Why your 保育園 bill doesn't match your neighbor's
Ask two families in the same building what they pay for 保育園 (hoikuen, "daycare") and you'll often get two very different numbers. That's not a billing error — it's how the system is designed. Unlike tuition at a private school, 保育料 (hoikuryo, the monthly daycare fee) for a licensed daycare isn't a flat price set by the daycare itself. It's calculated by your 市区町村 (municipality) using your household's tax data, then applied through a tiered fee table that varies from city to city. Understanding that mechanism — and where the 2019 free-tuition reform does and doesn't apply — will save you from budgeting off a number a friend in a different ward gave you.
The mechanism: 市町村民税所得割額 sets your tier
Each municipality publishes a fee schedule organized into 階層区分 (income tiers). Your placement on that ladder is based on your 市町村民税所得割額 — the income-levy portion of your resident tax, not your gross salary and not your national tax bill. Two households earning the same salary can land in different tiers depending on deductions, dependents, and how income was split between spouses. The higher your assessed tier, the higher your monthly fee.
There is a national ceiling: for children under 3 in standard full-time hours, the top tier caps out at ¥104,000/month. In practice, almost no one pays that — most cities set their own tables well below the national maximum and add local subsidies on top. This is exactly the kind of city-by-city variation we map out in more depth in our guide to the full cost of raising and educating a child in Japan.
What a realistic monthly range looks like (ages 0–2)
For children under 3 — the age band not covered by the 2019 free-tuition reform — realistic monthly fees at a licensed 保育園 span roughly:
- ¥0 for 住民税非課税世帯 (households exempt from resident tax, generally very low income)
- A moderate mid-tier amount for typical dual-income households, which differs meaningfully by city
- Roughly ¥50,000–80,000+/month at the higher income tiers, again varying by municipality
There is no single "national average" worth budgeting against — your actual fee comes from your own city's tier table. The most reliable way to find it is your 住民税決定通知書 (resident tax assessment notice), typically issued each June, cross-referenced against your municipality's published hoikuryo chart. Use our cost calculator to estimate where your household is likely to land before you get that notice.
幼保無償化: what actually became free
Since October 2019, Japan's 幼保無償化 (yoho mushoka, "free early-childhood education") policy has made tuition free at licensed 保育所, 幼稚園 (kindergarten), and 認定こども園 (certified centers combining both) — but the age cutoff matters enormously:
- Ages 3–5: tuition-free for every household regardless of income. At 幼稚園 specifically, the free portion is capped at ¥25,700/month in reimbursement rather than an automatic waiver.
- Ages 0–2: free only for 住民税非課税世帯. Everyone else in this age band still pays the income-linked fee described above.
There's also multi-child relief that stacks with 無償化: a second child typically gets half off, and a third or later child is free, with the qualifying income threshold set lower for these discounts than for the base exemption. This overlaps with several of the broader family subsidies we cover in our roundup of kosodate (childrearing) support payments, so it's worth reading both together when you're mapping out your household budget.
What 無償化 does not cover
"Free" in this context means tuition, not the whole bill. Families still pay out of pocket for:
- 食材費/給食費 — meal ingredient and lunch costs
- 通園送迎費 — bus or shuttle fees, where offered
- 行事費 — event and activity fees
Within meal costs, the 副食費 (side-dish portion, as opposed to staple rice) is separately waived for low-income households and for third-or-later children, so the meal line item itself can still shrink depending on your family's situation.
認可 vs 認可外: why the fee structure differs
A 認可 (ninka, "licensed") daycare meets national staffing and facility standards, and its fee is the government-capped, income-tiered amount your city sets. A 認可外 (ninka-gai, "unlicensed") facility sets its own price freely — usually a flat rate that doesn't scale with income, which structurally makes it more expensive for lower- and mid-income households even though it can offer more flexible hours or English-language options. Subsidy support for 認可外 is capped rather than tiered: up to ¥37,000/month for ages 3–5, or ¥42,000/month for ages 0–2 in non-taxable households.
Whichever type you choose, most municipalities require a 保育の必要性の認定 (childcare-necessity certification) from the city before any subsidy applies — generally tied to both parents working, studying, or meeting another qualifying condition. Apply for this early, since processing can take weeks and enrollment cycles in many cities run on fixed spring timelines.
Fee tiers, subsidy caps, and certification rules are set locally, so treat every figure here as a range to sanity-check against your own city hall, not a quote. If you're still working through the basics of eligibility and paperwork, our FAQ covers the most common questions families ask before their first enrollment cycle.
The income-linked design means your hoikuen bill is really a function of your tax bracket, your child's age, and your city's specific table — three variables worth pinning down together rather than guessing at separately.
Estimate your family's cost →