Governor’s Column （July 2010）

A Price Tag for Public Services

In April, the national government released the results of a study on child-rearing expenses. It reports that, from education to food, the yearly cost per household to raise an infant is 93,000 yen and for a third-year junior high school student, 1,610,000 yen. The total cost from birth until junior high school graduation is over 19 million yen. Additionally, around 10 million yen of the cost to attend kindergarten, elementary, and junior high school is paid for with tax funds; of the 29 million yen total it costs to raise a child from birth through junior high school graduation, then, society as a whole covers 1/3 of that through taxpayer money. The cost of medical treatment and nursing care not covered by personal expenses is also supported by taxes, around 10 million yen for both. This means that with just the services mentioned here, one person receives 20 million yen worth of tax-funded services.

National and local government have other work as well, including industry development and implementing welfare and employment policies; meanwhile, the cost of repaying the national debt is also a huge sum. Using the current budget structure, an estimate of the total lifetime cost per person, including all of the above expenses, amounts to nearly 71 million yen. However, an estimation of how much one person pays in taxes over a lifetime, including income tax, residence tax, and consumption tax, comes to about 24 million yen. Even when including taxes paid by businesses, total tax revenue rises only to 57 million yen. This comes to a 14 million yen gap in budget spending.

If something is not done, this difference will have to be covered by borrowing money. But the national debt already equates to about 6.78 million yen per capita, babies included. At this point, a thorough inspection of annual expenditures or a fundamental reform of the system has become necessary. I believe that this begins with each of us first knowing the facts.

During this fiscal year, I hope to show everyone the connection between these many administrative services and their costs in a way that is easily understood as a price tag for public services.

Kiyoshi Ueda
Governor, Saitama Prefecture