Top > What's up around the Prime Minister > April, 2006

5th Meeting of the Council on Measures for Society with Decreasing Birthrate Tuesday, June 20, 2006 JAPANESE The 5th meeting of the Council on Measures for Society with Decreasing Birthrate was held at the Prime Minister's Official Residence. The Council decided on the New Measures against Decreasing Birthrate (tentative). The measures are based on the pillars of: i) to support every family raising children; ii) to prioritize support to families raising newborns and infants; iii) to significantly advance reform of ways of working, such as the promotion of assistance for realizing a balance between work and child-raising; and iv) along with these measures, to strongly promote the national campaign to seek the reinvigoration of the ties of families and local communities and reform of awareness of the entire society. Concrete measures will be deliberated during the formation of the budget for the next fiscal year, while at the same time necessary measures will also be deliberated in terms of taxation. At the end of the meeting, Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi said, "Measures against decreasing birthrate are not an issue that can be resolved in a year or two. They also represent one of the most important challenges for the Cabinet. I would like to work in cooperation with everyone to seek how we can create a family society in which people can raise children with a sense of purposefulness in life. I would appreciate your cooperation in this endeavor."