The Children's and Family Agency, which will serve as the control tower for children's policy, will be inaugurated on January 1. They will play a role in planning and leading a wide range of children's policies that should be addressed cross-sectionally by each ministry and agency, including measures to address the declining birthrate.

In order to promote initiatives that place children's policy as the most important issue for society, the Children's and Family Agency will be established on June 6 as an organization under the direct control of the Prime Minister based on the law enacted in June last year.

Some departments have been transferred from the Cabinet Office and the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare, and with a system of about 1 people, ▽ payment of child allowance ▽ consistent support from pregnancy to childbirth and child rearing, ▽ childcare administration,
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child abuse, bullying,

poverty countermeasures, etc. I am in charge of a wide range of work related to children.

In addition, we will formulate a wide range of children's policies that should be addressed cross-sectionally by each ministry and agency, and make comprehensive adjustments so that they are steadily implemented.

It also has the "right to make recommendations" to each ministry and agency for improvement, and plays a leading role in promoting policies.

On the other hand, measures related to education will continue to be promoted in cooperation with the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology, which has jurisdiction.

The main immediate issue of the Children and Family Agency is measures to address the declining birthrate, and based on the draft compiled on March 400, it plans to accelerate the realization of measures, the scale of the budget, and the examination of financial resources, etc. by the time the "Basic Policy" is formulated in June.

The Children's and Family Agency will hold an inauguration ceremony on the 3rd of the week with Prime Minister Kishida and Minister for Children's Policy Ogura in attendance.

Minister in charge of Children's Policy Ogura "This fiscal year will be the first year of children's life"

On the occasion of the inauguration of the Children's and Family Agency, Minister of State for Children's Policy Ogura gave an interview to NHK.

Positioning fiscal 2023 as the "first year of children's life," he emphasized his intention to promote policies that place the highest priority on the interests of children.

In an interview, Minister Ogura said, "The birthrate is declining at a pace of eight years faster than before, while the situation surrounding children shows that child abuse, truancy, bullying, and suicide are all at their worst in history, and they are becoming more serious and complex. Under these circumstances, we must unite children's policies and play a control tower function," he said, emphasizing the significance and role of the Children's and Family Agency.

On top of that, he expressed his enthusiasm, saying, "By putting the interests of children first and implementing policies, we would like to make the 'Children's First Year,' in which the entire Japan becomes a society friendly to children and child-rearing, under the leadership of the Children and Family Agency."

He also stated, "Even with the policies of each ministry, if there is something that is not in line with the interests of the child, it is necessary to be prepared to exercise the 'right to make recommendations' without hesitation and correct it."

Furthermore, he stated, "We would like to listen to the opinions of approximately 8,1 children and young people not only face-to-face but also through SNS and online, and for children and young people who cannot actively raise their voices, we would like to visit and carefully listen to their voices," and expressed his intention to reflect the voices of the people concerned in policy.

Regarding the basis for measures to address the declining birthrate compiled on March 3, he stated, "Prime Minister Kishida's statement of 'measures to address the declining birthrate in a different dimension' attracted the attention of many citizens, and that is why we were able to make a comprehensive and in-depth proposal that had never been made before."

In addition, we reiterated our policy of accelerating discussions in order to materialize more detailed details and financial resources by June.