Japan's Cabinet approves 17.7 bln USD package for childcare, education support amid fiscal health concerns

TOKYO, Dec. 8 (Xinhua) -- Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's Cabinet approved Friday a policy package worth 2 trillion yen (17.7 billion U.S. dollars) to boost support for childcare and education.

The policy package was first proposed as part of Abe's platform when he announced in September his decision to dissolve the House of Representatives for a general election.

Abe said then the move was intended to overcome "a national crisis" caused by "the biggest challenge facing Japan, which is the population aging and low birthrate."

According to Japan's Cabinet, the package would include measures to make preschool education and day care services free in principle for children aged between three and five regardless of household income.

Day-care services for children aged up to two from low-income families will also be provided for free, while monthly pay for nursery teachers will be raised by 3,000 yen (26.49 U.S. dollars).

The government will also aim to provide free education at private high schools for students from low-income families.

Students coming from low-income households will be exempted from entrance and tuition fees at national universities.

The policy package will be financed by 1.7 trillion yen (15.01 billion U.S. dollars) in tax revenue and 300 billion yen (2.65 billion U.S. dollars) from corporate contributions, according to the government.

Most of the policies will be carried out starting from fiscal 2020, following a planned sales tax hike from 8 percent to 10 percent in 2019.

The plan, however, has raised concerns over further deterioration of Japan's fiscal health, with the nation's debt already twice the size of its gross domestic product.

Local analysts warned that increased social spendings would make Japan's long-standing goal of achieving a primary budget surplus by fiscal 2020 difficult, even impossible. Enditem