Giving allowances a better choice

Gu Jun, a professor at the School of Sociology and Political Science, Shanghai University

Parents always put in extra efforts to make life easy for our children. As for me, I do not care much about whether my children find enough time every year to attend to my needs. So instead of granting employees “nursing leave”, the authorities should allocate extra money to them so that they have more options to choose for taking care of their parents. For example, if they cannot find time to personally attend to their parents, they could use the money to hire nurses, who are trained to do the job more professionally and efficiently.

Besides, is it fair to ask employers to grant their workers “nursing leave” without the government compensating them?

Helping the elderly materially and spiritually is the shared responsibility of all members of society, and that is how all the challenges of aging society can be effectively met.

The LDP has been dominating Japanese politics thanks to the weak opposition camp, which has failed to capitalize on the nosediving support for the Abe administration. However, new political undercurrents may be strong enough to bother Abe and the LDP.

Goshi Hosono, a member of the lower house of parliament and former deputy president of the Democratic Party of Japan, has quit the largest opposition party and is planning to float a new party. He is exploring various possibilities, including working with popular Tokyo Governor Yuriko Koike. The fledging Tomin First no Kai, or Tokyoites First Party, which Koike effectively heads, dealt a crushing blow to the LDP and DPJ in the capital’s assembly election in July.

In a Nikkei Shimbun survey on who should be Japan’s prime minister, Koike ranked third, only behind Abe and former prime minister Junichiro Koizumi’s son, Shinjiro Koizumi. Although Koike has brushed off speculations that she is interested in Japan’s highest office, a member of the lower house and Koike protégé, Masaru Wakasa, said on Monday that he has launched Japan First, a society which aims to train people interested in contesting elections in the future. Wakasa was expelled from the LDP for supporting Koike in the Tokyo governor’s election last year.

Now an independent, Wakasa intends to establish a political party, using the Japan First society as its training base. And Koike is scheduled to deliver a lecture at the society’s first meeting on Sept 16.

The Tokyoites First Party’s big win has given Wakasa and other like-minded people hope for changing Japan’s political dynamics. The new party could be an alternative choice for the public, which is unhappy with the Abe administration and the existing opposition parties. Some nonaffiliated lawmakers and DPJ members are said to be in touch with the Japan First society.

But before the new opposition forces gain ground, Abe could call a snap election, perhaps later this year. In an interview with the Nikkei Shimbun in January, LDP SecretaryGeneral Toshihiro Nikai said: “The successor to Prime Minister Shinzo Abe cannot be anybody but himself.”

The future of Abe does not seem to be so sure now.