People-oriented issues pose challenges for new Cabinet+

TOKYO, Sept. 24 Kyodo - People-related issues may be among the biggest immediate challenges facing the new Cabinet of Prime Minister Taro Aso launched Wednesday at a time when the nation is facing such problems as social disparities and food security.

Makoto Yuasa, who supports needy persons, expressed concern that many people
are now working as nonpermanent employees without joining the employment
insurance scheme.
''More and more people are forced to work under hash labor conditions once they
lose their jobs,'' Yuasa said, adding there is a need to review the employment
insurance system in order to address the issue of the so-called ''working
poor.''
At a brokerage firm in Tokyo's Kabuto-cho district, a 67-year-old man from
Chiba Prefecture said, ''I've suffered losses this year,'' lamenting over the
sluggish stock market.
He depends only on his pension and has been forced to cut household costs
recently. ''I want the new administration to introduce a preferential tax
system to encourage the elderly to invest more, which may help boost the
economy,'' he said.
In Yubari, Hokkaido, which went effectively bankrupt and is undergoing fiscal
reconstruction, Takeshi Moriya, 74, said, ''I wonder if Prime Minister Aso is
aware of the suffering of older people in local areas.''
He said he knows elderly people who have given up going to see doctors or are
trying to curtail medicine-related expenses. ''I think lawmakers need to pay
more attention to such situations, in which ordinary people cannot lead lives
at ease,'' he said.
Hiroko Mizuhara, secretary general of the Consumers Union of Japan, expressed
concern over the recent scandal involving tainted rice.
''Administration over consumers' interests is now in great turmoil,'' she said.
''I expect (the new Cabinet) to reconstruct it immediately and to create an
environment that allows people to live in peace.''
==Kyodo