Under Article 16 of Japan’s Maternal and Child Health Act, a municipality must give a boshi kenkō techō, a maternal and child health handbook, to every woman who notifies it of a pregnancy. Each time she has a health check or receives guidance from a doctor, dentist, midwife or public health nurse, the necessary entries must be made in the handbook.
The handbook began in 1942 as a handbook for expectant and nursing mothers. It became the mother and child handbook in 1948 and took its present name in 1966.