Unlicensed daycare and company-led daycare are not the ward's licensed round

If the licensed round says no, families often look at two other names. The Children and Families Agency's survey of unlicensed care explains what those names mean. It does not place your child.

Unlicensed care

An unlicensed daycare (認可外保育施設, ninkagai hoiku shisetsu) is a facility that looks after children and does not have a licence under the Child Welfare Act. Local programmes such as Tokyo's certified childcare (認証保育所) are included in that survey. The prefecture, or a designated city, is supposed to inspect a notified facility at least once a year. That inspection is a safety check. It is not the same as a licensed place, and it is not a promise that the facility has room.

You usually apply to the facility itself. Chuo ward's licensed-daycare page says the same thing for certified and unlicensed care in that ward. Other wards can differ. Ask the ward before you assume the licensed application also covers these.

Company-led care

Company-led daycare (企業主導型保育事業, kigyō shudōgata hoiku jigyō) is a grant programme. The Agency's survey says its purpose is to add care that fits different ways of working, to reduce the number of children waiting for a licensed place, and to make work and childcare possible together. An employer that pays into the children-and-childcare contribution can get help with building and running a facility for its employees. In the survey these facilities are counted inside employer-based care (事業所内保育施設).

The same survey reports 78,462 children enrolled in company-led facilities. That is the survey's count, not a vacancy list, and not a fee. A place, if there is one, is arranged with the employer or the facility. It does not replace the ward's licensed application unless the ward's own guide says it does.

Verify the facility's current rules, and your ward's rule for using it as a bridge, before you sign a contract.