Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga has said he will aim to have health insurance cover infertility treatment if he becomes the next prime minister on Wednesday.
Currently a candidate for president of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party, Suga was speaking at an open forum in Tokyo sponsored by the party's Youth Division and Women's Affairs Division at its Tokyo headquarters.
Fumio Kishida, chairman of the LDP Policy Research Council, and Shigeru Ishiba, former secretary general of the party, also attended the forum. The topics discussed included party management and constitutional revision.
The LDP presidential election will be held this coming Monday.
"To support a wide range of households wishing to have children, I want to have fertility treatment covered by insurance," said Suga, 71, stressing the need to tackle the chronically low birthrate.
There have been increasing calls for financial support from people suffering from infertility, as treatment is expensive.
Regarding the party's retirement age of 73, which is applied to proportional representation candidates in the lower house election, Suga said: "I have advocated for the diversification of the generations to which LDP Diet members belong, through the dissolution of factions and restrictions on hereditary succession. [Keeping a mandatory retirement age] is good."
On revising the Constitution, Suga said, "It's extremely important to create an environment in which constructive discussions can take place."
Kishida, 63, called for the "digital garden city national initiative" to correct disparities between urban and rural areas through the introduction of online medical and educational services. "I want to make steady progress toward the revitalization of local communities," he said.
Ishiba spoke about resolving the issue of Japanese nationals abducted by North Korea. "Liaison offices should be established in Pyongyang and Tokyo. We should bring the dialogue to the front stage," Ishiba said.
-- Connecting with prefectural chapters
The audience in the LDP headquarters' eighth floor hall was limited to about 100, compared to a capacity of about 600, as a measure against the novel coronavirus.
Members of both the youth and women's divisions from prefectures around the nation were also allowed to ask questions through a monitor. The forum is held before every LDP presidential election, but this was the first to include an online audience.
To have the three candidates respond to as many questions as possible, the answer time was cut to one minute from the standard three.
A representative of the Women's Affairs Division of the Aichi prefectural chapter asked: "What's your wife like? Please tell us, including words of thanks to your wife."
Suga responded with a wry smile, "My wife was the toughest one to get to support my candidacy."
Read more from The Japan News at https://japannews.yomiuri.co.jp/
