Gov't draws up Y2 tril package for education, child-care support

Children aged between 3 and 5 will become eligible for free education at nursery schools and kindergartens regardless of household income. Child-care services will be provided for free if children aged 2 and younger come from low-income households that are relieved of paying their residence tax, the draft plan shows.

The assumption being that parents with children under 3 will have company sponsorship for extended maternity leave, which is BS. It should be free for all, as needed, regardless of household income, for any and all, no matter the age!

To fund the 2 trillion yen scheme, the government is aiming to secure 1.7 trillion by using revenue from a planned consumption tax hike in 2019 from 8 percent to 10 percent, while the corporate sector will contribute the remaining 300 billion yen.

So, now if memory serves me correctly, the increase in consumption tax was to be used to stabilize the economy and pay down debt.

BUT, Abe is going to use it as a bribe for parents with younger children.

Oh and just HOW is the corporate sector going to be convinced to "contribute" 300 BILLION yen?

The biggest problem with this scheme is it seems to be a way to prop up all these failing universities. There are so many of them, that should have closed or merged with other schools, but now anybody who wants to go to school can enter, and the government will pay.

Also this 2% increase is the sales tax is quite an amazing amount of money. If memory serves me right this money will be used to pay down the debt, improve social security, pay for free education, free daycare, re-militarize the Japanese self-defense forces and a chicken in everyone's pot. Who knew 2% could do so much!

The biggest problem with this scheme is it seems to be a way to prop up all these failing universities. There are so many of them, that should have closed or merged with other schools, but now anybody who wants to go to school can enter, and the government will pay.

Huh? The government most definitely does NOT pay for anyone to go to university or technical schools! The "scholarship" money that students get are in reality low interest loans, and far too many graduates are buried under debt here too!

Oh and I have a son in college right now, and I can tell you for a FACT that the government isn't paying a penny to us for his educational costs!

Hmmm while I'm skeptical due to the Abe school scandal this seems like a step in the right direction.

Yubaru, I am talking about the new plan to offer low income families tuition free university education. These students will be hard pressed to enter the elite schools like Todai, or Keio, without being able to afford top level jukus, but the will be able to enter the lower level schools that these days are taking anybody with a pulse just to get bums in seats!

Well this urgently needed tax increase has been earmarked for this for that maybe over there maybe split between that or this, could be used as overseas aid, Toyota might need another R&D gift, more missiles. But note not one mention of the government reducing its expenditure, just the "need" to wring people out of every yen they can. Good job.

Huh is that number correct? He announced a 17.8 billion dollar economic stimulus package in July, so that means this package is 98% of that? Or on top? Anyway it will still not be enough, childcare and education should be free permanently.

Abe's initiative to foster human resources 

Foster future tax payers, more like.

Children aged between 3 and 5 will become eligible for free education at nursery schools and kindergartens regardless of household income.

Dumbest thing I heard so far today. Why would anyone think that I shouldn't pay a single yen for such services that my family elects to use?

raising pay for nursery school teachers by around 3,000 yen a month, at a time when the administration has yet to eliminate waiting lists for nursery schools.

Second dumbest thing I heard so far today. 3,000 yen extra isn't going to cut it. And making service "free" for people like me (I can afford to pay, and I do because the public system fails to provide my family with adequate service) just means that there are less public funds left to support the poorer families on low income - which is one of the very reasons I expect to pay tax at all.

This is exceedingly bad policy.

The Komeito party, the Liberal Democratic Party's junior coalition partner, has been calling for free education at private high schools

Third dumbest thing I heard today. WTF should private education be free? Are they trying to abolish private education?

Oh and just HOW is the corporate sector going to be convinced to "contribute" 300 BILLION yen?

As described here.

https://japantoday.com/category/business/Keidanren-agrees-to-members-outlaying-300-bil.-yen-on-childcare

I suppose this can only happen because Japan's corporations are not wholy capitalist as they are in the West. It's amazing that an association of businesses can agree to government requests like this without some kind of sign-off from their sharedholders. But then one considers who their shareholders are...

This is one reason why I'll not be owning Japanese stocks for the forseeable future, until serious reforms are enacted.

while free childcare or childcare support is great, it doesn't solve the bigger problem: not enough day care slots for children. the waiting list in certain wards in tokyo is the longest in the country. and raising the salary 3,000 yen per month hardly seems like an incentive to train to be a child care worker.

and i totally agree with markx. this is just a subsidy to the plethora of higher education schools. there are just too many schools in japan. many need to be shuttered.

The consumption tax is definitely going up now. This is the sweetener for it. If you are thinking of building a house, start planning it now because a 30 million house will cost 600,000 yen more.

I'm sick of saying it, but childcare for twos and under costs 150,000 yen or more a month to provide due to staffing requirements. Many mothers will earn less than that, so this policy is a net loser.

My solution to this problem would be universal basic income for parents (mothers) of children under three. Give everyone 50,000 yen in basic income and raise the price of public childcare by 50,000. So families can get 50,000 without the stress (and cost to taxpayer) of working and using childcare. Those who work and use childcare are financially unaffected. My policy would result in some women choosing to keep the 50,000 and not work, bonding with their child and freeing up places in childcare for others. At age three, children go into big classes, so childcare at that age onwards is much cheaper to provide. Its also serves as preschool, at hoikuen as well as youchien, and helps prepare kids for school at six. I think many kids would struggle with the requirements of Japanese elementary school without the group activities etc. they get at hoikuen/youchien.

The government's policy will be presented as "helping parents" but they will be paying an extra 2% the entire time they are raising their kids. For university students, that's into their twenties. Be careful what you wish for.

Shinzo Abe's initiative to foster human resources and improve the country's productivity as aging Japan battles to keep its competitiveness.

Japan is battling to keep its competitiveness because of so many corporations involved in fraud scandals.

Children aged between 3 and 5 will become eligible for free education at nursery schools and kindergartens regardless of household income.

Well, isn't that great? It's a shame there are no vacancies in such nursery schools for the kids to attend for free, isn't ?

Yes defiantly the tax is going up, but without structural reform its money that disappears. Free education is a no brainier a smart population is economic gold. But without an education system that is at least contemporary to 2018, no gain just loss. Abe and his "freinds" just want more cash in their pockets. It's a give in this extra tax money will disappear into the government communal spending with no accountability no oversight no responsibility. Think you're grabbing your ankles now just wait, I look forward to the excuses for the next "necessary" tax hike, might as now be sold as paying down national debt. That didn't happen.

The article mentions government support for people exempted from paying their residence tax.

I am in need of related info: how does one apply for residence tax exemption; what are the conditions?

I asked my city office about this, but did not receive a clear answer. Thanks.

Minimum wage of ¥1500 would be better than “drafting”.

Universities. If your child is not a top hs student, forget Todai, KeiO, Waseda. Scholarships are for extremely brainy students. Try easier University.

I’ll be suprised if Japan manages to offer free education while balancing debt at 280% of GDP! Only small countries in Scandinavia and in Europe like Switzerland have managed to do this, because they have such a small population!

To offer free education to more than 20 million will be one heck of a challange and putting the whole economy at stake!! A risky game indeed.

Although free would be very nice, what’s needed now is to have more.

while free childcare or childcare support is great, 

There is a trade-off between stuff being free, and stuff being adequate in supply.

If something is "free", who is going to go to the effort of providing it? 

As for those people who do provide something for "free", do they provide that something to a level of quality that all of their consumers are contented with?

And what of different consumers who have different needs and demands for the level and type of service provided? (Some families have mothers in part-time work, for example.)

When things are not "free", that is consumers spend money to obtain something, they have every expectation that they will receive something of commensurate value in return.

And different consumers having different needs and demands means that the price they are willing to pay will differ.

Prices are a key signal that ensures that providers and consumers are brought together in mutually agreeable transactions.

Is it any wonder that in Japan, where government has a controlling influence over the pay that childcare workers receive, there is a shortage of adequate childcare services? (I say, no it isn't.)

Japan should transition immediately to market-based systems where public services are failing the people. People's taxes should be reduced as a result, and financial support should be provided to qualifying low-income families, who are then able to use those financial resources to purchase adequate services for their needs, through the same market system as all other families.

Childcare shortages would certainly be improved as a result, making life easier for parents and better for childcare workers alike. It may not be a totally perfect system, but it would achieve the objective of families being able to access adequate services a darn lot better than the shambles we live with now, where many familes just have to go without.

Free education is a no brainier a smart population is economic gold. 

"Free education" is not free. It costs money to pay teachers, etc.

@toshiko - If your child is not a top hs student, forget Todai, KeiO, Waseda. Scholarships are for extremely brainy students. 

I've taught in all the above mentioned schools and your assumptions are incorrect. It should just be, "for extremely rich kids." The ability to memorise facts and pass a test does not make one intelligent.

How on earth in the age we live in could you consider education a consumer product. It's a beneficial gain to society. I'm obviously all for free education I want to be surrounded by intelligent people. Others perhaps not so much. With the increasing tax, suffer I'd like smart people, making decisions rather then what is happening now.

Finland, Sweden, Denmark always the top of education , smaller but not NO3 economy in the WORLD manage to make their people happy, WHY can't Japan, might have something to do with self serving old men incapable of doing anything for commoners.

This is obviously aimed at the average Japanese person who believes having children is too expensive. Schooling, and university study for your children is the second largest outlay that Japanese people have to make (first being a house of course). This sort of outlay does scare many out of having children - so i think making it free, or more affordable makes sense.

But, for me i would rather they increase childcare vacancies first.

How on earth in the age we live in could you consider education a consumer product. It's a beneficial gain to society.

Yea it is, but as we see with important services like childcare, a non-market based mechanism of providing services evidently - very evidently - fails miserably.

Lets instead go with what will achieve desired outcomes - people receiving services that they require - and not get hung up in fanciful dreams about how a failed model of delivery might be, in our dreams. Throwing more of our taxpayer money at a failed delivery mechanism will get us nowhere.

Markets rarely fail to produce outcomes for consumers to the degree to which Japan’s childcare is failing so many.

People intuitively understand that the government running the butter import market here is a bad idea. It is no different for areas like childcare, except for the fact that people have been culturally programmed to believe that government must run certain operations - even though it fails all parties in the process.

I care about outcomes, not politics.

Its good for benefits to target very poor people, but people who do not pay residence taxes earn so little that they will struggle to raise children even if childcare is free. The average food bill for a family of four is 70,000 a month. Even an absolutely no frills 40,000 a month will be a struggle if you've only got 200,000 coming in, 20,000 of which will flow back to the government in consumption tax.

I think Abe''s help for poor people's children able to attend universities does not include private universities. Local public universities More likely. Keio was created by Fukuzawa for wealthy brats about 100 years ago,

Abe is not going to neglect poor people in Japan, At least he realizes there are poor Japanese who want their children attending to University.

But Childcare facilities first. Otherwise poor people disappear from Japan and more laborer shortage.

@disillusion: My associate checked univ, I mentioned and reported too me there is no duplicated names. Were you sure?

Oh and I have a son in college right now, and I can tell you for a FACT that the government isn't paying a penny to us for his educational costs!

Even if he is going to a private college in Japan, there is a government subsidy involved. Private colleges in Japan get a subsidy that averages out to be around 10% of their operating costs.

The ability to memorise facts and pass a test does not make one intelligent.

Indeed, but college entrance examinations generally do not ask questions that can be answered by memorized answers. I have invigilated the Sentaa Shiken four times and have been involved in the writing of entrance exams for two private colleges.

What are called scholarships in English language writing about Japan are in fact low interest rate loans. Getting one is primarily need based, not brain based.

Like some posting comments, I too wonder if there is not an element of disguised subsidy to the private college sector. Since I just retired in March after 18 years teaching at a private college in Japan, I can take the moral high ground and say that one-third or more of the private college in Japan should be shuttered. They are surplus to need and their existence lowers standards because to stay in business (many are family controlled) they will take anyone.

This child care help, if natiiinwide, Kumamoto prefecture assembly will not have assembly woman feeding her baby from bottle on here chair.

If you want your children accepted by college or university,, but he was not good in hs, don't use juku. Concentrate him to practice entrance examination taking. Then apply to take entrance exam while he is still in hs.