Minister Calls For Mandatory Safety Devices On Nursery School Buses
Japan's children's policy minister has told government officials to take steps to require that nursery school buses be equipped with safety devices to prevent children from being locked inside alone, unnoticed.
Ogura Masanobu gave the instruction on Thursday at a meeting of government ministries and offices on ways to ensure children's safety.
The move follows the death of a 3-year-old girl from heatstroke early this month, after she was left inside a kindergarten bus in Shizuoka Prefecture.
Ogura told the officials that safety devices should be mandatory on buses of about 16,000 childcare facilities across the nation, such as nursery schools and kindergartens.
He also instructed them to draw up guidelines on how such devices should work, as well as manuals on safely operating school buses.
The minister also told them to come up with specific plans to support nursery schools and other facilities, including funding measures.
Ogura later told reporters that safety devices should be mandatory to help caregivers confirm where children are.
He said the government will speed up work to prepare measures to prevent a recurrence. The government plans to compile a package of measures in October.