Photo/Illutration Prime Minister Fumio Kishida during a session of the Lower House Budget Committee on Feb. 9 (The Asahi Shimbun)

The government is set to submit legislation to the Diet aimed at sharply expanding and enhancing policy support for children and child-rearing. The initiative raises a serious and complicated question of how the cost should be shared across society.

It is a weighty issue that requires taxpayers to bear an additional financial burden, but the details of the government’s plan remain frustratingly unclear. We urge the government to promptly outline the basic principles and provide details of the envisioned system so as to reach consensus for the policy initiative.

At the start of the new fiscal year in April, the government will introduce a 3.6-trillion-yen ($24.1 billion) program which includes expanding child allowances and other measures.

A new “child and child-rearing support fund,” to be financed by contributions collected along with health care insurance premiums, is supposed to be the main source of funding. It will be introduced in stages from fiscal 2026 and is projected to reach a scale of 1 trillion yen per year by fiscal 2028.

Prime Minister Fumio Kishida recently mentioned in the Lower House Budget Committee that, based on rough estimates, the new support fund would cost “just under 500 yen on average per person per month,” revealing for the first time an estimate of the burden to be borne by the people.

However, this explanation is too cursory and could lead to misunderstandings.

Under the current government proposal, the burden of the support fund will not be evenly distributed. As the system will echo the collection rules for health care insurance premiums, which will be packaged with payments for the new fund, the amount of burden varies depending on the type of insurance one is enrolled in--such as the national health insurance, corporate health insurance societies, or the medical care insurance system for people aged 75 or older--and one’s income.

Contributions to the fund from company employees are expected to be more than 500 yen per head per month, including contributions covered by their employers.

It is also unclear why the government has chosen to finance these costs through insurance premiums rather than taxes. This method could place a disproportionate burden on the working population. The government has yet to offer clear answers to such fundamental questions.

To be sure, the medical insurance program, which everybody is required to join, is a convenient way to collect a broad-based levy. There is also a support fund as part of the health insurance system to help cover the medical expenses of the elderly. This approach should not be dismissed outright.

Nevertheless, the government should provide detailed and concrete information in a way that allows the public to take the time to judge whether the new system is really designed for all working people to share the costs according to their ability.

In addition, the government’s estimate of 1 trillion yen in contributions in fiscal 2028 is based on its plan to raise 1.1 trillion yen in tax revenue by cutting spending on medical and nursing care.

However, it remains unclear what will happen if this target for spending cuts is not met. The proposal to expand the scope of the public nursing care service users who are required to pay 20 percent of the costs out of their pockets, which was scheduled to be implemented next fiscal year, has already been postponed. The Kishida administration needs to give precise answers to these questions as well.

Kishida has repeatedly claimed that the “actual burden” will be zero as cuts in the insurance premiums for medical and nursing care services will offset the costs of the new support fund, whose scale will be kept within that range.

However, the accompanying cuts in medical and nursing care benefits represent an increased burden on individuals.

The government should stop trying to downplay the social costs of the new policy and be honest with the public about what it will entail.

It is the government’s responsibility to talk about the real costs of the new child-rearing policy in a sincere and transparent manner.

--The Asahi Shimbun, Feb. 10

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