The health ministry has recommended that nurseries across the country dispose of used diapers on-site, after mounting calls from parents and guardians who argue the practice of bringing dirty diapers home is burdensome.
The ministry said ending the practice would also help nursery teachers, as they would no longer have to package and sort children's used diapers for parents to take home, according to a notice conveyed to local governments last month.
The government will provide subsidies for nurseries to enable effective diaper disposal, such as for buying trash cans, said Health, Labor and Welfare Minister Katsunobu Kato.
A survey conducted in 2022 showed nearly 40% of 1,461 surveyed municipalities that run day care facilities were asking parents and guardians to take home used diapers, according to Babyjob, an Osaka-based company providing child care-related services.
When asked why the surveyed nurseries were doing so, 43% said that by taking the contents of the used diaper home with their children, they wanted parents to be able to check the health condition of their children, while 30% said they did not know and just did so because it is common practice.
Meanwhile, 14% said that disposing of used diapers on-site is troublesome.
The top 10 prefectures with the highest ratio of public nurseries adopting the policy were in central Japan, western Japan and southwestern Japan, the survey showed.
The highest ratio was found in Shiga Prefecture at 89%, while in Tokyo the figure stood at 17%.
In the notice sent by the ministry, nurseries are advised to continue sharing information about the children's health with parents, such as by informing them about the, including information about their feces.
In a push to end the practice of diapers being sent home with parents, Babyjob submitted an online petition of 16,000 signatures and sent it to the health ministry in September 2022.