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Key Strategy Council for
"Japan Supporting Children and Families"
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Prime Minster Yasuo Fukuda attended a meeting of the Key Strategy Council for "Japan Supporting Children and Families" at the Prime Minister's Official Residence.
In view of a drastic decline of the youth population forecast to start in 2030, the Council is designed to deliberate on the reorganization and implementation of effective measures in every aspect, including institutions, policy, and reform of awareness, with the basic concept of "cherishing every child and every family." In its third meeting, the Council members decided on the Key Strategy for "Japan Supporting Children and Families" that incorporates measures to be taken for promoting work-life balance in accordance with the Charter for Work-Life Balance and the Action Policy for Promoting Work-Life Balance that was decided on at the meeting of the Council of Executives of Public and Private Sectors to Promote Work-Life Balance held prior to this meeting. The Key Strategy also incorporates measures for constructing a comprehensive framework to support the next generation, an essential undertaking to promote work-life balance. Prime Minister Fukuda said, "Reforming a structure in which women have no option but to choose either to give up their careers or to have children is indispensable for fulfilling, simultaneously, women's desire both to work and to get married and have children. Reform of the structure is also an issue that requires immediate action to be taken, given that it will enhance the participation of youth and women in the labor market, and slow down the pace of the shrinking of the labor force." The Prime Minister expressed his intention to see to it that the Cabinet would work intensively to decrease the number of children on the waiting list for nursery schools, to expand diverse and flexible nursery services, and to enhance the function of centers for supporting parents having concerns and anxieties over child-raising. Related link:
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