With the strong backing of Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga, the ruling Liberal Democratic Party is discussing legislative proposals for a new Cabinet-level agency that would centralize administrative control over child education and welfare policies.
The new Children's Agency is now being discussed among LDP members. The party hopes to formally present legislation in next year’s Diet session and launch the agency during fiscal 2022. Opponents have criticized the move as a political ploy designed to win votes at election time, but the new agency’s supporters say it will be an effective way of streamlining bureaucracy in relation to children's issues.
“Preventing child abuse currently involves the National Police Agency, the education ministry, the Justice Ministry and various other government organs. We need to think about eliminating these bureaucratic walls and fundamentally consider the way things are organized,” Suga said in the Upper House earlier this month.
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