After-School Day Services × Closed Schools: Fee Units, Facility and Staffing Standards, Designation Requirements and Building Checks [2026 Edition]

September 14, 2026 — The title and text called after-school day services and closed schools the most compatible combination, said the building maps almost perfectly to the service, and said many children using the service have difficulty attending regular school.

Before

After-School Day Services × Closed Schools — The Most Compatible Combination / Perfect Spatial Alignment / Many children using ASDS have difficulty attending regular school / Even in a depopulated area, a stable institutional income stream is achievable once a sufficient user base is established

After

After-school day services are for children with disabilities enrolled in schools (other than kindergartens and universities) or specialised and miscellaneous schools, who attend after classes or on school holidays (Child Welfare Act, Article 6-2-2(3))

Reason No source compared this combination with others, so the claims of the strongest fit and near-perfect alignment could not stand. The Child Welfare Act defines the service as one used by children enrolled in school after classes or on holidays, and nothing supported the statement that many of them have difficulty attending regular school. Whether income is stable in a depopulated area depends on the number of users and on the prefectural plan volume, so that statement was removed too.

September 14, 2026 — The English edition described the FY2024 time brackets as under 3 hours, 3 to 5 hours and 5 hours or more, with unit counts and yen amounts that do not appear in the MHLW outline. It also said a flat per-session fee applied before the revision and gave the transport add-on as 54 to 99 units per one-way trip.

Before

Three time brackets: under 3 hours, 3–5 hours, and 5 hours or more / Approximately 700–900, 1,000–1,400 and 1,700–2,200 units, or ¥7,000–9,000, ¥10,000–14,000 and ¥17,000–22,000 per session / About ¥10,000–14,000 per session for 3–5 hours of after-school support / A flat per-session reimbursement applied before the revision / Transport add-on: 54–99 units per one-way trip / Combining the specialist and medical coordination add-ons can substantially increase per-session revenue

After

The brackets are 30 minutes to 1 hour 30 minutes, over 1 hour 30 minutes up to 3 hours, and over 3 hours up to 5 hours (school holidays only), at 574, 609 and 666 units for a capacity of 10 or fewer (children other than those with severe motor and intellectual disabilities or requiring medical care) / Before the revision the fee was split between after classes and holidays, with after-class Categories 1 (3 hours or more) and 2 (under 3 hours) / The transport add-on is 54 units per trip, plus 40 units for children with severe disabilities and 40 or 80 units for children requiring medical care / The specialist support add-on and the special support add-on were merged into a staffing add-on and a delivery add-on

Reason The new-and-old table in the Outline of the FY2024 Revision gives the brackets and unit counts above, and shows that before the revision the fee was already split between after classes and holidays. The English table did not match the outline, and the yen ranges and the claim that combining add-ons substantially raises revenue had no source. The entry of 12 September 2026 said the unit counts checked out; that check was made against the Japanese edition, and the English table had not been brought into line with it. The same revision merged the specialist support add-on with the special support add-on.

September 14, 2026 — The English edition put facility costs in a closed school at ¥0–50K a month against ¥200K–400K for a commercial lease, showed a monthly surplus of ¥540–590K at 85 percent utilisation, and carried a three-scenario profit and loss table. None of it had a source, and it has been removed.

Before

Facility cost with closed school reuse ¥0–50K/month vs. ¥200K–400K for standard commercial lease / Monthly surplus ¥540–590K at 85% utilization (10-user capacity) / Monthly revenue for a 10-user facility typically ¥1.2–1.5 million / Assumed 1,000–1,200 units per session and a 70-unit one-way transport add-on / Monthly surplus of about ¥350–400K, ¥540–590K and ¥640–690K at 70%, 85% and 95% utilization / About ¥250,000 more per month than a standard lease

After

Base fees are estimated by multiplying the units for each time bracket by the number of children, the number of days and the unit price. In the FY2021 revision materials, one unit is ¥10 in areas graded Other and ¥11.2 in Grade 1 areas. How to work out the facility cost difference is covered in the revenue model article

Reason The facility cost range, the surplus figures, the revenue estimate, the unit and add-on assumptions, and the personnel and other expense lines were assumptions made by this article, not figures from published sources. The unit assumption also rested on the wrong time brackets. Unit counts and unit prices are now limited to figures in MHLW documents.

September 14, 2026 — The facility standard was given as a training room of at least 2.47 m² per user, plus a consultation room, rest room and office. The 2.47 m² figure is the standard for the development support room of a child development support centre; the standard for after-school day service facilities sets no floor area.

Before

Training / activity room ≥ 2.47 m² per user capacity / Consultation room / Washroom and toilet, accessible design required / Rest room / Administrative office / For 10 users, at least approximately 25 m² / A standard classroom (typically 60–70 m²)

After

A designated after-school day service facility must have a development support room and the equipment and supplies needed to provide the service, and the room must have the equipment needed for support (Standards, Article 68). The figure of 2.47 m² per child is the standard for the development support room of a child development support centre (Article 10)

Reason Article 68 of the Standards for Personnel, Facilities and Operation of Designated Day Support for Children with Disabilities requires a development support room and the necessary equipment and supplies, with no floor area and no consultation room, rest room or office. The 2.47 m² per child figure is in Article 10 and applies to child development support centres. The classroom size figure also had no source. The staffing standard (Article 66) has been added.

September 14, 2026 — The English edition said renovation costs about 1/3 to 1/2 of new construction and ¥8–20 million for 200–500 m², that the Social Welfare Facility Construction Subsidy can cut the operator share to 1/4, and that a use-change permit is needed to reclassify a school as a special-use building.

Before

Renovation costs for closed school conversions are generally estimated at 1/3 to 1/2 of new construction costs / ¥8–20 million for 200–500 m² (source line: this article's own framing) / National 1/2 and prefectural 1/4 under the Social Welfare Facility Construction Subsidy, reducing the operator's share to as little as 1/4 / A use-change permit for floor areas exceeding 200 m² to reclassify from school to special-use building / Corridor width ≥90 cm

After

The MHLW page lists residential facilities for children with disabilities and disability welfare service establishments under Article 5 of the Comprehensive Support for Persons with Disabilities Act among the facilities the development subsidy covers; whether after-school day service facilities are covered cannot be read from it / A school is already a special building under Article 2(ii) of the Building Standards Act, and after-school day service facilities are not named in the list of child welfare facilities, etc. in Article 19 of the Order; ask the building official which use applies / Under Appended Table 1 of the Fire Service Act Order, schools are item (7) and facilities providing child development support or after-school day services are item (6)(c)(4)

Reason The ratio to new construction and the cost range had no source. After-school day services are day support for children with disabilities under the Child Welfare Act, not the disability welfare services under Article 5 of the Comprehensive Support Act listed for the subsidy. A school is already a special building, and Article 19 of the Order names facilities for services such as daily life care and employment support but not day support for children with disabilities. The 90 cm corridor width had no basis either.

September 14, 2026 — The English edition described Nerima Ward in Tokyo converting a closed school into a child development support centre, and listed five success factors said to be drawn from multiple cases. No source could be given, and both have been removed.

Before

In Nerima Ward, Tokyo, a closed school was repurposed as a child development support center (source line: this article's own framing) / Common success factors: early relationship with the municipality, subsidy use limiting the operator share to about 1/4, alignment with local needs, specialist staffing, outdoor and agricultural programming

After

After-school day services do not appear in the Use field of the 47 cases in the MEXT casebook

Reason We could not find a current statement on the ward's official pages about the Nerima case, and the source line read as this article's own framing. The ward's page for its child development support centre gives the address, the opening in January 2013 and the designation as a child development support centre that November, but says nothing about a closed school. The five success factors could not be traced to any case.

September 14, 2026 — The English edition had a table of setup costs, timelines and subsidy access by type of legal entity, and said designation typically takes 2 to 4 months and preparation about 1 to 2 years. No source could be given, and they have been removed.

Before

Incorporated association ¥100–150K, 1–2 weeks, partial subsidy access / NPO ¥10–30K, 3–5 months, broad / Social welfare corporation several million yen, 6–12 months, full / NPO or incorporated association as the typical starting point / Application to designation typically 2–4 months / Total preparation approximately 1–2 years

After

Only legal entities can be designated (Child Welfare Act, Article 21-5-15(3)(i) and (4); Ordinance for Enforcement of the Child Welfare Act, Article 18-34). The prefectural governor may refuse designation when the volume set in the prefectural welfare plan for children with disabilities has already been reached, among other cases (Child Welfare Act, Article 21-5-15(5))

Reason We could not show which sources the setup costs, timelines, degrees of subsidy access or typical starting points came from, and the subsidy column did not say which subsidy it meant. We found no national source for the time to designation or the total preparation time. In their place, the legal entity requirement and the rule allowing refusal based on the plan volume have been added from the statutes.

September 12, 2026 — The reimbursement citations pointed at a page that does not carry the figures. The temporary reduction is now in force rather than planned.

Before

The citation pointed at the MHLW entry page for disability welfare services, and the text described the June 2026 revision as expected

After

The citations now point to the Outline of the FY2024 Revision and to the Items in the FY2026 Revision. The temporary reduction applies to facilities newly designated on or after June 1, 2026, at 982/1000 of the standard unit count

Reason The unit counts by time bracket (574, 609 and 666) and the size of the reduction (about 1.8 percent) both checked out against the primary documents. Only the links pointed at an entry page, so they now point to the documents that carry the figures. We also added that facilities on remote islands and in mountainous areas, and those a municipality establishes as objectively necessary, keep the previous rates.