The continuing precipitous decline in Japan's birthrate -- in 1999 it was at the all-time low of 1.34 births per woman during her lifetime -- has long troubled planners in both the government and the private sector. Now Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori has put himself at the center of the issue by calling for the creation of a government panel that would come up with plans to help Japan's working women have children and rear them even though employed.

The panel would be set up under the Council for Gender Equality in the new Cabinet Office. One question it would tackle is whether the government should provide childbirth allowances -- New Komeito, a coalition partner along with the Liberal Democratic Party and the New Conservative Party, wants interest-free loans made available to help meet childbirth costs. The panel would also seek ways to encourage employers to grant longer maternity leaves. The goal is for working women to have fewer financial worries about getting married and having children.

Mr. Mori lost no time in appearing to take forceful action to get the panel under way before the major realignment of central government ministries, which took effect last Saturday. He is said to have been in contact with the former Health and Labor ministries about his proposal only days before they were combined into the new Health, Welfare and Labor Ministry. But even assuming the most genuine intentions behind the prime minister's idea, it remains debatable whether many young working women can have high hopes for the panel when it is promoted by a government in which women continue to play a secondary role.