Where does the Children and Families Agency's money flow among NPOs?
The Children and Families Agency has a budget of about ¥7.3 trillion (FY2025)[Children and Families Agency Budget (in Japanese)]. You may see talk that "money is flowing to NPOs," but how much has actually been paid directly from the national government to NPOs, and which organizations receive it? Using this site's subsidy award database (which holds about 800,000 records of publicly released government data), we tallied the Children and Families Agency's payees into a ranking. It is all based on primary data disclosed through the administrative project review and similar systems.
・Of the Children and Families Agency's direct payments (the two years recorded, about ¥2.8 trillion), the amount to NPOs is about ¥3.1 billion = roughly 0.1% of the total
・Most of the money (about 60%) is grants to prefectures and municipalities. Next come the corporations that operate childcare and scholarship systems
・The No.1 NPO is Kids Door (about ¥620 million). The top ranks are almost all intermediary-support corporations for the "Meal Support and Similar Assistance for Children of Single-Parent Households, etc." program
About this data (scope of the tally)
The basis of the tally is the administrative project review (RS System), which discloses the payees of all national government projects, and gBizINFO, the ministries' subsidy-grant database — specifically, the 1,135 records totaling about ¥2.8221 trillion whose grantor is the "Children and Families Agency" (see the full search results here). The period corresponds to roughly the two years of FY2023 (Reiwa 5) and FY2024 (Reiwa 6), since the Children and Families Agency was launched.
(1) The amounts are project costs on a payment/grant basis, not an organization's "profit" or "compensation." (2) Money that reaches households and facilities via local governments — such as childcare-facility operating costs and child allowances — is recorded as "to local governments," and it cannot be traced beyond that. (3) Against the whole Children and Families Agency budget (about ¥7.3 trillion a year), this tally covers only the disclosed portion of direct payments and grants from the national government.
The big picture: money first goes to "local governments" and "system-operating corporations"
Before the ranking, here is the overall picture. Dividing the Children and Families Agency's direct payments of about ¥2.8 trillion by type of recipient looks like this.
| Type of recipient | Amount (2-year total) | Share | Main content |
|---|---|---|---|
| Municipalities | About ¥1.2443 trillion | 44.1% | Grants for childcare and child-rearing support, etc. |
| Prefectures | About ¥457.4 billion | 16.2% | Anshin Kodomo Fund, measures to prevent child abuse, etc. |
| Foundations | About ¥435.8 billion | 15.4% | Almost entirely the Children's Rearing Association (the body operating company-led childcare) |
| Independent administrative agencies | About ¥400.8 billion | 14.2% | Japan Student Services Organization (grant-type scholarships), Welfare and Medical Service Agency, etc. |
| Other corporations | About ¥238.9 billion | 8.5% | Promotion and Mutual Aid Corporation for Private Schools of Japan (private kindergartens, etc.), etc. |
| Social welfare corporations | About ¥17.4 billion | 0.6% | Projects related to children's homes and childcare |
| School corporations | About ¥16.1 billion | 0.6% | Surveys and research, human-resource development, etc. |
| Incorporated associations | About ¥4.6 billion | 0.2% | Projects routed through industry associations |
| Stock companies | About ¥3.6 billion | 0.1% | Projects with a strong commissioning nature, such as surveys, systems, and PR |
| NPOs | About ¥3.1 billion | 0.1% | Meal support, creating places to belong, PR and awareness |
In other words, direct payments to NPOs are about 0.1% of the total. Looking at the order of magnitude, grants to local governments and system-operating corporations (the Children's Rearing Association, the Japan Student Services Organization, etc.) are overwhelmingly larger, and NPOs are only a small part. This may be the point where the gap between impression and actual data is greatest.
NPO ranking: the Children and Families Agency's top 10 payees
The NPOs (specified nonprofit corporations) that received direct payments from the Children and Families Agency numbered 15 corporations, 32 records, totaling about ¥3.089 billion in the recorded data. They are listed in order of amount. Tapping an organization's name opens the subsidy database's search results (the list of grants to that organization).
| Rank | Organization | Location | Amount (2-year total) | Main project |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Kids Door | Chuo-ku, Tokyo | ¥619.45 million | Meal support and similar assistance for children of single-parent households, etc. |
| 2 | Florence | Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo | ¥580.02 million | Same program; PR and awareness to strengthen watch-over systems |
| 3 | Food Bank TAMA | Hachioji, Tokyo | ¥401.58 million | Meal support and similar assistance for children of single-parent households, etc. |
| 4 | National Children's Cafeteria Support Center Musubie | Shibuya-ku, Tokyo | ¥396.39 million | Same program; PR and awareness to strengthen watch-over systems |
| 5 | Iruka | Fukuoka City, Fukuoka | ¥332.18 million | Meal support and similar assistance for children of single-parent households, etc. |
| 6 | Food Bank Aichi | Kitanagoya, Aichi | ¥326.00 million | Meal support and similar assistance for children of single-parent households, etc. |
| 7 | POPOLO | Shizuoka City, Shizuoka | ¥221.89 million | Meal support and similar assistance for children of single-parent households, etc. |
| 8 | Chaibora | Toshima-ku, Tokyo | ¥68.42 million | Promoting the appeal of social-care work and securing human resources |
| 9 | Single Mothers Forum | Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo | ¥65.73 million | Meal support and similar assistance for children of single-parent households, etc. |
| 10 | Asobi to Manabi Kenkyujo (Play and Learn Institute) | Kitakyushu, Fukuoka | ¥50.00 million | Meal support and similar assistance for children of single-parent households, etc. |
* The "specified nonprofit corporation" prefix in each organization's name is omitted. Amounts are the sum of payment information from the administrative project review (portions disclosed in 2024 and 2025). Ranks 11 and below are 5 corporations including the Japan Education Reconstruction Alliance (¥15 million, creating places to belong for children).
Why are the top ranks all "meal support"? The intermediary-support corporation mechanism
Of the top 10, 8 corporations are recipients of the same "Meal Support and Similar Assistance for Children of Single-Parent Households, etc." program. This is a national program that supports children's cafeterias, home-delivery meals for children, and food pantries that deliver meals, food, and school supplies to children in struggling single-parent households and the like[Children and Families Agency call-for-applications page (in Japanese)].
The key point is that the national government does not hand money directly to on-the-ground organizations; instead, the structure is one in which "intermediary-support corporations" receive it in bulk and distribute it to the field.
- The national government (Children and Families Agency) selects intermediary-support corporations through a public call (NPOs, social welfare corporations, etc. with a track record of operating in multiple prefectures) and pays the project costs
- The intermediary-support corporations (Kids Door, Musubie, food banks in each region, etc.) issue a public call to on-the-ground children's cafeterias, food pantries, etc. and grant them funds (three courses with a cap of ¥500,000 to ¥3 million per organization)
- The on-the-ground organizations procure food, ingredients, and school supplies and deliver them to single-parent households and the like
In other words, the "several hundred million yen" at the top of the ranking are project costs for the "overseeing portion" that include the grants to on-the-ground organizations nationwide and the cost of ingredients and delivery. It does not mean that one corporation can freely spend several hundred million yen; the accurate reading is that many on-the-ground organizations and households lie beyond it. From FY2025, the method changed to dividing the whole country into 6 areas and selecting an intermediary-support corporation for each area.
PR and awareness to strengthen watch-over systems (Florence, Musubie) is a commissioned project for PR and awareness to expand child watch-over activities. Promoting the appeal of social-care work (Chaibora) is a project that supports securing and retaining people who work at children's homes and the like. Creating places to belong for children is a model project that works with NPOs and others to create places for children after school and in the community.
Do you see it as "a lot" or "a little"? The background to the numbers
The roughly ¥3.1 billion to NPOs (over two years) is about 0.1% of the Children and Families Agency's direct payments, and about 0.02% compared with the annual budget of about ¥7.3 trillion. On the other hand, it is also a fact that it comes to several hundred million yen per corporation and is concentrated in the field of single-parent support. This is because the system is designed to entrust to NPOs the "front lines that government's hands struggle to reach," such as measures against poverty and isolation, and the concentration of amounts is also a consequence of the project method (the intermediary-support method).
Note that such national payments are checked project by project every year in the administrative project review, and the payees and amounts are disclosed. This ranking, too, simply tallies that disclosed data. It is because of this disclosure system that anyone can verify "who received how much."
How to look it up yourself: you can search by organization name or by ministry name
With this site's subsidy award database, anyone can reproduce a tally like this one for free. Without entering a keyword, narrow it down by "implementing body: Children and Families Agency" × "corporation type: NPO" and the list that formed the basis of this article is displayed as is.
▶ See the list of Children and Families Agency × NPO (subsidy award database)
Holds about 800,000 records of publicly released government data. You can search for free by company name, subsidy name, amount, corporation type, and prefecture. You can use it even by simply entering the name of a company or organization you are curious about.
If you want to dig into a specific organization, you can jump from the corporate number in the search results to the government's gBizINFO. If you want to see budgets and outcomes at the project level, the administrative project review (RS System) is the primary source[RS System (in Japanese)]. Also, if you are a business looking for subsidies, please see the Guide to subsidies and grants and the Roundup of subsidies with deadlines this month. Data on the "collecting side" of taxes is published in our tax revenue data.
FAQ
In total, how much does the Children and Families Agency pay to NPOs?
In the portion recorded in the public data (administrative project review and gBizINFO), it is 15 corporations and about ¥3.1 billion over roughly the two years of FY2023 and FY2024. That is about 0.1% of the Children and Families Agency's total direct payments (about ¥2.8 trillion), and most goes to grants for local governments and to corporations that operate childcare and scholarship systems.
Why are the amounts for the top-ranked NPOs as large as several hundred million yen?
Most of the top ranks are intermediary-support corporations for the "Meal Support and Similar Assistance for Children of Single-Parent Households, etc." program. Because they receive the project costs in bulk from the national government and distribute grants and food support to children's cafeterias and food pantries nationwide, the amount including the distribution to on-the-ground organizations is recorded for a single corporation. It is not the organization's profit or compensation.
Can I check the source data for this ranking myself?
Yes. The payee information disclosed in the national administrative project review (RS System) and gBizINFO is the primary data. With this site's subsidy award database, you can check the same list for free simply by narrowing to implementing body "Children and Families Agency" × corporation type "NPO."
Is money for childcare facilities and child allowances included in this tally?
No. Because childcare-facility operating costs and child allowances reach households and facilities via municipalities and prefectures, they are recorded as "to local governments" (about ¥1.7 trillion) in this tally. The ultimate recipients beyond the local governments cannot be traced in this public data.
Sources: Administrative Project Review visualization site (RS System) / gBizINFO (Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry) / Children and Families Agency budget and settlement / Children and Families Agency Meal Support and Similar Assistance for Children of Single-Parent Households, etc.. Amounts are disclosed values on a payment/grant-decision basis, tallied by this site, and totals may not match due to rounding (data recorded as of July 2026). This is not intended to evaluate or criticize the activities of the organizations listed.