[War] Japan: "The Parenthood Support Act"

[Ian Martell]

“The Parenthood Support Act”
Prime Minister Shunich Sato
September 18th 2006
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The Diet had just let out of a long session and Sato stretched and yawned as 
he sat down behind his desk in his Diet Building office. Across from him 
Minister Yuko Obuchi sat primly and smiled.

“You too?” she asked as she yawned herself.

Sato nodded with a slight smile. “Yes,” he said. “Long session and late 
night, it is not a happy combination.”

Yuko nodded.

“Shall we begin?” Sato asked.

“Of course,” Yuko said and opened her file. “We have received reports back 
from the finance ministry and I am afraid our shopping list is more than 
what we have to spend.”

Sato nodded and took a look at his own folder. Oh if only that was a 
surprise he thought, it was inevitable that these plans would go over budget 
and he could see by the figures they did by a good deal in this case.

“Yes it does seem that way, even if you adjust for a reasonable amount of 
exaggeration from the Ministry I think we may need to revise our plans 
slightly.”

Yuko nodded and Sato saw a look of disappointment he might have worn on his 
face some 30 years previous when he was as new as she to politics. “Such is 
the nature of government, if money were no issue it would all be too easy.”

She nodded and smiled slightly, however Sato could see she was embarrassed. 
“Yes, I know, I’m sorry Prime Minister.”

“Don’t be. After working with the Hashimoto I’m glad to see someone with a 
little idealism left in them.”

Yuko nodded. Sato suspected she was trying to figure out if that was a 
compliment or an insult; idealism was hardly in fashion in Japanese politics 
and for most politicians ‘idealistic’ was a nice way to say ‘naive’. Sato 
decided to let her figure out she had been complimented on her own and 
pressed on.

“Anyhow, I don’t think we can save public nursery school at this juncture, 
however it seems we have the money for implementing the maternity program in 
our civil service.”

“Yes, and I had a thought about “Parent’s Day, no-one has assigned a purpose 
to the May 4th holiday, its just the day off you get between Constitution 
Day and Boy’s Day. I have spoken to some of our party and they’re receptive 
to the idea, it costs Japan nothing except the expense of promoting the new 
name for the holiday.”

Sato smiled. “I had a similar thought, and did the same thing, the Executive 
Committee has no objections. What do you propose we do?”

“Well,” Yuko said. “I think we need to get the support of the various major 
Shinto organizations before we progress, without their support and providing 
a cultural element to the holiday it’s just a name for a day off everyone 
already had.”

“Agreed,” Sato said.

“Then from there we put it to the diet and if it would not impose on His 
Imperial Highness, have the Emperor proclaim it.”

Sato nodded. “Also I think it would be a good idea if you went on television 
and promoted the holiday, both once it passes and closer to the time.”

She nodded and Sato smiled seeing her trepidation. “I hate doing the TV 
shows too but that’s the cost of getting credit for things like this, you 
have to go out there and sell the thing you’re telling them is your idea.”

Yuko laughed ruefully. “I think there was some advantage to being in the 
background.”

“Only if you don’t want to change the world,” Sato said. “Just think, no 
matter what happens after this, you’ll have created a new holiday and got 
professional women proper maternity leave and in office daycare.”

There was another familiar look on Yuko’s face now too, one of supreme 
satisfaction. “That is true,” she said as she got back on to buisness. “If 
we can come back to the maternity plan for a moment though, I think we need 
to speak with key members of the private sector before we announce the bill 
see how willing they are to follow suit and do what we can to encourage them 
to follow our example.”

Sato nodded. “I’ll arrange that conversation through Mura,” Sato said.

“Thank you,” Yuko replied. “Other than that do we want to present these 
bills from the cabinet or should I do as a member of the Diet?”

“From the Cabinet it will provide a stronger message of support from this 
government. However like I said, you will be given the credit in all of our 
statements. Which brings me to what I suppose is the final question, do we 
call it the Obuchi Plan? Or do you have another name for it in mind.”

“As much as it would be an honour to have my name on this bill in that way, 
you can attack the Obuchi Plan in the Diet and it sounds harmless, however 
the Parenthood Support Act is much more difficult to criticise.”

Sato bowed his head in her direction with a smile. “Good choice,” he said. 
“We’ll talk about this in tomorrow’s cabinet meeting and I expect the bill 
will be law in a few weeks time.”

Yuko smiled. “Thank you for your help Prime Minister.”

“You’re welcome,” Sato said and they both moved on with their days.

Actions:

1>	Put the “Parenthood Support Act” before the Diet and work on the private 
sector to follow suit, pointing out that in an age of fewer employees it’s a 
rational step to take.
2>	Speak with the major Shinto organizations about developing the idea of 
Parent’s day to include things like the blessing of expecting parents and 
encouraging the giving of gifts to new and expecting parents. All of this 
done unofficially.

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