Aso finally announces he will accept cash handout+

TOKYO, March 2 Kyodo - After remaining equivocal for months, Prime Minister Taro Aso announced Monday that he has decided to accept a payment under a controversial cash handout plan
included in the second extra budget for the current fiscal year through March 31.

''I will accept the money,'' the 68-year-old Japanese leader told reporters in
the evening. At an executive meeting of his ruling Liberal Democratic Party
earlier in the day he had told participants, ''I would use the money
immediately to stimulate consumption.''
He also told reporters that LDP Secretary General Hiroyuki Hosoda suggested
that whether to accept payments under the plan should be the party's decision.
The plan offers 12,000 yen cash payments for individuals plus a further 8,000
yen for children aged 18 or younger and seniors aged 65 or older.
Aso had initially said he had no intention of accepting the payment, arguing
that the cash benefit initative is designed to support people's livelihoods and
that high-income households should voluntarily decline the payments.
However, he later recommended that everyone use the money to bolster the
faltering economy, after a senior LDP lawmaker said Diet members should also
benefit from the plan and help stimulate consumption and many Cabinet members
echoed the view.
Aso then made ambiguous statements on the issue, saying he would make up his
mind once a bill to implement the cash disbursement plan is enacted. Now that
the bill looks likely to gain Diet approval Wednesday, he has finally announced
his decision.
In an apparent bid to dispel possible criticism over what could be taken as
another flip-flop, Aso said the economic situation has changed from when the
scheme was first crafted and ''it is more like a step to spur consumption
instead of a welfare benefit.''
On his previous remark that it would be ''vulgar'' for rich people to accept
the cash, Aso said, ''It is true that I felt that it would be vulgar if someone
like me accepts the money, when the plan was more like a welfare benefit.''
After Aso's announcement that he will accept the payment, Akira Amari, a
Cabinet member who had previously expressed his intention to refuse, indicated
he would also accept the payout. Amari, state minister in charge of
administrative reform, told reporters, ''Once the party works out a policy and
the Cabinet makes a decision, I would follow it as I am a member of the
Cabinet.''
The cash handout-related bill is likely to be rejected by the House of
Councillors, which is controlled by the Democratic Party of Japan-led
opposition camp, but the ruling bloc of the LDP and the New Komeito party can
enact the bill if it secures a two-thirds majority in a revote in the more
powerful House of Representatives.
The focus of attention will now be on whether any LDP lawmakers follow former
Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi, who has announced his intention to abstain
from voting.
Earlier in February, Koizumi, who remains a powerful presence in the LDP,
unleashed an attack on Aso for remarks the prime minister made against postal
privatization, the flagship of Koizumi's structural reforms, and said he would
sit out the scheduled revote.
In a recent Kyodo News poll, over 60 percent of respondents said they opposed
the ruling bloc's plan to forcibly enact the bill using the two-thirds majority
provision.