JAPAN SPLIT ON PLANS TO CREATE HOME FOR UNWANTED INFANTS

by Suvendrini Kakuchi

(IPS) TOKYO -- Three months after a private Japanese hospital proposed the setting up of a 'baby hatch' to save unwanted infants, conservative officials continue to resist its launch in what critics say illustrates indifference to female reproductive rights in this tradition-bound country.

Dubbed 'cradle-of-storks,' the baby hatch would allow infants to be deposited anonymously. It was proposed by the Jikei Hospital, a Catholic facility that does not perform abortions and is located in Kumamoto city, southern Japan.

Opposition is based mostly on the grounds that a baby hatch might encourage an increase in the number of babies abandoned by parents. But it is also for such reasons as that the facility is called a 'baby post' in the translation from the Japanese.

''I feel very uncomfortable about the name post," Prime minister Shinzo Abe told the Japanese press last month, explaining his resistance to the idea of babies being dropped off anonymously.

''Opposing a baby box, referred to as a post here, comes from the notion that decisions by women must be governed by archaic tradition and laws rather than their own individual concerns. This has to change," said Dr Kunio Kitamura of the Japan Family Planning Association.

Yukiko Tajiri, head nurse at Jikei Hospital, told IPS that she was ''amazed at the fuss created by conservative authorities." ''All we want to do is to save the life of a little baby in an emergency."

Indeed, the decision to introduce the hatch was prompted by disturbing instances of newborns being abandoned in Japan, one of them just ten days after Jikei Hospital applied for permission to start the program on Dec. 15.

In 2006, in Kumamoto alone, there were three such incidents reported. In January of that year, a 20-year-old mother dropped off her baby girl in a public toilet.

In the latest case a divorced mother abandoned her baby, the youngest of three children, at the entrance of a maternity hospital. When the woman was arrested she told police that she was forced to take the step as she could not rely on her aging parents to look after all the children.

Under Japanese law, those convicted of neglecting infants can be sentenced to three to five years in prison.

According to the ministry of health and welfare, there were about 200 consultation cases on deserted children last year. Around 280,000 abortions were reported and 58 children died of abuse, seven of them only days after being born.

Despite that situation, Japanese central government authorities are still dragging their feet on the baby hatch. However, Masao Suehiro, an official at the Kumamoto City office, explained to IPS that the local government is waiting for permission from the ministry.

''Typically it takes about 10 days to gain permission for new projects from the central government but the baby box is taking a lot of time because of considerations such as maintaining the family responsibility," he said.

He added though that Japan's medical laws can accept the new cradle as long as Jikei Hospital can guarantee that it has taken every precaution to make it safe and take responsibility for the care of left-off babies.

Kitamura says the baby hatch debate should rather address the lack of social and financial support for young mothers and other urgent reproductive issues such as ignorance about protection from sexually transmitted diseases and pregnancy among teenagers who do not have access to proper sex education either at home or school.

''Family responsibility is not the issue. Japan is clamping down on sex education in school despite the fact that middle school students are sexually active and need guidance from adults. This is a concrete method to reduce unwanted babies," he explained.

Jikei Hospital sends maternity nurses to middle schools to provide sex education and talk with students between the ages of 12 to 15 years about family responsibilities.

Yukiko Sakata, a health science teacher, says children respond well to lectures by nurses. ''They understand the importance of respect in a sexual relationship and these concepts are not discussed in schools or homes," she told IPS.

Sakata said that in Japan youth are bombarded with titillating sexual content in the media and on the Internet, but authorities do not provide the necessary education to help them take a correct attitude.