Japan Press Weekly

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2016 April 20 - 26 [POLITICS]

Opposition parties-proposed bill to increase childcare allowances rejected in Lower House

A bill to improve the childcare allowance program, which the Japanese Communist Party and three other opposition parties had jointly submitted to the Diet, was voted down on April 21 in a plenary session of the House of Representatives. However, the session unanimously adopted a supplementary resolution which incorporates some key points of the bill.

The opposition parties-proposed bill intended to more than double the current amount of child-rearing allowances for the second and subsequent children in single-parent families and to provide the allowances monthly.

In a Lower House Welfare Committee meeting held on the previous day, Welfare Minister Shiozaki Yasuhisa opposed the measure without offering any reason for doing so. Lawmakers of the governing Liberal Democratic and Komei parties and their supportive party, Initiatives from Osaka, voted against it without discussion.

On April 21, the Lower House passed a government-sponsored bill instead which will slightly increase the amount of child support benefits. The supplementary resolution adopted with the government bill requires welfare authorities to consider a further rise in the allowance as well as an increase in frequency of its provision.

Past related article:
> Bill to increase financial support for single-parent families jointly submitted by 5 opposition parties [March 18, 2016]