Osaka Protection Society for Infants and
Young Children Ohga Health Center

A surprisingly unknown fact is that the first child health center in Japan began not as a publicly funded institution but as a private project. The person who was deeply involved in opening of this first child health center was Kyoji Ohga, the first president of Wakodo.

Ohga founded Ikuei Society in January 1927 with his own private funds, and, envisaged the project of this institution to be establishing child health centers in Tokyo and Osaka for promotion of knowledge in parenting and nutritional management, as well as health consultation. While Ohga was planning this project, coincidentally, Doctor Chokuboku Ohkubo of Japan Red Cross Osaka Hospital and staff at Osaka District Social Division were also devising measures to protect families and young children.

In comparison to respective cities in Western countries, Japan at that time had exceedingly high mortality of infants and young children. For instance, when looking at infant/young children mortality against 1000 live births in 1925, the figure for London was 69, that for New York was 6.5, that for Berlin was 1, and that for Paris was 89, in contrast to 123 for Tokyo. Among Japanese cities, Osaka had an especially high figure of 186, while Kobe (next door to Osaka) had 158 in the same study. It was obvious to anyone that the situation required urgent actions.

When Ohga learnt about Dr. Okubo and others’ intentions, he offered. Their first initiative was the establishment of Osaka Protection Society for Infants and Young Children in July, 1927, with the then Governor of Osaka Prefecture acting as chairman. Then, in January 1928, a child health center was opened in Ichioka Motomachi, where the highest infant mortality was recorded within the City of Osaka. There the first child health center in Japan was born.