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On August 19, DPJ Secretary General Katsuya Okada responded to reporters’ questions while in Yokohama City, and explained the thinking behind the child allowance that is one of the major policies proposed by the DPJ.
Okada said that members of the ruling parties were criticising the DPJ’s child allowance proposal, saying that it was unclear how it would be funded, and that it was unfair to certain members of society. He responded, “It is true that childless households where the wife is a homemaker younger than 65 will see their burden increase.” However, he explained that the LDP criticism of unfairness did not apply, saying, “The spouse exemption was also a system that gave preferential treatment to households where the wife was a homemaker. From now on, it should be left up to the individual to decide whether to choose the lifestyle of a homemaker or of a double-income household, and I believe that in the sense that people can make a choice of lifestyles, things have become fairer.”
Furthermore, Okada rebutted repeated criticisms from the LDP that it would be impossible to secure sources of funding for the child allowance proposal, saying, “That is tantamount to them admitting that they themselves cannot manage to do that. The DPJ will manage to do this successfully.” He emphasised that the DPJ was different from the LDP and that the criticisms were no more than empty words.
Furthermore, Okada went on to add that the DPJ intended to create an environment that would enable people to bring up children, and said that the party wanted to obtain the people’s understanding on this point. Regarding the message the party would convey to those households whose financial burden would increase, he said, “When explaining about this, I would like to discuss it as a separate issue from the issue of the child allowance. When we considered the direction for a growth strategy for Japan over the mid to long term, we had to find a way to put a stop to the decreasing population. The DPJ has taken the significant step of embarking on economic assistance, and through this we hope to put a stop to the decrease in the population over the mid to long term.”
At the same time, Okada said that while giving birth to and bringing up children was an issue for individuals, couples and families, “We would like to engineer a huge policy shift to change Japan into a country where society as a whole supports childrearing. That is [the meaning of ] this economic support [i.e. the child allowance].” Okada explained in detail about the DPJ’s position on childrearing and the future shape of Japanese society, and said the party hoped to obtain the understanding of a majority of Japanese citizens.
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