Local News

Fukuoka City, which already compensates the parents of pre-school age children for hospital stays, plans to extend the program to children through the third year of primary school. It is expected to be incorporated in the FY 2010 budget proposal in the City Council in March and take effect in April. Mayor Hiroshi Yoshida was elected in November 2006 on a pledge of implementing such a program. At the time, the city paid for hospital care for children to age three.