FACTBOX-Economic policies of Japan's new ruling party

Sept 16 (Reuters)

Japan's new prime minister, Yukio Hatoyama, took office on Wednesday at the head of a government that has pledged to shift Japan towards a stronger domestic economy from its heavy reliance on exports.

Below is an outline of his party's major election campaign policies on economic issues:

ECONOMIC GROWTH STRATEGY

-- Pay families an allowance of 26,000 yen ($286) per month per child from April 2011.

-- Make public high schools free of charge.

-- Abolish a decades-old surcharge of about 25 yen per litre on gasoline and other car-related taxes at a cost of 2.5 trillion yen.

-- Gradually scrap highway tolls.

-- Increase household disposable income by these means, expand consumption and thus change the Japanese economy to one in which growth is led by domestic demand; realise stable economic growth. [ID:nT115439]

-- Hold off raising the sales tax from its current 5 percent for the next four years.

-- Fully introduce income support for farmers from April 2011.

-- Support information technology, biotechnology and environment-related businesses as growth sectors, along with agriculture.

CUT WASTE, FIND FUNDS

-- Cut wasteful spending by such means as halting public works projects and reducing government personnel costs.

-- Gradually implement key proposed policies such as child allowances at a cost of 7.1 trillion yen in the year starting next April, rising to 16.8 trillion yen in the fourth year.

EMPLOYMENT AND ECONOMY

-- Bring down the corporate tax rate for small and mid-sized firms to 11 percent from 18 percent.

-- Establish a nationwide minimum wage of 800 yen per hour and aim to increase it to 1,000 yen per hour.

-- In principle ban manufacturers from employing temporary workers and expand permanent employment.

CLIMATE CHANGE

-- Cut greenhouse gas emissions by 25 percent below 1990 levels by 2020 and by more than 60 percent by 2050. [ID:nT104080]

-- Create a domestic emissions trading market with compulsory volume caps on emitters and consider introducing a climate tax.

-- Introduce a "feed in" tariff for any type of renewable energy supply, under which power companies pay an above-market rate for every unit of such types of power, and boost renewable energy sources to about 10 percent of primary energy supply by 2020.

FREE TRADE DEALS

-- Promote negotiations on a free trade agreement with the United States and actively promote talks on such agreements with various Asia-Pacific countries, covering a broad range of fields including investment. Do this without hurting stable food supply and domestic agriculture. [ID:nT323041]

PENSIONS, MEDICAL CARE

-- Focus for two years starting next April on recovering missing pension records.

-- Standardise the pension system with a minimum pension allowance of 70,000 yen per month for those who had low incomes or who lack sufficient pension contributions.The minimum pension allowance will be funded by consumption tax revenues.

POSTAL REFORM

-- Enact a law to freeze the sale of shares in Japan Post, Japan Post Bank and Japan Post Insurance.

-- Review the four-way divestiture of Japan Post-related services and ensure convenient access to post office services everywhere throughout the country. ($1=91.00 Yen) (Reporting by Yoko Kubota)