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Japan Press Service Co., Ltd. is the only news agency providing information of progressive, democratic movements in Japan

JCP urges HL&W ministry not to cut state share of livelihood assistance cost

The Health, Labor, and Welfare Ministry has proposed a plan to reduce the government share of the costs of welfare assistance and child-support assistance to 50 percent from the present 75 percent.

Japanese Communist Party House of Councilors member Koike Akira and JCP House of Representatives member Kokuta Keiji on November 10 made representations to HL&W Vice Minister Akamatsu Masao calling for the proposal to be retracted.

A needy person can apply for eight types of welfare benefits that together guarantee a minimum living standard. Child-support is given to single mothers for dependent children to 18 years old.

In the written representation, the JCP criticized the HL&W Ministry's proposal for a smaller state share as an attempt to shift the responsibility onto local governments in the name of "decentralization." The JCP demands that the proposal be canceled and that the livelihood protection system be improved.

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National and local governments held a meeting on November 10 to discuss this question. The national associations of governors and mayors jointly demanded that the central government retract the proposal. -- Akahata, November 11, 2005