Japan PM under fire for linking loans to having babies

TOKYO: Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida has come under fire for his party´s proposal to reduce student debt for those who have children, as the country struggles to raise its low birthrate.

Kishida has pledged “unprecedented” measures to tackle the country´s 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.

“Scholarship debt reduction and whether an individual would have a baby or not are completely different issues, aren´t they?” opposition lawmaker Noriko Ishigaki asked Kishida at an upper house session Friday.

“This is a policy that requires a child in return for reducing scholarship debts, (it´s)... a bad, unprecedented measure to tackle the low birthrate,” Ishigaki said.

Kishida said little on the substance of the proposal, insisting only that “free and vigorous debate should be respected”.

“This is like saying ´pay with your body!´, ´give birth to a child if you want to reduce debts´. I wonder what they are thinking. Childbirth can risk your life. So cruel,” one Twitter user said.

“The LDP´s policies (are) always treating humans as if they are livestock,” history writer Masahiro Yamazaki said in another tweet.

Others called the plan “incomprehensible” and “abnormal”, and wrote that “whether to have a child or not is a matter of personal decisions in the first place”.