One leading politician referring to pork-barreling plans as draft measures drawn up by the government to deal with the nation's declining birthrate has been criticized by opposition parties. The measures, drafted with an eye on the upcoming nationwide elections and five by-elections for both houses of the Diet, were released Friday.
The plans include a number of potentially budget-guzzling measures, such as the expansion of child allowance, but it is not clear how much funding would come from.
On Friday evening, Prime Minister Fumio Kishida met with Koichi Hagiuda - Chair of the Liberal Democratic Party s Policy Research Council - at the Prime Minister's Office and instructed him to speed up the discussions within the party to include child allowance, support for childbirth expenses and housing assistance.
In a press conference, Hiroshige Seko, secretary general for the LDP in the House of Councillors, said it was important to carry out the measures in a balanced and comprehensive manner, focusing on the main items. The leadership of the LDP is thought to have had a strong hand in drafting the proposals. Since the beginning of the year, LDP Secretary General Toshimitsu Motegi has been calling for the removal of parental income limits with regard to child allowance and the provision of free school lunches for students at elementary and junior high schools.
The opposition parties have long advocated for both these policies, and the government s adoption of such issues is likely to be an attempt to neutralize their power in the upcoming elections.
Komeito has called for the child allowance to be expanded. "Everything we ve been advocating for will be included in the government's policies," Natsuo Yamaguchi said on Friday in Ageo, Saitama Prefecture.
It is estimated that up to 8 trillion would be required to implement all the proposed measures. The removal of child allowance-related income restrictions and the provision of free school lunches are seen as high hurdles with regard to funding. A senior government official said that even though the measures appear in the draft proposal, it doesn't follow that they will become a reality.
At the press conference on Friday, Kenta Izumi, leader of the Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan, spoke about government measures to cope with the declining birthrate, saying that financial figures and sources aren't specified in the draft proposals. People are shown a menu, but there is no guarantee that actual meals will be served. The leader of Nippon Ishin Japan Innovation Party, Nobuyuki Baba, pointed out at a Tuesday press conference that a higher-than- necessary budget has already been allocated, and it is nothing more than pork barreling.