Japan Press Weekly

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2011 March 9 - 15 [POLITICS]

DPJ calls for JCP cooperation over child allowance bill

Seeking cooperation over a stopgap bill to extend for six months the present Child Allowance Law, Democratic Party of Japan Secretary General Okada Katsuya had talks with Japanese Communist Party Secretariat Head Ichida Tadayoshi on March 9.

Ichida said that child allowances to children aged 12 to 15 will disappear if the government bill on child allowance for FY 2011 is rejected. He said that the Diet must enact the bill within fiscal 2011 with an amendment attached.

In explaining the JCP amendment to the bill, Ichida said that the payment of allowance must not be based on a single-year law but on a permanent law, and that the amount should be maintained at the present 13,000 yen per child per month. Ichida stated that the increased budget in the government plan to raise the payment for children under three should be used to carry out general child-support programs, including building more day-care centers.

Ichida said that the JCP position is completely different from the DPJ position over basic questions of national and foreign policy affairs, but that the JCP is ready to work together so that families with children will not actually suffer heavy losses.

The DPJ is calling on ruling and opposition parties to consult over an amendment to the DPJ-proposed child allowance bill, as there is no prospect for the bill to pass through the Diet as it is.