Japan's 2nd Baby Hatch Opens in Tokyo

Tokyo, March 31 (Jiji Press)--San-ikukai, a Tokyo-based social welfare corporation, announced Monday the start of its "Baby Basket" project to protect lives of newborn babies at its hospital in the capital's Sumida Ward.

Beginning 1 p.m. the same day, women can anonymously drop off their babies up to four weeks old round the clock at a place in San-ikukai Hospital in the Kinshicho district, the second "baby hatch" in Japan after the one set up at Jikei Hospital in the city of Kumamoto in May 2007.

Within a minute after receiving a baby, the hospital will dispatch an official to the hatch, San-ikukai said, adding that it will look for foster parents in cooperation with child guidance centers.

Also under the project, mothers can give birth in secret by letting only a limited number of hospital staff know who they are.

"Such tragic incidents as newborn desertion and fatal child abuse continue to happen," Hitoshi Kato, head of San-ikukai Hospital, told a press conference at the Tokyo metropolitan government's head office. "I'm going to make efforts to create a society where this project is no longer necessary."

[Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]