The expansion will render all 3- to 5-year-olds eligible for assistance, regardless of their parents' income, making preschools free for an additional 2 million children. Currently, 2.5 million children in that age group attend either nursery school or kindergarten in Japan.
The Abe government has put together a 2 trillion yen package -- around $17.5 billion -- for what he calls "revolutions in productivity and human resources development," promising programs such as free university education for students in low-income households.
Nearly 1.7 trillion yen in revenue expected from a consumption tax increase in October 2019 will finance the package, with the corporate sector contributing the remaining 300 billion yen.
Japan's consumption tax rate is scheduled to rise to 10% from 8% currently. As the higher rate will apply during only part of fiscal 2019, the free preschool program will cover only 5-year-olds in that fiscal year, before expanding to 3- and 4-year-olds the following year.
High-income earners who enroll children in a private kindergarten still will pay at least part of the cost. Japan already provides free preschool for low-income parents and will maintain the current method of paying the average fee, which currently stands at 25,700 yen a month.
Care for children up to age 2 will be free for households that make less than 2.6 million yen a year and are exempt from municipal residency tax. Nearly 10 billion yen will be earmarked to fund this effort.
Almost half of single young men and women in Japan are virgins. Up to 70 per cent of millennials aren’t in a relationship but their desire to marry one day remains. In a country where birth rates are crashing, the stats have been blamed on everything from anime to porn and women not pulling their weight. (sbs.com.au) 
Police in Tokyo said Tuesday they have arrested a 49-year-old woman on suspicion of abandoning a body after she left the corpse of her newborn baby in coin lockers for 4-5 years. (Japan Today) 
Former yokozuna grand champion and stablemaster Takanohana has submitted a letter of resignation to the Japan Sumo Association. He says reasons for his written complaint filed to the government about one of his sumo wrestler pupils over an injury incident have been deemed groundless by the association.
(NHK) 
Shinchosha Publishing Co. said Tuesday that it will suspend the publication of a monthly magazine at the center of a controversy over articles related to lesbian, gay, bisexuals and transgender, or LGBT, people. (Jiji) 
A medical school in Tokyo that recently admitted to rigging entrance exams to discriminate against women has approved its first female president.
(NHK) 
Japan has very little in the way of dangerous wildlife, meaning that you’re about as unlikely to be a victim of a violence in rural areas as you are in the country’s famously safe cities. However, Hokkaido is home to a sizable bear population. (Japan Today) 
Japan rugby international Takuma Asahara was run over by a car early Sunday, but only sustained light injuries, police said Tuesday. (Japan Times) 
Tokyo's Ameyoko Market is the city's street food paradise. There is no debate. The market street runs for 400 meters along the Yamanote Line from Okachimachi to Ueno Station. (ONLY in JAPAN) 
The world’s third-largest economy has suffered from a caricature. Yes, Japan fell from its pinnacle in the 1990s because of a property crash, enfeebled banks and a dwindling population. But that was then. It’s not falling anymore.
(Japan Times) 
Japan's Defense Ministry is developing supersonic glide bombs to strengthen the defense of remote islands, including the Senkaku Islands in Okinawa Prefecture, southern Japan. (Jiji)