TOKYO: The Japanese welfare ministry plans to give grants to local governments offering one-stop consultation services to deal with a wide range of welfare issues including child-rearing, poverty and nursing care.

The grants will be provided to municipal governments that overcome boundaries between sections and offer consultation services to deal with residents with many difficulties in an integrated way, informed sources told Jiji Press.

The ministry will earmark some 10 billion yen for the initiative under the central government’s draft budget for fiscal 2021, which starts next April. The grants will be extended to about 40 local governments in the year, the first year of the initiative, according to the sources.

The Japanese population is aging and people tend to get married later in their life. As a result, more people are expected to face the so-called “8050 problem,” in which the parents in their 80s have to support their shut-in children in their 50s, and the “double care” problem of people raising children while giving nursing care to their aged parents at the same time.

The ministry hopes that the promotion of the one-stop consultation services will help it to get a better understanding of the situations, such as how many people are experiencing such problems.

Also, the ministry will give grants to local governments to cover part of the costs to offer opportunities where residents in different age groups and with different backgrounds interact with each other, the sources said.

The current administrative system has difficulty reaching out to households that are not in poverty but have shut-in children. The ministry will give grants to local governments that offer chances for such children to recover social connections.

For the new grant program, the ministry will put together existing grants that have been provided separately to address each category of welfare problems.

JIJI Press