Kazenoko Hoikuen Reconstruction
From “Kazenoko Letter” No.427 - August 2013
| We have been proceeding with construction of our new facility near the
current building. We prepared the land a long time ago in anticipation
of moving into the new building. Our current building was built in 1978, before the revision of Building Standards Act which reinforced quake-resistance standards in 1981. The Building Standards Act was drastically revised in the light of the 1978 Miyagi earthquake. According to the old standards, buildings had to withstand damage from an earthquake registering up to 5 on the Japanese earthquake scale, but the new standards raised this to intensity 7. Therefore, social welfare corporations, education-related facilities, and public facilities which were built before the new standards receive checks on earthquake resistance by the government every year. Especially after the Great Hanshin Earthquake, we were forced to decide whether to do reinforcement work or to rebuild the center. We had doubts about doing reinforcement work at a huge expense, because the size of our center was small, and because of the impossibility of suspending childcare during the long renovation period. So, we planned to build a new one. We could receive a subsidy from the government and Osaka City for building the new center, however one condition of the subsidy was to increase our capacity to 30 more children, in order to help achieve a zero-waiting list for nursery schools. Because of this, the size of the building had to be bigger, and the building plan and financial plan caused us much anxiety. The subsidy didn’t even cover half of the total construction cost, so we ended up taking a loan from the Welfare and Medical Service Agency (government funds) and a bank and we are trying to make do by combining this with our own savings. It is a fireproof, three-story reinforced concrete building (Partially four stories), and the architectural area is 141,787 square meters. When it’s done, we will be able to protect the children even in an event similar to the Great Nankai Earthquake or in the event of an earthquake caused by the active Uemachi fault line. The new building will be completed in the fall. We should be able to give more details regarding moving, etc. at a later date. The oldest group of children will be the first graduates to have their farewell ceremony at the new building, so please look forward to it! |
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Operated by
Social Welfare Corporation SUISEN FUKUSHIKAI
| Kazenoko Hoikuen | 1-11-8 Komatsu, Higashiyodogawa-ku, Osaka 533-0004 TEL.06-6328-4019  050-3385-0072 FAX.06-6328-4030 |