Photo/Illutration Osaka Mayor Ichiro Matsui, who also heads Nippon Ishin no Kai (Japan Innovation Party), speaks at a debate among party leaders in Tokyo ahead of the Oct. 31 Lower House election. (Asahi Shimbun file photo)

OSAKA—Osaka Mayor Ichiro Matsui abandoned his plan to use only cash for the central government’s two-part COVID-19 handout program for children, saying the criteria for the system remains unclear.

“We tried to deliver 100,000 yen ($880) at the end of the year, but we can provide only 50,000 yen to the best of our ability,” Matsui said at a Dec. 9 news conference.

Under the government’s plan, 50,000 yen in cash will be sent to children 18 or younger within this year, while coupons worth 50,000 yen will be distributed ahead of the new school year that starts in spring.

Matsui had earlier said the entire 100,000 yen package would be paid in cash for junior high school students or younger in his city on Dec. 27.

He and others have said the coupon part of the program will increase the work burden on municipal workers as well as the costs.

The government has said the coupon portion can be replaced by cash, but it has still not provided details on the criteria under which this will be allowed.

“If you do not meet the criteria, you must hand out the entire 50,000 yen in coupons,” Matsui said. “It is truly regrettable. That does not meet the needs of the people at all.”

Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretary Seiji Kihara told reporters on Dec. 9 that the government will explain the requirements for all-cash handouts as soon as the Diet passes the supplementary budget bill.

Matsui said his government cannot wait that long.

“If we have to wait until the bill passes through the Diet for details on the government criteria, we will even be unable to meet the Dec. 27 deadline for providing the 50,000 yen in cash handouts.”

After Matsui announced the cash-only plan, the central government told the Osaka city government that it might not shoulder the cost of the coupon portion if it is paid out in cash.

The main opposition Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan may have found part of the government’s criteria for the cash-only handouts.

At its party meeting on Dec. 10, the CDP disclosed a document distributed by the central government at a Dec. 3 briefing with prefectural governments.

“The cash handouts are possible only if local governments expect that they can’t start the coupon handouts by the end of June,” the document said.

The document also called on prefectural governments to submit reports to the Cabinet Office to explain the “special reasons” for being unable to provide coupons.

However, an official of the Cabinet secretariat told the CDP meeting that the conditions presented at the Dec. 3 briefing are “subject to change.”

The CDP suspects the government is effectively trying to mandate the coupon handouts to promote consumer spending, even though the coupon system is expected to add 96.7 billion yen to the administrative cost.

The CDP submitted a bill to the Lower House on Dec. 10 to make all-cash handouts possible.

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