Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda attended a joint meeting of the Council on Measures for Society with Decreasing Birthrate and the Council on the New System for Children and Child-rearing held at the Diet building.

Discussion took place on the basic workings of the new system for children and child-rearing and related matters.

Based on the discussion, the Prime Minister said, "Since the Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) took over the government, we have been discussing how we should create a society founded by the principle of 'children first', in which people can give birth to and raise children with a sense of assurance, involving the whole of the government and the ruling parties in this discussion.
Many people are feeling uncertain about giving birth to and raising children. What is important is how the society as a whole can give support to these people. For this, we have come up with this new system for children and child-rearing after more than two years of discussion, crystallizing the insights of many people and hearing various opinions of users, service providers, municipalities, and the business circle.
Our first challenge, above anything, is to widely publicize the significance of the new system for children and child-rearing, which is a pillar of the comprehensive reform of social security and taxation systems. We also need to make thorough preparations to submit the related legislation simultaneously with the tax reform-related legislation. These legislations must absolutely be passed, for which we need to unite all our efforts. I ask again for your continued support."