On March 12, the DPJ Next Cabinet held a Cabinet meeting in the Diet building and decided on its policy with regard to the personnel appointments of the Bank of Japan (BOJ), countermeasures against child poverty, and other matters.
The DPJ approves of candidate Haruhiko Kuroda as BOJ Governor to fulfill the vacancy in the BOJ brought about by the retirement of incumbent Governor Masaaki Shirakawa before the expiration of his term. The DPJ also approves of candidate Hiroshi Nakaso as Deputy Governor; however the party disagrees with the appointment of candidate Kikuo Iwata as the other Deputy Governor. DPJ policies are in line with the views of Nakaso, but are incompatible with Iwata’s.
In light of the fact that Japan ranked last in terms of poverty ratio for single parent households among 30 OECD member countries, the Next Cabinet established a proposal for countermeasures against child poverty in response to the need for legislation to ensure that the Government is responsible for providing the necessary economic and educational support to achieve concrete numerical targets. The DPJ will discuss the proposal at the meeting of policy research committee chairs from among the opposition parties to jointly submit the proposal to the Diet.
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