Japan鈥檚 Prime Minister Fumio Kishida (REUTERS FILE PHOTO)
TOKYO 鈥� Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida has come under fire for his party鈥檚 proposal to reduce student debt for those who have children, as the country struggles to raise its low birthrate.
Kishida has pledged 鈥渦nprecedented鈥� measures to tackle the country鈥檚 perennially low birthrate, and his Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) is reportedly drafting a set of policy recommendations on the issue for the government.
But the reported debt forgiveness plan has sparked anger.
鈥淪cholarship debt reduction and whether an individual would have a baby or not are completely different issues, aren鈥檛 they?鈥� opposition lawmaker Noriko Ishigaki asked Kishida at an upper House session Friday.
鈥淭his is a policy that requires a child in return for reducing scholarship debts, (it is) 鈥� a bad, unprecedented measure to tackle the low birthrate,鈥� Ishigaki said. Kishida said little on the substance of the proposal, insisting only that 鈥渇ree and vigorous debate should be respected.鈥�
鈥淭his is like saying 鈥榩ay with your body,鈥� 鈥榞ive birth to a child if you want to reduce debts.鈥� I wonder what they are thinking. Childbirth can risk your life. So cruel,鈥� one Twitter user said.
Like livestock
鈥淭he LDP鈥檚 policies (are) always treating humans as if they are livestock,鈥� history writer Masahiro Yamazaki said in another tweet.
Others called the plan 鈥渋ncomprehensible鈥� and 鈥渁bnormal,鈥� and wrote that 鈥渨hether to have a child or not is a matter of personal decisions in the first place.鈥�
Masahiko Shibayama, an LDP lawmaker who heads a team discussing the issue, told private broadcasters TBS and TV Asahi that the plan was aimed at financially supporting families with children, not punishing those without them.
鈥淲e are discussing this as an expansion of support for child-rearing rather than a policy linked to childbirth,鈥� he told TV Asahi.
鈥淚t is extremely regrettable that this was taken in a context that it wouldn鈥檛 give benefits unless giving birth.鈥�
The LDP is expected to submit its policy recommendations to Kishida鈥檚 government by the end of this month, according to local media.
In a policy address in January, Kishida said Japan鈥檚 low birthrate and aging population posed an urgent risk to society, adding that 鈥渇ocusing attention on policies regarding children and child-rearing is an issue that cannot wait and cannot be postponed.鈥�
Birthrates are declining in many developed countries, but in Japan the issue is particularly acute.
The country has the world鈥檚 second-highest proportion of people age 65 and over, after the tiny state of Monaco, according to World Bank data.