Japan’s second ‘baby hatch’ for abandoned infants opens as economic pressures mount

In a heart-wrenching reflection of Japan’s escalating social issues, a Tokyo hospital has become the second in the country to install a “baby hatch”, allowing mothers to anonymously leave infants they can no longer care for.

Launched at San-ikukai Hospital in Tokyo’s Kinshicho district on Monday, the new hatch comes amid rising economic pressures and a persistent lack of support systems for new mothers in Japan.

The “Baby Basket”, as it is called, provides a secure space designed for infants. An alarm sounds as soon as a baby is placed inside, with a staff member coming to collect the child within 30 seconds.

“Such tragic incidents as newborns being deserted, and fatal child abuse continues to happen,” said hospital chief Hitoshi Kano when announcing the initiative. “I am going to make an effort to create a society in which this project is no longer necessary.”

Rising prices are at least partly to blame for babies being abandoned, according to Yoko Tsukamoto, a professor of infection control at the Health Sciences University of Hokkaido.

“There are a whole series of reasons why a second baby hatch is having to open in Japan, and I have to say it makes me sad,” she told This Week in Asia.