The “baby hatch” door at the city hospital in southwestern Japan that Koichi Miyatsu was placed in the care of was etched in his memory when he was 3 years old.
Miyatsu, now a 21-year-old university student who has launched a program to teach kids about the importance of life, is among a small number of people in the country with the experience of being anonymously dropped off at the facility as an infant or toddler by parents or relatives unable to raise their children.
Koichi Miyatsu speaks about his upbringing at the “University for Kids Kumamoto” event in Kumamoto in August 2024. (Kyodo)
In the city of Kumamoto, Miyatsu provides education to elementary school students and other children based on his own upbringing of being raised by foster parents.
“We want to provide a place where children can have dreams and hopes without being influenced by their environment, a place where their hearts can be fulfilled,” said Miyatsu, the program’s director who attends the Prefectural University of Kumamoto.
Called “University for Kids Kumamoto,” the program offers two free events for children a year, featuring talks by specialists on various themes such as “life studies” and a course to nurture a love for one’s hometown.
At an event held in March to commemorate the opening of the “university,” actress Misako Konno read from a picture book about parents who lost their children to the atomic bombings in order to stress the importance of everyday life.
Miyatsu was placed in the care of Jikei Hospital in Kumamoto on the day it set up the baby hatch inspired by a German system, called “Konotori no Yurikago” (Stork’s Cradle), in 2007.
“My relatives opened the hatch’s door and placed me inside. I can still remember the door like it was a scene from a movie,” Miyatsu told an audience of over 100 people, mostly elementary and junior high school students and their parents, during an event held in August.
When the hatch is opened from the outside, a buzzer sounds and a staff member rushes to the nursery to safeguard the child. A total of 179 children were placed in the care of the Kumamoto facility from the start of its operation through fiscal year 2023.
The facility is operated in cooperation with the Child Guidance Center and the police to prevent parents from violating criminal laws and regulations, such as the crime of child abandonment by a parent or guardian responsible for a child’s wellbeing. There are also recent moves to open such facilities in Tokyo.
Miyatsu learned about his biological mother when he was in elementary school. He was left in the care of relatives when she died in an accident when he was only 5 months old.
When his foster parents later took Miyatsu to visit his biological mother’s gravesite, they made a promise to raise him as their own. Reminiscing about the experience, he said, “I felt that I was accepted by them as their real son.”
Miyatsu said he is occasionally pitied by others when he talks about his upbringing. But he proudly told the audience, “I am happy because my foster parents took good care of me.”
During a simulation at the seminar, child participants were instructed on how to cradle baby dolls, with the aim of giving them a “sense of the importance of life.”
After the event, children made comments such as “I think I should thank my parents,” and spoke about wanting to “take care of all living things.”
Yukiko Tajiri, 74, who serves as principal of the university for kids, also spoke at the event. As director of nursing at Jikei Hospital, she was involved in the establishment of the baby hatch and was also the first person to hold Miyatsu at the time he was left at the facility.
When Miyatsu began to talk about his upbringing publicly as a baby hatch child to emphasize the importance of life, Tajiri advised him to provide opportunities for parents and children to learn about the issue together.
Miyatsu then turned to the KinderUni (University for Kids) program that started in Germany some 20 years ago and has since spread across Europe. The program is held at university facilities and other venues, and features lectures by scholars and local experts to stimulate children’s intellectual curiosity.
In Japan, children’s universities started in Saitama Prefecture about 15 years ago and have spread to about a dozen of Japan’s 47 prefectures. According to Children’s University Dazaifu, Fukuoka, they are also located in Hokkaido, Tokyo, Nagano, Niigata, Ishikawa, Toyama, Shizuoka, Mie, Kyoto, Osaka, Fukuoka and Kagoshima.
As a maternity nurse, Tajiri has continued to strongly support women troubled by pregnancy. “We have an obligation to tell people about life and how it should be lived from Kumamoto, the birthplace of the baby hatch,” she said.