillance.