Author: Seiichi Sato | Editor-in-Chief, TamagoDaruma

Having income from abroad does not, on its own, make your childcare fees higher. But when a municipality cannot confirm your household’s income from resident tax records alone, it will ask for additional documents showing your overseas income and deductions. Families returning from an overseas posting, families moving to Japan for the first time, and households where one parent has been working abroad often encounter the phrase “overseas income declaration” for the first time when they apply for daycare or open a fee notice. That raises some reasonable questions. Is this a nationwide procedure, or something specific to one city?…

Shichi-Go-San is coming up, and your three-year-old won’t put the kimono on. When a fitting ends in tears, or the tabi (split-toe socks) and zori (traditional Japanese sandals) come off within minutes, it’s natural to start wondering whether the day itself is going to work. The short version: visiting in Western-style clothing, such as a dress or a suit, is one workable option. But “Western clothes are fine” does not mean “anything goes.” If you plan to take part in a prayer ceremony led by a Shinto priest, you’ll need to check each shrine’s own guidance on what to wear,…

If you have been working out your index score ahead of an application to a licensed daycare centre (ninka hoikuen), you may be wondering what happens next: what if another household ends up with exactly the same number of points? When two applicants tie on points in Japan’s daycare admission process, the outcome is decided by the tie-break priority order that each municipality sets for itself. Both the criteria and the order they are applied in differ from one municipality to the next. This article compares the tie-break order in Ota Ward and Setagaya Ward, using each ward’s official documents.…

You’re on a park bench, at a jidōkan community center for children, or visiting family, about to open a package of baby food — and you stop. Does this need warming up first? Where there’s no microwave and no hot water, the small print on the package is all you have to go on. Some commercial baby foods sold in Japan can be eaten without heating. But a package that only says 常温保存 (store at room temperature) doesn’t tell you that. You need to check the usage instructions for the individual product: wording such as 調理済み (already cooked), そのまま召し上がれます (ready…

If you’d rather not use your cooking pots, sealing acorns in bags and freezing them is a workable alternative. That said, a home freezer can’t be relied on to finish the job in a fixed number of days, so you’ll need to check your freezer’s actual temperature and dry the acorns afterward. Your child comes home from the park or the daycare yard with a pocketful of acorns. Even when they say they want to use them for crafts and don’t want to throw them away, the thought of grubs crawling out a week later makes it hard to simply…

When the annual calendar arrives from your child’s hoikuen (daycare centre) or yochien (kindergarten) with dates for sports day and the entrance ceremony, it is natural to wonder whether child nursing and care leave can be used. The April 2025 revision widened the situations the leave covers, but it still does not apply to every daycare or school event. The short answerSports day is not covered by statutory child nursing and care leave. Entrance and graduation ceremonies at daycare centres and kindergartens, elementary school entrance ceremonies, and taking your child for a health check-up or vaccination are all covered. Being…

Kira★Gacha Seal Pukkuri Drop add-on sets do not work with older Kira★Gacha Seal machines. To use them, you need the Pukkuri Drop sticker maker itself. You’ve spotted an add-on set in a store and you’re wondering: we have one of these machines at home, but will this actually work with it? The name comes from Japanese, where shīru means sticker and gacha refers to capsule-toy vending machines. Several products share the Kira★Gacha Seal name, and each one takes different add-on sets. This article covers the Kira★Gacha Seal Pukkuri Drop (キラ★ガチャシール ぷっくりドロップ), released in Japan on August 1, 2026 by Takara…

You want to do something for Halloween, but there’s no time to prepare an elaborate craft project. When that happens, shadow play using a paper ghost and a flashlight is a good option. Keep the flashlight still and move the ghost cut-out closer to it, and the shadow on the wall grows larger. You don’t need to build a special stage. If you have a white wall, you can try it right away. Children don’t have to make all of the cut-outs themselves, either. An adult can do the cutting, while the child takes part by choosing, moving, and watching.…

You finish an online application for a hoikuen, a licensed daycare or similar childcare facility, see the “Submission complete” message, and close the page. No queuing at a counter, no carrying a stack of paperwork with a child in tow. For families with young children, applying online is a genuine help. Then, a few months later, your employer says: “We need a copy of your daycare application for the childcare leave benefits extension.” And there is no paper copy anywhere in the house. Here is the short answer first. What you need to keep is a complete record of everything…

From October 1, 2026, employers in Japan must provide more information when they hire a part-time or fixed-term employee, or when they renew that person’s contract. Childcare providers should start by updating the written notice of working conditions, then designating a contact person and preparing materials that explain how pay, benefits, and other employment terms differ from those of regular staff. There is no need to rush to a conclusion such as “do we have to sign fresh contracts with every part-time employee?” or “do all allowances now have to be the same amount?” Once you separate what the revision…

As a long summer break nears its end, some parents feel a wave of anxiety first thing in the morning at a child’s quiet “I don’t want to go to school.” “Is it okay to let them stay home today?” “If I let them rest now, will they end up unable to go back at all?” “Should I make them go anyway?” With the clock ticking toward the start of school, it can feel like you’re being asked to make a big decision in a very short window. To put it simply, the first priority isn’t “getting them to school”—it’s…

“I don’t want it to be all tablets. But thinking about the years ahead, keeping AI completely at arm’s length doesn’t feel right either.” For parents caught between those two feelings, an interesting kind of AI toy has appeared in the United States. Its name is Stickerbox. It’s a device that takes an idea a child says out loud, turns it into an illustration with AI, and prints it on the spot as a black-and-white sticker. Stickerbox is a creative toy that makes AI stickers from a child’s voice, without needing to keep operating a smartphone or tablet. But “screen-free”…