Registration is required for fee-based nursing homes regardless of size or services under the elderly welfare law revised last April. Previously, the law applied only to those that accommodated at least 10 people and served meals.

The survey found that 385 facilities in 21 prefectures, out of 776 in 37 prefectures that authorities knew about, remain unregistered even though the revision brought them under the scope of the law. The tally only covers facilities that prefectural governments are aware of.

The Japan Times Weekly: March 3, 2007
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