President also appeared on TV program…Whistleblower alleges staffing violations & improper payments at a support service company for disabled children.

After-school day care services, a welfare service for children with disabilities or developmental characteristics who are between the ages of 6 and 18, are available after school and during long vacations such as summer vacation, and are called “school children with disabilities. However, the “after-school day service” center where I worked was understaffed, and the absence of a manager was the norm. The staff was so busy that they could not pay attention to the children, and abuse of children by certain staff members was a common practice. I may have been just as guilty for keeping my mouth shut until now, but I could no longer turn a blind eye. I decided to file a complaint.

Kodomo Plus Holdings, Inc. franchises after-school daycare services at nearly 200 locations nationwide. Ms. A, who worked at one of the company’s directly operated facilities, confided her painful feelings to the reporter.

Taxes are the source of benefit payments.

The main business of Kodomo Plus Holdings is to provide physical therapy and education for children and support for people with disabilities. The company was founded by Hiroki Yanagisawa, a brain scientist and author of numerous books. He is a “celebrity in the industry” who has appeared on “Beat Takeshi’s TV Tackle” (TV Asahi). Yanagisawa’s father, Akitaka, is a professor emeritus at Matsumoto Junior College and an expert in infant kinesiology. He is the founder of the “Yanagisawa Exercise Program,” which nurtures the mind and body through athletic play.

Franchisees can use the “Yanagisawa Exercise Program,” as well as receive guidance on the procedures necessary to set up an “after-school day care service” business and support for operations. As a result, in less than 10 years since its launch, the number of franchisees has expanded nationwide – but the aforementioned Mr. A said, “The positive image in the public and the internal situation are quite different. In addition to staff shortages, there are also allegations that they are receiving illegal benefits for day care for handicapped children (hereinafter referred to as “benefit payments”),” said the aforementioned Ms. A. “The monthly benefit payments are applied for by each local government. Benefit payments are made by submitting a monthly application to the local government. The source of funds is, of course, taxpayers’ money.

“As far as I know, directly operated facilities under the umbrella of Kodomo Plus Holdings in Hachioji City, Tokyo, and Tsukuba City, Ibaraki Prefecture, are suspected of receiving benefit payments illegally. After-school daycare services” can only receive benefit payments if they are qualified as “daycare support facilities for children with disabilities” by the prefectural and metropolitan governments. This is referred to as “receiving designation,” but neither of these facilities met the requirements to receive such designation.

In order to receive designation, a child development support manager (hereinafter referred to as a “child development support manager”) and two certified child guidance staff (hereinafter referred to as “guidance staff”) must be stationed at the facility. The child development support manager is the director of the daycare center, and the guidance counselor is a staff member who corresponds to a teacher.

At the facility in Hachioji City, there were no child development supervisors on duty. In addition, in order to apply as an instructor, a person must have a teaching license, a childcare license, or two years of work experience in the support business for persons with disabilities. Moreover, although registered as an instructor, the person was not working full-time.

According to Ms. A, “Such staffing irregularities are rampant at directly operated offices under the Kodomo Plus Holdings umbrella,” and she even went so far as to say that “the Hachioji and Tsukuba incidents are just the tip of the iceberg.

President Yanagisawa had instructed his subordinates to increase the number of directly managed offices. In order to increase the number of directly managed offices in a hurry, documents to be submitted to the government were probably falsified. In fact, there were staff members around me who were ‘made to think they were working even when they were not,’ and ‘made to be supervisors without permission.