Era of 100-year Human Life

How long is the life of each Japanese? Prime Minister Shinzo Abe offers an answer of the question as one hundred years. In the first meeting of Conference for Designing Era of 100-Year Human Life, Abe insisted on establishing a society, in which the people could live to the age of 100. This is nothing but a new political agenda to keep popularity of his administration. So, where is the money for that?

Raising a new political agenda of Revolution of Human Building, Abe appointed Toshimitsu Motegi to Minister for Human Resources Development in the reshuffling of his Cabinet last month. When he announced his intention to establish new conference for human building in June, Abe named it “Chance for Everyone!” But in the process of discussing with Motegi, Abe shifted his standpoint from supporting young generation to assisting aged people. He hopes to show a new model of human life in super-longevity society to the world.

The conference raises four points to discuss. They are financial support for education, improvement of curriculum in higher education, reviewing employment that has been focusing on new graduates from college and reform of social security suitable for all generations. “We need to think more about healthy aging,” told one of the members, Professor of London Business School Lynda Gratton.

The problem is how to find financial resource for the agenda. To establish entirely free education for all the children in their age of 3 to 5, it costs ¥700 billion every year. If the government introduces free college education, it takes additional annual ¥3.7 trillion. Introducing new insurance for child education would face political backlash with negative opinion for further public burden. There is an argument in the government that it is more urgent to increase nursery schools than to discuss free education.

To improve higher education, it is necessary to improve scholarship system. There are some requests for scholarship without repayment or with repayment after graduation. While such system is common in foreign countries, Japan has not seriously been taking those needs. “We need to find out how much financial resource is needed or how to achieve it,” told Motegi.

Abe has been raising various political agenda to maintain the momentum of his administration. They include regional revitalization, one hundred million mobilization and reform of way of working. Each of those policies is in its half way, wanting stable financial resource. It is questioned how Abe is serious about the implementation of his policies for attracting the people.