Daycare (保育園) in Japan for foreign families: applying, costs and free preschool

Foreign residents get daycare in Japan on the same rules as Japanese families. You apply to your city or ward for a place at a licensed daycare (認可保育園, ninka hoikuen), and places go to families with the most points for needing childcare. As of October 2026, first-round deadlines for April 2027 entry fall between 28 October and 24 November 2026 in Yokohama, Setagaya and Minato, classes for ages 3 to 5 are free, and fees for ages 0 to 2 depend on your resident tax.

Licensed (認可) or unlicensed (認可外) daycare?

Licensed daycare includes 認可保育所, the childcare side of certified centers (認定こども園) and small-scale daycare (地域型保育) for under-3s. The city decides who gets in, and the city sets the fee from your tax. This is what most families mean by hoikuen.

Unlicensed daycare (認可外保育施設) is everything else, such as private nurseries and, in Tokyo, Tokyo-certified nurseries (認証保育所). You sign up with the school directly and pay its price. The city gives back part of the fee if you have a childcare certificate (see below).

Kindergarten (幼稚園, yochien) is different again. It is an education program from age 3 (type 1, below), and no childcare reason is needed.

Who qualifies for licensed daycare?

Each parent in the household needs a reason the child needs care (保育の必要性). Ota City lists the standard ones:

• Work of at least 48 hours a month, as a regular pattern (Ota and Setagaya both use 48 hours)
• Pregnancy and birth: the birth month plus 2 months on each side
• Illness, disability or caring for a relative
• Job seeking: 3 months, switched to work if you start a job in that time
• Study of at least 48 hours a month
• Disaster recovery, and other cases the city accepts

The city then gives a certificate: type 2 (2号) for ages 3 and up, type 3 (3号) for under 3. Type 1 (1号) is for kindergarten only. Full-time workers get “standard hours” (保育標準時間, up to 11 hours a day); part-timers get “short hours” (保育短時間, up to 8 hours).

Your visa type isn’t on the list. What matters is that you normally live in the city where you apply (Setagaya gives no standard points to people who neither live nor work in the ward and aren’t moving in), and that you can prove your reason, normally with an employment certificate (就労証明書) on the city’s own form, as Shinjuku City requires, filled in by your employer.

How does the hoikuen points system work?

In popular areas there are more applicants than places, so cities rank families by points (指数). Setagaya’s 2027 guide is a typical example:

Each parent scores up to 50, and the two are added. Then adjustments: +20 for a single-parent household, +10 for a household on welfare, +5 when the parent is coming back from maternity or childcare leave. Hours count from the 1st of the entry month, and commuting time doesn’t count.

What this means for foreign families:

• Two full-time workers start at 100 points in Setagaya. One parent job seeking drops the household to 60.
• If you’ve just arrived and one parent is still looking for work, you score low in wards that rank like this.
• The ward won’t tell you your score before selection. Rules differ by city, so read your own city’s table.

When are the April 2027 deadlines?

April is the main intake. Deadlines for April 2027 entry, first round:

Yokohama takes added facilities, a changed preference order or missing documents until 20 November 2026 from people who applied by 28 October 2026. Setagaya accepts missing documents until 24 November 2026 from people who applied in time.

There is a second round for April 2027 entry: Setagaya closes it on 27 January 2027 (online or mail), Minato on 5 February 2027. Families not placed in the first round are carried over automatically in Setagaya. Babies born in Minato from 11 November 2026 to 1 January 2027 can apply after the birth is registered, until 14 January 2027.

Other months have their own monthly deadlines, but far fewer places.

Yokohama asks for applications online with a My Number card, with its PIN and a valid electronic certificate. If you can’t do that, a paper application by mail is accepted.

How much does daycare in Japan cost?

Ages 3 to 5: free. Since free early-childhood education and care (幼児教育・保育の無償化), the fee for 3 to 5 year-old classes at licensed daycare, certified centers and most kindergartens is zero. In principle it starts on the 1 April after your child turns 3. You still pay food ingredients (食材料費), transport and events. Side dishes (副食費) are free for households under about ¥3.6 million a year and for third and later children.

Ages 0 to 2: set by your municipal tax. The city adds both parents’ income-based municipal tax (市民税所得割額) and puts you in a bracket. In Yokohama, the FY2026 fee for 0 to 2 year-olds runs from ¥0 to ¥77,500 a month, meals included. A second child in daycare at the same time pays less and a third child is free. Households exempt from resident tax pay nothing for 0 to 2.

Tokyo: free for 0 to 2 as well. From September 2025 Tokyo wards such as Meguro made the 0 to 2 fee at licensed daycare free for a first child too, with no income limit. Meguro says no application is needed. Extended-hours fees (延長保育料) are still charged.

What does unlicensed daycare cost after the subsidy?

If you have a childcare certificate and couldn’t get a licensed place, the city reimburses unlicensed fees up to a cap. The caps rose on 1 October 2026:

The Children and Families Agency’s overview page still shows the old caps. We follow Hiroshima City and Meguro City, which apply the new amounts to use from 1 October 2026. Unlicensed schools only qualify if they have notified the prefecture and meet national standards, so ask the school first. Tokyo wards add their own subsidy on top.

What changed in 2026?

Daycare for children who aren’t enrolled (こども誰でも通園制度). From FY2026 this runs in every municipality as a new national benefit. Children from 6 months to under 3 who don’t attend daycare can go for about 10 hours a month, by the hour, and parents don’t need to work. You apply to your city for a usage certificate, then book a nursery. Hours can differ by city. Funabashi, for example, charges ¥300 for the first hour and ¥150 per 30 minutes after that.

Higher subsidy caps for unlicensed care and kindergarten extended care, from 1 October 2026 (table above).

Where can I find a daycare guide in my language?

Start with your city’s guide. Yokohama publishes its 2027 daycare guide in English, Chinese, Korean, Spanish, Portuguese, Tagalog and Vietnamese, and its Japanese guide also comes in easy Japanese (やさしい にほんご). Setagaya’s guide is in Japanese only; its website has a foreign-language section.

If your city only has Japanese, take the guide and your employment certificate to the childcare counter (保育課) and ask about the deadline, the points table and which documents you still need.

More guides: child allowance, giving birth in Japan, registering a baby born in Japan, maternity and childcare leave, international school costs.