Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama decided Monday to stick with one of his key policy pledges but to abandon another, saying the government will not set an income cap on the child-care allowance but will maintain the current gasoline tax rate.
Both were key elements in the Democratic Party of Japan's policy pledges in the election last summer that the DPJ won in a landslide.
"I came to the viewpoint that society as a whole should bring up children," Hatoyama said. "Therefore, I have decided not to set an income limit."