Prime Minister Fumio Kishida meets with reporters March 31 to explain a proposal to deal with the falling birthrate. Koichi Ueda Japan has earmarked the next three years as the last chance to reverse the falling birthrate and halt an irreversible decline in the nation's population.
The government said in calling for urgent action that the population of younger Japanese of child-bearing age will drop dramatically from the 2030s, leaving just a few years to put appropriate measures in place.
On March 31, it released a broad outline of proposals to tackle a problem that has been going on for a long time. The hard part will come in the next few months.
There are programs that are intended to provide better childcare services as well as more generous child allowances, and officials are being asked to hammer out the specifics of the programs. It won't be easy to find the funds to pay for the measures.
The government made no bones about the next three years being a period when a concentrated effort must be made to deal with the declining birthrate before it is too late.
The steps aim to raise the income of the younger generation, thereby allowing couples to raise a family. A more opaque proposal calls for changing the social structure and beliefs regarding child care.
It called for seamless support for all households raising children.
Economic support to families raising children, better childcare services and changes in working conditions to encourage mothers and fathers to take child care leave are issues that need to be addressed quickly, according to the proposal.
Other measures include extended child allowances until the senior high school graduation, as well as higher monthly sums for families with more than one child.
The national standard for the number of children looked after by a single childcare worker will be lowered, but with higher pay.
Speaking to reporters March 31, Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said he wanted to come up with a framework by the end of June so that the budget for children and childcare can be doubled in the future.