Japan had 17,013 children waiting to be accepted into gakudō hoiku after-school care facilities for elementary school students as of May 1, the Children and Families Agency said in a preliminary report on Tuesday.
The figure is down by 673 from the final total as of a year earlier.
A record high of 1,568,588 children were registered to use gakudō hoiku facilities, up by 48,636, the agency said.
By prefecture, Tokyo had the largest number of children on waiting lists at 3,375, followed by Saitama at 1,682 and Hyogo at 1,447. Aomori and Fukui reported no children waiting to use gakudō hoiku facilities.
The agency believes that while the number of applicants is rising due to an increase in dual-income households, the number of children on gakudō hoiku waiting lists decreased as municipalities worked on expanding the capacity of such facilities.
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