Japan Lower House OKs Bill on Tackling Low Birthrate

   Tokyo, April 19 (Jiji Press)--Japan's House of Representatives on Friday passed a bill aimed at boosting measures to tackle the country's declining birthrate.
   The bill was approved at a plenary session of the lower chamber of the Diet, the country's parliament, with support mainly from the ruling bloc, and is expected to be enacted during the current Diet session, set to end in June, after deliberations at the House of Councillors, the upper chamber.
   It is designed to expand child-rearing allowances and calls for introducing a system to collect new fees on top of public medical insurance premiums to secure funds for measures to combat the low birthrate.
   The government plans to start collecting the fees in fiscal 2026 and gradually increase the amounts to secure 1 trillion yen annually from fiscal 2028.
   The Children and Families Agency estimates that the average monthly fees will be 450 yen per insurance policy holder in fiscal 2028. The average is estimated to stand at 800 yen for those covered by medical insurance programs.

(2024/04/19-15:20)