The government has agreed on a final draft plan for a new preschool child care program designed to combine kindergartens with day care centers.
The scheme is designed to reduce the number of children on day care center waiting lists, and the target year for its introduction is fiscal 2015.
The government will cover the projected cost of the new program by allocating more than 1 trillion yen in the fiscal 2015 budget to its implementation. It intends to cover about 700 billion yen with revenue expected to be earned through an increase of the consumption tax rate. The hike is part of a government plan to reform the social security and tax systems. (Yomiuri)
↧